{"id":1498,"date":"2012-08-04T20:17:51","date_gmt":"2012-08-04T20:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=1498"},"modified":"2012-08-04T20:17:51","modified_gmt":"2012-08-04T20:17:51","slug":"cracks-appear-in-blackpols-heritage-tours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=1498","title":{"rendered":"Cracks appear in Blackpol’s heritage tours"},"content":{"rendered":"

As reported earlier this week\u00a0on British Trams Online<\/em>, \u00a0Blackpool Transport resumed operation of its heritage tram coastal tours on Wednesday 1st\u00a0August, following a four-day absence due to defective points at Pleasure Beach. Unfortunately, since then the service operated has been very poor with numerous cancelled journeys which have done little to enhace the reputation of this business venture.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u00a01st August was a\u00a0fairly unremarkable day on the tramway with Brush car 631<\/strong> and Balloon 717<\/strong> on heritage tour\u00a0duty, although an ITV crew were spotted filming on board 717<\/strong> for a future TV programme. Improved weather led to Open Boat 230 <\/strong>and ‘Princess Alice’ 706 <\/strong>being utilised on Tuesday 2nd August, but this day turned out to be eventful for all the wrong reasons. A fault with 230<\/strong> saw this tram swapped over for sister car 600<\/strong>, until it too ran in as its crew were needed for a private charter for ITV\u00a0involving Standard 147<\/strong>. Unfortunately this co-incided with 706<\/strong> also becoming defective, and the tram required fitters’ attention at Pleasure Beach, meaning that there were no tours for around one hour.<\/p>\n

Things went from bad to worse on Friday 3rd August, when the tours were unexpectedy cancelled altogether during the morning, leaving some very puzzled would-be passengers waiting at\u00a0Pleasure Beach for a tram which never\u00a0turned up! Eventually, Boat cars 230<\/strong> and 600<\/strong>\u00a0made a belated appearance at lunchtime and then operated succesfully throughout the afternoon.\u00a0\u00a0The official reason given for the lack of vintage trams during the morning was a vague one of “operational difficulties” – which is understood to be Blackpool Transport’s\u00a0top secret code for a shortage of tram crews. As was the case during July, it seems to be company policy to cancel the heritage tours if not enough crews are available, with the heritage tram crews being allocated to Flexities instead. Athough it is unerstandable that BTS want to prioritise the core service over pleasure trips, these tours are advertised to run, and leaving passengers waiting at stops with no explanation that they are not operating is quite simply disgusting. It is also highly unfair on anyone who purchases a heritage day ticket for \u00a310 early in the morning before the tours are due to start, only to find that a restricted service is in place, giving them\u00a0poor value for money.<\/p>\n

A similar situation arose yet again on Saturday 4th August, when Boat car 230<\/strong> returned to the depot early so that its crew could be transferred onto a Flexity tram. This left just Standard 147<\/strong> out, meaning that the frequency of tours was cut by half from what is advertised to run.\u00a0It was particularly disapointing that this happened on a Saturday afternoon during the school summer holidays, which should be a lucrative time for the tramway.<\/p>\n

As has often been stated on this website and elsewhere, it is essential that the heritage operation is well supported to ensure the continued use of traditional trams in Blackpool, and we have always encouraged our readers to support the tours. Unfortunately, by operating such a half-hearted service, some of their supporters are now starting to lose patience and this is an extremely worrying trend which needs to be reversed as a matter of urgency. There is no doubting that Bryan Lindop, who has been put in charge of the heritage tram fleet, has gone to great lengths to make the tours successful, listening to feedback from customers\u00a0by introducing ‘single tour’ tickets and ensuring that a more varied selection of trams are made available. Enthusiasts owe Bryan a great deal for arranging for trams such as Brush Railcoah 631<\/strong> and Centenary car 648<\/strong> to be used, and soon Twin Set 672+682<\/strong> will add further interest to the fleet. Sadly, it would seem that not everyone at Blackpool Transport is so keen to make the heritage tram tours succesful, and recent actions could give the impression that senior managers consider them to be a nuisance rather than a serious aspect of their business. This is a great shame, as there is certainly potential to make the tours profitable if an attractive package is offered – which unfortunately has not been the case in recent weeks. Perhaps daily operation was asking too much, especially if the weekend service begins to suffer.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, this situation will improve considerably in time for the illuminations season, when up to six ‘trams of interest’ are due to operate at weekends. If this ambtious level of service does indeed come to fruition, then a day pass will offer fantastic value for money, and this will be a crucial time for the company. Let’s hope that BTS will start to take their heritage angle a bit more seriously and realise the potential to make money out of the wonderful old vehicles they are so fortunate to own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As reported earlier this week\u00a0on British Trams Online, \u00a0Blackpool Transport resumed operation of its heritage tram coastal tours on Wednesday 1st\u00a0August, following a four-day absence due to defective points at Pleasure Beach. Unfortunately, since then the service operated has been … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1498"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1500,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions\/1500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}