{"id":59162,"date":"2025-07-08T22:00:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T21:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=59162"},"modified":"2025-07-08T19:18:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T18:18:03","slug":"more-details-announced-for-planned-return-of-blackpools-heritage-trams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=59162","title":{"rendered":"More details announced for planned return of Blackpool\u2019s heritage trams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Blackpool Transport have released more details of their plans to return heritage trams to the Prom with the aim still being that they will be back in time for October Half-Term when the Lightpool Festival takes place.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve been living under a rock for the past few months you may need a reminder of what has been happening with Heritage Tram Tours in Blackpool. It was December 2024 that Blackpool Transport announced that they had made the decision to suspend operations after a thorough internal review and what they described as a number of \u201ccomplex operational issues\u201d. Since then work has been going on behind the scenes to secure funding and a way which would allow trams to get back onto the Prom.<\/p>\n<p>In May this year it was announced that \u201ca programme of works has now been agreed which will see the necessary modifications made to enable heritage trams to run from the same depot as the modern fleet\u201d. Although no further details were given at the time, until now!<\/p>\n<p>In the latest statement its confirmed that the following needs to take place:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An independent expert will assess the operational worthiness of the trams<\/li>\n<li>New speed restriction technology will be installed<\/li>\n<li>Intensive driver and conductor training<\/li>\n<li>The tracks outside Rigby Road Depot will be inspected and cleaned<\/li>\n<li>Trams to be used will then be moved to Starr Gate Depot where they will be housed and maintained<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Martin Gurr, Heritage Operations Manager at Blackpool Trams, said: \u201cInspections are set to start in the next few weeks and the resulting technical reports will give us a clear idea of how many trams we can bring back into service.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will then carry out the additional work, including fitting them with the latest speed restriction technology and a programme of intensive driver and conductor training.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn terms of infrastructure, we also need to inspect and clean tracks outside the Rigby Road depot before the trams can be moved to our Starr Gate depot, where they will be stored and maintained alongside the second-generation fleet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone at Blackpool Transport is committed to bringing back our iconic trams to the seafront, and we\u2019ll be working tirelessly to achieve this in time for the Lightpool Festival in October.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs each phase of our reintroduction plan is completed, we\u2019ll provide further updates on our work to preserve the town\u2019s rich tramway heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Lightpool Festival takes place between 15<sup>th<\/sup> October and 1<sup>st<\/sup> November 2025. The hope is that Illumination Tours will start during this period and will then continue until the end of Illumination period on 4<sup>th<\/sup> January 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blackpool Transport have released more details of their plans to return heritage trams to the Prom with the aim still being that they will be back in time for October Half-Term when the Lightpool Festival takes place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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\/59162"}],"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=59162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59163,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59162\/revisions\/59163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}