The prototype Trampower tram – known most recently as a Cityclass tram – has left Blackpool for the third time with it being taken away by Reid Freight on Wednesday 5th August 2026.
Although the tram has been back in Blackpool since 21st March 2018 this visit was very much a storage only arrangement and throughout the past eight years four months and a bit it has just been stored in the main Rigby Road Depot building
The tram’s history can be traced back to the mid 1990s when it was built as a prototype arriving in Blackpool during 1997. It stayed on the Fylde Coast until 2000 when it departed and not much was heard about the project until 2005 when it reappeared in Birkenhead. Here it underwent tests on the heritage tramway before a return to Blackpool came.
At Blackpool testing continued but this came to an abrupt halt when there was a major fire whilst it was returning to depot in January 2007. A major rebuild of the tram took place after it left Blackpool and as well as spending time in Preston (with it due to be part of the Preston Trampower project, something which appears to have quietly been abandoned with no news for a very long time) it is reported to have been in St Helens.
March 2018 then came and a third move to Blackpool, but the only time it moved was when it was taken off a low loader and put in the depot – and then again at the end of July when it was shunted in preparation for its move.
What the future of the tram is now is unknown, but its time in Blackpool has come to another end.
The Cityclass tram is transported along New South Promenade as it leaves Blackpool once again. (Photograph by Liam Flynn, 5th August 2026)