New Blackpool supertrams.

How many Flexitys are in Blackpool up to now, anybody know?

 

Actually I was referring to some of the less well-informed comments on the Gazettes web site (in response to the news story).

I don't see the point of going on and on and on about the management failures of our local transport system, it's well documented in several places, including this site. We know - we live here.

As for the pint, if you are counting, it was a half, but I'm not a counter so I'll stand you a pint regardless of the state of the service

 

Spent a few hours sampling the renewed system and new vehicles today ... overall very impressed with the quality and smoothness of the ride.
Was nice to see wheelchair users using the service with relative ease ... must be an absolute boon for them. Passenger comments seemed favourable and after what seems like years of waiting, I can finally go to work on a tram again !

Spent a couple of journeys in the company of TBirdFrank and his good lady wife. Even Frank looked happy and I've dared him to write something positive about Blackpool Transport ... we shall see! LOL

 

I'm just rubbing my poor arm after having it shoved up my back this arvo - police brutality I think they call it! :bolt:
(only joking John before some oversensitive idiot rushes in to "report"me! :yo:


Seriously - these units are very akin to Sheffield supertrams with their spacious interiors and good sized seats unlike the things stolen from infant schools and fitted on Metrolink. They are comfortable and ride well - unlike the T68s and M5000s to Bury yesterday, but I just hope the system can recover from the kind of farces that afflicted it today.

Set 005 broke down - confirmed by people who were on it. The system stopped for an hour and a half, and that exposed the complete lack of a passenger information system which you expect to be an automatic part of any brand new system. I was that system when we arrived in Fleetwood, told the waiting queue, and then even managed to have lunch and join them before 011 arrived.

Several stations are still closed because they don't meet current safety standards - plating over the sleepers at station so passengers can't fall under trams! Is this going to be enforced elsewhere???

Ash St to Ferry is token operated as there is insufficent voltage to power more than one set at a time as the substation at Lune St is still not complete. I wonder how long that token will stay in its box before the local yoof have it away?


Despite the unseasonal cold and windy weather today the trams were full and standing all day - novelty?? - anoraks riding?? - but it indicates the potential for fare evasion at busy times. I understand that fare machines are planned - but why were they not part of the new system?? We also encountered a TTI for the first time ever in Blackpool - good - there should be checks. It was suggested that the trams need to be driven more vigorously, but I remain to be convinced. Blackpool has a lot of elderly passengers and shuttling them up and down the cars by hard acceleration and braking may cause more problems than it solves.

The Heritage operation looks to need a review straight off as it was hopelessly quiet and I am convinced its fare structure is wrong - There needs to be a single fare option and not just the ten pound all day rider ticket, and on a day as cold as today 66 and 147 were never suitable vehicles. After Wednesday's drop in temperatures 717 and Set 2 would have been far better candidates, and illuminated cars - which were produced when crews protested about the cold just look "wrong" in the daytime - even though the weather was dark enough for them to have been lit all afternoon

p.s. The Costa coffee was as good as always! Ta!​

 

Can't they get anything right?

Passengers furious as station shuts

 

No! they can't - the new trams are quite nice, but to my mind this scheme is a waste of £80m of taxpayers money. £20m would have provided a mechanical and body refurb of the entire existing fleet a la 717 which cost £100k - so £3m for the fleet and £17m for platforms and renewals - but the Council and their directors wouldnt have been able to fly the flag of "new - shiny" would they?

But given that they should be marketing "Blackpool" wouldn't something local, quirky and recognisable, whilst also compliant have been better.

As we have spent £100m then why shouldn't the Council - per Blackburn the leader, Blackpool Transport Services per Roberts, the M D and Grocott the project manager responsible for the scheme not be held to account as they should be.

The danger for us all though, is this crazy requirement that the HMRI have applied, that they will not consent to new stations opening until the sleepers have been plated over to rail level! Where did that come from? and what are the chances of grandfather rights not to have them being slowly eroded way as has happened so many times before?

 

... :tape2: ... :tape2: ... :tape2:

 

John - we have what we have, so on that basis I mark as appropriate, and as found, see Post 44. But, having regard to the totally different argument as to whether it was really necessary in the first place to go down this road, and in consideration of what could have been achieved at a lesser budget, and with far more relevance to Blackpool's needs, post 46 is my feelings on what could have been provided at far less cost to the taxpayer, European, British or even Lancastrian. The two are totally different considerations and I don't see that they sit uncomfortably with each other- one's "what is" and one's "what if"

We live in an age where we seem to judge on how big a scheme, or its budget is, rather than on whether a proposal is value for money and whether it is actually necessary. Equally, the project management on this scheme has been so poor that someone should be paying penalties, or at least standing in the Town Clerk's office explaining delays, under deliveries, closed stations, inadequate voltage, fare collection difficulties etc.

I base my view on the fact that the wonderful refurb, 717 cost £100,000 to refit to almost as new 1934 condition, so £3m would have refurbished the entire existing fleet - using local labour and skills, and £68m worth of Flexities from Berlin would not have been necessary. The remaining £32m spent included included Starr Gate - which would not have been needed if Rigby Road had remained the base in the absence of Flexities - as it does for the heritage fleet, so there are no avoided saving by closure there. So taking £17m to relay and re-equip the system and build platforms to equate boarding height to the existing fleet, DDA requirements and reconditioning would have been funded and met, and the hardware and rolling stock as new, Blackpool's unique selling points would have been retained, the tramway protected for a further generation and the taxpayer saved around three quarters of the expenditure of the scheme now constructed. Blackpool never needed a city Metro, but it now has one.

But we are where we are - the Flexities are there with the characteristics we both noted the other day, smooth, swift, silent and not uncomfortable, but they are equally and unavoidably a standee, off the shelf, euro design already operating in Cologne and destined for other european cities too, so - nothing special or unique. and not suited to Blackpool on a Saturday or illuminations night when people want to tour the illuminations, nor to onboard fare collection, and as I gather the new Blackpool custom of standing at tram stops for an hour and a half has extended to three working days now, the lack of a passenger information system after all this money has been spent is just unforgiveable in 2012.

If the system reconstruction had been properly project managed, delivered on time, and worked out of the box, the situation may not have been so bad - why can't we do it in Britain? - remember when they first opened Victoria and the first freight through ripped up all the platform edging stones - nothing's new!

 

I informed by a Blackpool resident, that there are more problems with the stretch of prom in front of the tower. I have heard that The Royal Society for the Blind are threatening legal action against the Council, as the prom is deemed unsafe, with no kerbs for guide dogs to see and then stop at, together with their blind person, who then find themselves in danger, on the road/tram track. Additionally, the lack of kerbs is generally making it far too easy for people in general to wander into danger. I gather this applies to both the road and tram tracks. I am told that works to put in kerbs have already started.

It is also reported that BCT boss, Roberts, is now under fire from residents and the media, for purchasing second hand buses from the Isle of Man, to update the fleet. Is it not strange that BCT are refurbishing the East Lancs bodied Tridents in their own workshops, when they couldn't do the same with the trams?

 

Presumably. if the kerbs are installed for the guide dogs to recognise, wheelchair users will then threaten legal action because a barrier to their free movement has been introduced. It's about time local authorities stopped trying to eliminate every possible hazard for every group of people; leave matters as they are.

 

Well at least they don't have Metrolink's problems - This was TfGM's press comment this arvo when a T68 packed up "Metrolink said the broken down tram is an older model and is twice the size of a normal tram" Have they been supersizing then???

 

Oh Dear, Oh Dear, Oh Dear - Return to Sender! : or There's never a Metrolink Tram around when you want one!

Blackpool 002 passes beneath Besses o th Barn Metrolink Bridge on its way back to the Bombardier Factory, which should never have delivered it in a flood damaged condition anyway!

 

My wife returned from Blackpool yesterday. She tells me that the timetables at the Cleveleys platform advise the tram frequency there is every hour and not 20 minutes and that the platforms on the whole system, that are open, are sadly lacking in signage, including which direction platform you are on. Needless to say,the no;1 bus which is advertised as a 20 minute frequency, is still being used by the confused passengers, instead of the trams. Also the shops selling travel tickets have not been informed officially that the same fare/ticket is usable on both trams and buses. The sellers can only tell you that they have heard through rumours and passenger feedback, that the tickets can be used on both.

 

Oh dear, the trams are in the news again (I'm sure someone at the Gazette doesn't like the new trams), at least this time from all accounts it wasn't the trams fault.
Tram crash safety probe call - Traffic & Travel - Blackpool Gazette

 

This accident happened at what is effectively a traffic light-controlled crossroads, but a particularly easy one because there is no turning traffic. It seems that the car went through against a red light. If drivers fail to see or act on red lights there will be accidents. I do not see what any more in-depth investigation could discover.

 

Surely that can only mean that the houses are obscuring the red traffic lights which are supposed to prevent road users going across the track when a tram is coming? Either that, or Councillor Clarke is saying that it's OK to going through a red light as long as you can see that there is nothing coming.

 

Criticising Councillor Clarke here is like preaching to the converted. I would have liked to set out my views on his comments on the Blackpool Gazette website but for some strange reason it isn't permitting comments on the story.