Blackpool - The Future

Brian himself announced this from the platform of 623 at Heaton Park today, so it is well and truly in the public domain

The Blackpool Fleet will be separated into three parts - The A fleet - the new Bombardiers, the B fleet - widened Balloons and Millenium cars, which will run from Starr Gate; and the C Fleet - the vastly more important historically and touristically Heritage C Fleet, whic will remain at Rigby Road, and for which Brian has been given sole responsibility.

Some transport managers might regard this as the commission from Hell but Brian is uniquely placed with feet in various camps to show what can be done with the heritage fleet in a new tourist orientated world where their unique appeal can be maximised to full effect.

Well done that man - all power to your elbow!

 

Unimog and BTS vans seen at Ferry last Friday - forty days to go until opening day!

Will they make it?

 

Latest news about Blackpool's heritage fleet.

Blackpool’s heritage tram plan revealed | British Trams Online News

 

This is great news. If all goes well they may even be able to afford to restore the rocket tram.

 

It's on the cards for this year sweetktg.

 

Thanks for your posts Alan. Looks like there will be plenty to see this year! I am looking forward to seeing the whole system open and hope the new trams enter service smoothly!

 

Yes it will be nice to see it all up and running again John. It looks like we are going to see a bit more of the heritage
fleet than at first thought which is great news. Do you think they will get to the ferry by Easter though?

 

That is the sixty four thousand dollar question.

They got a Unimog and some vans there last Saturday - but Ash St to Ferry hasn't seen a tram for twenty seven months, so no-one can swear to the track geometry. The new Lune St sub station is incomplete, and there are still eight Flexities needed to make up the new fleet, and thirty four days to get them.

The last I heard they have just found out that you need a zig zag pattern for pantograph operation as the pans on the Flexities are wearing out too quick - and they aren't in service yet! Apparently BTS had devised three section pans for the old fleet and swapped them about. The Flexities have a one piece carbon strip so once its worn - its scrap.

There will be books written about this lot. I'm sure - entitled "how not to do it - at least they haven't got Thales and their Tram Mismanagement System here stopping lines opening, like we have in Manchester.

IT led projects - who needs them?

 

Hard to call it really - though I'm sure some people will be delighted if they don't. I never can understand these silly point scoring attitudes. At the end of the day, the people who use the trams year-round need a reliable service that is suitable for the ageing Fylde coast population and capable of handling the tourist trade when (and if) it continues to come.

 

Where public projects are going disastrously wrong, I consider it not only reasonable, but the duty of anyone with the necessary faculties to comment. It would be so much more pleasurable to know that we are going to turn up on Good Friday and be assured of - as they say on London Underground - a "Good Service"

But after a full two and a half years since Pleasure Beach to Starr Gate closed, and some £200m of public money being poured into this scheme, we are on the cusp of re-opening, and are the resources, the rolling stock, the completion certificates, and the fitness for purpose requirements all in place in good time?

The answer is No, No, No and No! The need for this scheme as set up, the project management of the scheme chosen, and its implementation to date - you really couldn't write it.

I couldn't agree more John - the travelling public deserve a proper functioning system, but Grocott and BTS look to be set to fail on both initial delivery and then in long term operational capacity, as things stand. This should not have happened, but ever since the initial illegal planning consent for the Starr Gate depot things have not run smooth. There are now just nineteen working days left to opening day. Take a drive along the whole system from Ferry to Starr Gate and just see the amount of work not yet completed, or being ripped out and re-installed. Its quite unbelievable, and totally unacceptable.

The most prejudicial aspect is from Ash Street to Ferry where no flanged wheel has turned since November 2009 - hopefully there will be no problems - but until a Flexity runs the route, we just don't know. Given the amount of re-alignment etc found necessary between Starr Gate and Ash Street to date, I wouldn't put money on it. Relaying at Pleasure Beach, Foxhall, and Bispham has already been necessary.

No-one will be happier to step off a tram at Lune St and into the North Euston for a pint of Moorhouses on the 6th April than me, and I'll gladly stand you a pint if the service is 100% Flexity. My money is on a mix of Flexitys and Bulgies all year. But given that the heritage fleet has been announced as including 40, 66, 147, 600, 706, 717 and the illuminated cars, I would prefer to step off one of them.

 

to misquote a popular mobile phone companies ad, "The futures grim, the futures flexity....."

 

As the Gazette's headline says 'Your chance to be a part of tram history'!

Your chance to be a part of tram history - Local - Blackpool Gazette

 

Being part of History usually means a painful death.....

 

Just an update on the Rocket Tram.

It's now on display on a length of track in the middle of the roundabout at Gynn Square.

View attachment 5685

 

I saw the Rocket Tram on the roundabout the other week. Seemed a shame that she had become a roundabout ornament rather than on the front where she belongs. On the other hand at least she's visible to the general public again rather than being stuck in a back of a shed.

Talking of Blackpool trams, have you seen this:
Teams investigate gas explosion area - Top News Stories - Blackpool Gazette
I don't mean the story itself, but if you look in the background there's 2 Balloon Trams - what are they doing there?

I found this amusing too:
Doubling up to ease tram woes - Latest News - Blackpool Gazette

 

There are some unrefurbished Balloons still in the "heritage fleet" I think that come out. No doubt members in Blackpool will know the full answer.

 

Several trams sold by Blackpool Transport are now stored at various sites on the Fylde coast after being ousted
from Rigby Road depot, most of them in private yards on industrial estates which seems to be the case here.
One of the Centenary cars which is stored in a private yard was vandalised the other day, windows smashed etc.

 

Well I have never heard about such things, but finally grateful to you people because now I too can have more knowledge about the Blackpool.:clap2:

 

Found this on WNXX, tragic!

[wnxx] Images: October 2012 » 121021 - IRE & Buckley Wells, Bury 21/10/12 » 708-bury-211012-if-104.jpg

 

What is there to say other than :Cry: