{"id":53288,"date":"2024-04-05T20:18:42","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T19:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=53288"},"modified":"2024-04-05T20:18:42","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T19:18:42","slug":"blackpool-heritage-tram-tours-start-another-season-of-running","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=53288","title":{"rendered":"Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours start another season of running"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whilst a lot of Blackpool tram enthusiasts attention was turned eastwards and the East Anglia Transport Museum on Good Friday, 29th<\/sup> March 2024, the same day also marked the start of another season of running for Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours. The Easter weekend saw three types of tour run with the return of Promenade and Coastal Tours alongside some Mini Prom Tours.<\/p>\n

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As has been reported extensively already, 2024 will see a more limited pool of trams available with Heritage Tram Tour operations being run from Starr Gate Depot whilst the results of the condition survey of Rigby Road Depot (Tramtown) is still awaited. There is capacity for a maximum of five heritage trams to be housed at Starr Gate (shared with the fleet of Flexity2 trams) and at the time of writing four trams have been moved there.<\/p>\n

Those trams \u2013 all of which saw use over the Easter weekend \u2013 are Brush 631<\/strong>, Balloon 700<\/strong>, Balloon 717<\/strong> and Bolton 66<\/strong>. Its anticipated that during the year there will be some changeovers of trams at Starr Gate (such as in the Illuminations when the Western Train<\/strong> and Frigate<\/strong> are likely to head that way).<\/p>\n

The weekend also gave many their first sight of a new look for Balloon 700. The \u201cB fleet\u201d Balloon still retains its wartime green and cream livery but has now been named Sir Ken Dodd and received small in between deck adverts for the new Showtown attraction located in Blackpool.<\/p>\n

Its also been confirmed that tickets for this year\u2019s Illumination Tours will go on sale from Friday 26th<\/sup> April. In keeping with the reduced output for 2024 they will only run Wednesday to Sunday in September, November and December whilst they remain daily during October.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, tours of Tramtown\/Rigby Road Depot have also now returned \u2013 although with much of the facility still out of bounds these will be revised from what was previously seen. They will be centered on the Fitting Shop with tours lasting 60 minutes and looking at the equipment used to keep the wheels moving on the heritage trams. They are running every Monday and Saturday at 1600 until June, after which the offering will be reviewed ahead of dates for the summer.<\/p>\n