Cllr Paul Galley, local Conservative Councillor and Tramtown Volunteer Coordinator, has announced via his regular video updates that he has been informed by the new management at Blackpool Transport that Tramtown will not be reopening.
You will no doubt recall that Tramtown was closed at the start of 2026 shortly after an inspection took place of the wider engineering complex at Rigby Road Depot (comprising the Paint Shop, Body Shop and Fitting Shop – the latter of which housed the Tramtown exhibition).
After lots of toing and froing it was eventually stated that there was an electrical fault which needed repairs before it could reopen. To this end local MP Chris Webb (Labour, Blackpool South) awarded £50,000 worth of funding from the Pride of Place fund to go towards the electrical repairs. But since that announcement it had all gone quiet.
However, Cllr Galley has now said that at a recent meeting he had with the new Blackpool Transport Managing Director, Lea Harrison, and the new Head of Heritage it was confirmed that Tramtown would be unable to reopen in its previous location of the Fitting Shop because of the condition of the building. This looks set to bring to an end the current Tramtown attraction with Cllr Galley paying tributes to the volunteers who have helped to run it in recent years.
It should be remembered that it has been a long-term plan to demolish the engineering buildings as part of the redevelopment of the Rigby Road complex, which would see more space made available for a new fleet of electric buses. The Paint Shop and Body Shop have already been out of bounds for a couple of years after an ORR inspection. The long-term ambition had always been to upgrade the current main tram shed to house a tourist attraction.
It now appears that Blackpool Transport are returning to plan A again and are aiming to try and get funding for that work. No details of just where that funding would come from and if its likely have been released. In fact, there has been little of note regarding the development of a Tramtown attraction from Blackpool Transport or Blackpool Council for some time.
As we noted when we ran the articles in January following the initial closure of Tramtown, this closure has no direct impact in the short or medium term of the running of any heritage trams on the Promenade. It is longer-term that the loss of engineering facilities may be felt with major restorations and overhauls unlikely to be able to take place.
The trams which ran heritage tours in 2025 were maintained at Starr Gate Depot and any future operation is likely to do the same. There are currently three heritage cars there – Balloon 717 and the Illuminated Frigate remained there after the end of the 2025 Illuminations and were joined by Bolton 66 a few weeks ago. Starr Gate has capacity for around four heritage trams on top of the modern Flexity2 tram fleet.
No details of planned heritage tram running in 2026 have yet to be announced although its believed the move of 66 to Starr Gate is initially in connection with a planned tour for a group of American enthusiasts next month.
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It’s a real shame. Tramtown was building up to being a very nice museum with a lot of interesting artefacts that could help the future of heritage trams in Blackpool.
I worry about what this means for the future of the heritage fleet? What does this mean for the future of Rigby Road? What does this mean for the future of the trams? How many can realistically fit into Starr Gate?
It will be interesting to know how the new MD will achieve his ambitions for the heritage fleet. As they hold so many fare paying passengers, I hope he is able to focus on the Balloons for the sake of generating enough revenue to keep a heritage operation going. It is still annoying that there was a lack of clarity over the fitting shop and as a result £50k was allocated on spurious grounds. Hopefully, there will be a permanent attractiion when funds permit and that in the meantime any pop-up displays will bring in much needed revenue. I suppose the biggest concern is where all the equipment required to maintain the old trams can be located in such a way that it is available to carry out essential maintenance on the legacy fleet in order to ensure it can continue to run.
I am somewhat repeating myself here, but organisations that own trams currently stored in Rigby Road should be urgently making plans and raising funds to evacuate them elsewhere. I don’t want to be presumptuous, but the actions of Blackpool Transport strongly suggest that they wish to divest themselves of heritage operations. I have read elsewhere that the heritage tour stops and shelter at Pleasure Beach have been removed?
I am aware storage is an issue. Of course priority should be given to accomodating the oldest and most unique trams – as iconic as the Balloons are, there are loads of them in preservation. Get 147, the Western Train, 304, and the Boats out first. Hopefully there is a museum somewhere out there willing to accommodate a Twin Car, the OMO and 648. Even though they are rather modern, they’re quite unique in preservation.
I can categorically confirm that “heritage tour stops and shelter at Pleasure Beach” have NOT been removed. There never has been a shelter on the loop where the Heritage trams stopped!!
I agree that such trams as 304, the Standard, 733/4 and 675/85 are priceless examples of Blackpool’s historic trams, together with OPO trams and Boats. These should be preserved and if necessary at a different location. Now that the new MD has reveraled plans for the future of the Heritage Tram operation which seem very positive, then I believe this is where the role of the Balloons lies. Carrying up to 94 paying passengers, these could be real earners. If up to 7 could be accomodated including the all important 706, then a good deal of revenue could be generated. Add in Car 600 and 66 and we have a colection that will be like a magnet to the general public. In the meantime those trams with less potential to bring in the money could be found a home, ideally locally, so that they can be viewed as part of the history of the tramway.
There has NEVER been a Heritage shelter at Pleasure Beach. Yes some (possibly all?) the stops have gone but they have also announced in yesterday’s press release that they are looking at operation so I wouldn’t read too much into that yet. Bus stops often disappear and are replaced months later.
Clearly, there is a market for the heritage operation and an international one at that. I think that Blackpool Transport would be shooting themselves in the foot if they failed to make any provision to house a reasonable number of Heritage Trams. Good to see that 66 is back in the picture, as this is the oldest working tram available (1901).
I think that someone may have been rather disingenuous to blame the closure of Tramtown on the electrical fault, when all the time there must have been doubts about the buidling itself. All the worse for taking the £50k to fund something that has turned out to be totally irrelevant regardless of whether it was an issue or not. If only the money could have been used to make a start on the tram shed. It also begs the question as to where all money raised from generous donations has actually been deployed. If no satisfactory explanation is forthcoming then questions of a very serious nature need to be asked. Having sent a donation myself, I would almost welcome a police investigation if it ever turns out that such a thing is required.
Aside from all suspicions, it would seem clear that nobody in a postion of authority seems the least bit interested in an important part of Blackpool’s transport history. The overall impression is that Blackpool is ceasing to become a place for everyone and is focused instead on crowds for those who are looking for a good knees up and are liable to overwhelm the resort in time. So naturally, one has to ask what purpose tram heritage could have in any case given such a situation.
Maybe this could actually be a good thing in the long run? I do feel that ‘Tram Town’ had become a bit of a distraction from the bigger issues affecting the heritage trams in Blackpool. I said at the time that the £50,000 grant was awarded to ‘save’ the Fitting Shop building, that it would have been far more beneficial to use that money to carry out some much-needed work on some of the operational trams to ensure that there are a few of them in decent condition available to run for many years to come. I don’t know what has happened to that money, but it seems to have vanished into a black hole and is probably lost – now that is tragic!
The basic idea behind ‘Tram Town’ was good (even if the name wasn’t) but the plans themselves were badly flawed and never seemed to attract support from the tram enthusiast community; in fact many of us had been driven away by various events, and seemingly it was left to a small army of yes-men to try and run the show. Blackpool deserves a tram museum, but I don’t believe that it actually needs one… what it does need is a reasonable fleet of historic trams running on the promenade for people to enjoy, and of course, a safe place for them to be housed. Hopefully the new MD at Blackpool Transport will focus on this, and maybe revisit some of the more ambitious ideas fruther down the track.
Whilst a little late to the party, I might be able to shed some sensible light on the plans for the REAL Tramtown.
I personally suspect that Councillor Galley is trying to simply score some political points over his Labour led colleagues.
He knows full well that the Fitting Shop was NEVER going to be a part of Tramtown. That was specifically the Depot which the important and constituent parts of the Fitting, Paint and Body Shops would easily be accommodated within.
This was the initial plan that was launched several years ago.
The Fitting Shop was allowed to be used TEMPORARILY, when the depot was made “off limits”, for use by the Tramtown volunteers until that situation was resolved.
Unfortunately, the Fitting Shop itself after a more recent structural survey has shown some marked deterioration that makes it now unusable.
But as said, the Fitting Shop itself was NEVER going to be a part of the actualTramtown Project, just one of its constituent parts.
So from my understanding, the plan now is to set up a steering group, which has already met, that consists of BTS, Blackpool Council and other interested stake holders, to make an initial bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund of up to £250k as an initial bid.
The ideal plan would then be to use that to restore a small section of the depot to allow the volunteers to have a home again, as well as a shop and cafe to increase revenue.
Then, after a period of time where that has been spent, reapply for the full amount as then a competent “track record” has been created upon which the fuller figure to complete the depot’s restoration can be judged to be granted or not.
So all this “headless chicken ” or “the sky is falling” garbage can now hopefully stop as there is a clear, collective, reasoned way forward for Lee to acheive his and the council’s goal of a permanent home for the heritage trams and a fully operational museum attraction and a fully functioning workshop to boot.
So, FAR from it becoming a housing estate, or a hotel for refugees, or my favourite suggestion, a mosque, Rigby Rd will, if all goes to plan, be a WORLD CLASS, tourist attraction, heritage transport museum and functioning heritage vehicle workshop.
Whilst nothing is guaranteed, I am quietly confident that with Lee in charge and the support of the council, who fought so hard to allow the heritage cars to run along with the Flexity2s at upgrade, this should become a reality and something for us all to be very proud of.
Watch this space.