Wednesday 9th September 2026 saw two of the medium-term absentees on the Blackpool Tramway return to service following the completion of work at Starr Gate Depot. 001 and 017 were the two trams which made a return to action and they are set to be joined by other classmates very soon. All this comes after the improvement notice issued earlier this year was marked as complied on the ORR website.
You will no doubt remember that earlier this year Blackpool Transport were put under an improvement notice by the ORR following issues with the bogies of the Flexity2 trams. The main part of the notice was more related to poor record keeping but it did come about because of degradation of the bogies on the Flexity2 trams. This had previously led Blackpool Transport to increasing running time of the timetable to allow the trams to run at lower speeds to mitigate the risk of the degraded bogies.
The Improvement Notice initially had a deadline of 19th June 2026 but this was latterly extended to 12th August 2026. The ORR are now satisfied that the problem has been resolved and consider that Blackpool Transport have remedied the contraventions.
Meanwhile, there has been hard work continuing at Starr Gate Depot to get some of the trams back into service. To this end 001 – last ran May 2026 – and 017 – last ran December 2025 – were cleared for service and able to return onto the Prom during 9th September 2026.
That just leaves three trams out of service long-term. The first of these 005 is a real long-termer having not been used since July 2022 with 010 now a year out of use (August 2025) and 012 last seen in December 2025.
Of these 005 remains a long-term project but the other two shouldn’t be too far off a return. And when 012 comes back its new look may surprise and delight enthusiasts in equal measure.
001 on its first day back is seen at Cleveleys. It had last been seen in service in May 2026. It retains its Blackpool Zoo advertising. (Photograph by Oliver Shenton, 9th September 2026)
And 017 is also seen at Cleveleys on its first day back out. (Photograph by Michael Morton, 9th September 2026)