{"id":46193,"date":"2022-08-27T22:00:17","date_gmt":"2022-08-27T21:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=46193"},"modified":"2022-08-27T07:20:22","modified_gmt":"2022-08-27T06:20:22","slug":"balloon-715-to-bow-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=46193","title":{"rendered":"Balloon 715 to bow out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Fylde Transport Trust\u2019s popular <strong>Balloon Car 715<\/strong> is to be withdrawn from service following a mutual decision between Blackpool Transport and the owners of the tram. The tram has not undergone any significant workshop attention for many years and the time has now come for it to be taken out of service and it will become a static exhibit at Tramtown.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>715<\/strong> \u2013 as the sole unrefurbished Balloon Car in active service \u2013 has continued to see regular use on Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours throughout 2022 but the overall condition of the tram has been a concern for a while. It had originally been thought that 2021 would be its last season but it successfully went through the annual docking process at the start of this year. However, the decision has now been made that it is time to withdraw the tram from operation and it will remain at Rigby Road Depot \u2013 aka Tramtown \u2013 on static display for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n<p>It is expected that the tram will make its last public runs during the Anniversary Weekend at the end of September before a special farewell tour for the FTT will take place in October.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement provided to British Trams Online the FTT said: &#8220;Although 715 is a popular tram, retaining many of its 1970&#8217;s features, we had to look closely at what lies ahead in the future for the tram. This is the right moment to withdraw the tram from active service; its last major overhaul was over 40 years ago and we knew that at some point we need look at a major overhaul to allow the tram to operate for many years to come. After 7 seasons on Heritage operation, 715 deserves a rest, and the other trams in the FTT operational fleet will continue to fly the flag for the Trust&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Fylde Transport Trust\u2019s popular Balloon Car 715 is to be withdrawn from service following a mutual decision between Blackpool Transport and the owners of the tram. The tram has not undergone any significant workshop attention for many years and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=46193\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46193"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46193"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46201,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46193\/revisions\/46201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}