{"id":9696,"date":"2014-11-13T21:12:50","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T20:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=9696"},"modified":"2014-11-16T20:43:14","modified_gmt":"2014-11-16T19:43:14","slug":"another-season-ends-for-blackpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=9696","title":{"rendered":"Another season ends for Blackpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday 9th November marked the end of the Blackpool illuminations for 2014, and with it the end of the peak season for the town’s famous tramway. This brought the curtain down on another enjoyable year of public use for the heritage fleet, with all three illuminated cars out on the final evening – the Western Train 733+734<\/strong> and Frigate 736<\/strong> being used for illumination tours, whilst the Trawler 737<\/strong> was otherwise engaged with a private hire. Earlier the same day, Bolton 66 <\/strong>had made a rare visit to Fleetwood in connection with the town’s services to mark Remembrance Sunday.<\/p>\n

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Unfortunately, the 2014 illuminations will probably be best remembered for all the wrong reasons as Blackpool Transport have really struggled to cope with passenger demands both on the core service and the lights tours. Things came to a head during the notoriously busy half-term week at the end of October, with complaints from intending passengers escalating and reaching the local press. Already, the company’s new manager Jane Cole has promised to review what went wrong and aim to improve the situation next year, although in fairness the Blackpool system has always suffered from extreme contrasts in passenger numbers through the year. Long queues and delayed trams at the height of the season are certainly nothing new and were common during the illuminations even in the days when 70 or more trams ran on Saturday nights – however, the business has at least highlighted that any concerns about a dramatic fall in patronage resulting from the NOW concessionary passes for Senior Citizens who live outside of the Blackpool boundary were definitely pessimistic. In fact, it has been claimed that the half term week was the busiest for some time, something that once again serves to highlight the huge success of the upgraded tramway and the incredible popularity of the Flexity2 trams amongst visitors and local residents alike.<\/p>\n

The heritage fleet have also had a difficult autumn with budget cutbacks meaning that only two cars were able to perform illumination tours on many nights, although these were imaginatively used with the cars that did run generally staying out for longer, and once again the available crews could not cope with the phenomenal demand for tours during the school half-term week despite additional crews being rostered whenever possible, to enable additional trams to run. The output during the week (and indeed for much of the last few months) favoured the aforementioned illuminated Train and Frigate as well as Balloon cars 701 <\/strong>and 717<\/strong>; these double-deckers no doubt being favoured to provide extra seats for the waiting hoards. Sadly Trawler 737 <\/strong>remained very much out of favour all year and although its use did increase during October, its small seating capacity meant that it was often confined to the depot even at times when four or five trams operated tours. It had been hoped that this tram would receive some cosmetic attention this year to improve its appearance, but if the crewing situation does not improve dramatically then such a project may well be in doubt as it seems unlikely that its sponsors or Blackpool Transport will invest a large amount of time and money in a vehicle which sees so little use. Hopefully 737<\/strong>‘s fortunes will improve next season as despite being criticised by some enthusiasts, it remains a popular tram with the general public.<\/p>\n

Other than the trams mentioned so far, Twin set 272+T2 <\/strong>made a small number of appearances during October which was much appreciated by the enthusiasts who rode on it. Standard 147 <\/strong>and ‘Princess Alice’ 706 <\/strong>were also regular tour cars whilst Boats 227 <\/strong>and 600<\/strong> were also selected for tours during September thanks to some unusually mild evenings. Probably the most welcome appearance, however, was made by Coronation 304 <\/strong>which managed just one evening out on 1st October. Unlike last year when it was used extensively during the illuminations, Brush car 631 <\/strong>remained in the depot apart from a sole private hire working, as did Bolton 66 <\/strong>which is quite surprising as this has traditionally been one of the most popular of the vintage trams for tours of the lights.<\/p>\n

Despite some negativity, the illuminations appear to have been a very profitable time for the heritage tram operation and hopefully this, combined with the money saved by running less trams on quieter nights, will serve the Blackpool Heritage Trust well as it seeks to further safeguard the future of these priceless trams and their continued presence on the tramway. The heritage fleet can now enjoy a long winter break apart from a few private hire commitments, with the Western Train expected to see further use for school parties as is common with this tram as a condition of the Heritage Lottery Fund money which financed its restoration, and at least one other private hire expected to see the illuminated Frigate 736 <\/strong>also light up the tramway next month with a rare winter appearance by this tram. Balloon 701 <\/strong>will also be making a further outing for the Fylde Tramway Society’s 2014 Christmas Tour on Sunday 28th December, which should provide the unusual treat of a full length ride on a Balloon car from Starr Gate to Fleetwood. In fact, who said that winter was quiet in Blackpool!?<\/p>\n

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Sunday 9th November marked the end of the Blackpool illuminations for 2014, and with it the end of the peak season for the town’s famous tramway. This brought the curtain down on another enjoyable year of public use for the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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\/9696"}],"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=9696"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9708,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9696\/revisions\/9708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}