seasidersfan
Member
Absolutely. The summer service is every 10 mins and even that only uses 13 out of 18 trams.Can this be accommodated with the fleet that they currently have?
Sam
Absolutely. The summer service is every 10 mins and even that only uses 13 out of 18 trams.Can this be accommodated with the fleet that they currently have?
Sam
Sorry I was only looking at the winter timetable!Absolutely. The summer service is every 10 mins and even that only uses 13 out of 18 trams.
This thread has gone quiet for the past six months. Can anyone give us an update on the work on the extension to North Station please. I am starting to think about planning a visit to Blackpool in the illuminations season this year. I presume the extension will still not be open then.
It's gone quiet because basically nothing is happening. The track is laid to Wilko's front door, final finishing work to pavements is going on. Nothing else will happen until Wilko's is demolished and rumours are rife that legal action is pending and going to delay that, so it could be years away. Totally typical of the ineptitude of Blackpool Council!
Apologies if it’s OT but do you know what the legal issues are?
Well for starters there are only rumours of legal actions, but if it's true it's almost certainly down to Wilko's agreed to vacate the site due to a new shop being built for them as an extension to the Hounds Hill Shopping Centre. They were initially due out last winter. However so far building work is conspicuous by it's absence.
Heads should roll at the council for what can only be described as a huge mess up.It's gone quiet because basically nothing is happening. The track is laid to Wilko's front door, final finishing work to pavements is going on. Nothing else will happen until Wilko's is demolished and rumours are rife that legal action is pending and going to delay that, so it could be years away. Totally typical of the ineptitude of Blackpool Council!
Because that was supposed to become a new police station to replace Bonny Street.Heads should roll at the council for what can only be described as a huge mess up.
Putting in the future noisy terminus in the middle of what I believe will be a hotel (if they manage to eventually demolish wilco) with a subway and steps to the station beyond must be the worst plan ever.
Why the track couldn't continue up Talbot road past Wilco to a terminus on the spare land next to the station is beyond comprehension
Someone ought to be sacked.
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It's getting on my nerves this situation. This link should be open by now and we should be talking about the next extensions to the tram system. Nowhere else would you have one shop get in the way of a multi million transport project. Why oh why can't Wilko be moved to one of the empty units in the town centre until the new complex is built. Latest council stance is work starts next year but I don't think they even know that for sure.
Meanwhile you have a route that despite only being in a relatively small area for light rail has been a big success and is begging to be linked up to more key areas (Lytham St Annes, South Fylde Line, Enterprise Zones, Fleetwood branch line, inland Blackpool etc) and this 500m link (albeit important) is being mismanaged so badly.
I also would like to see it there but they want to build a cop shop there.As said the platform should be opposite Sainsburys / N Station.
It's actually been delayed by Blackpool Council's sheer incompetence. Wilko's was promised a place in Houndshill shopping center that hasn't materialised, so of course they won't move. The waste ground between the Sainsbury's petrol station and BPN is supposed to become a police station, which as you can tell, also hasn't materialised.I can't imagine that a transport infrastructure project has been delayed by a discount supermarket on a daily basis.
I have not previously been a fan of Integrated Transport Authorities but it seems to me that the Fylde is desperately in need of one. I have looked at the Lancashire Local Enterprise Partnership's development plan 2019-2020 and the only reference I can find about transport in the area is the statement that the Tramway Extension to North Station will be practically complete by May 2019 (my italics),
Ah, well. That's to do with Fylde people wanting to be kept separate from Blackpool people.Absolutely. The Fylde Coast is essentially one continuous area and it makes little sense that transport decisions are split between two authorities.
Hence reluctance to push for the tramway link to South Fylde as it requires multiple authorities to work together, which they don't like to do most of the time. It just holds back progress.
It's getting on my nerves this situation. This link should be open by now and we should be talking about the next extensions to the tram system. Nowhere else would you have one shop get in the way of a multi million transport project. Why oh why can't Wilko be moved to one of the empty units in the town centre until the new complex is built. Latest council stance is work starts next year but I don't think they even know that for sure.
Meanwhile you have a route that despite only being in a relatively small area for light rail has been a big success and is begging to be linked up to more key areas (Lytham St Annes, South Fylde Line, Enterprise Zones, Fleetwood branch line, inland Blackpool etc) and this 500m link (albeit important) is being mismanaged so badly.
Absolutely. The Fylde Coast is essentially one continuous area and it makes little sense that transport decisions are split between two authorities.
Hence reluctance to push for the tramway link to South Fylde as it requires multiple authorities to work together, which they don't like to do most of the time. It just holds back progress.
Transport chiefs have come under fire for closing a key Blackpool town centre road for three months during the heart of the tourist season.
Today will see Corporation Street shut between Church Street and West Street until October to enable a £600,000 bus hub to be built.
The work includes creating an extra bus lane, widening the road for safer access for taxis and buses, putting in a new bus stop and improving the road and pavement surfaces
But the timing has been criticised with questions asked about why it cannot be delayed until later in the year.
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However highways chiefs say it must be done now to fit in with other improvements to the resort’s public transport system including the tramway extension.
It will be the second bus hub in the town centre after Market Street and is being funded through the council’s Local Transport Plan.
Robert Wynne, who owns the Rose and Crown on Corporation Street, said: “This is an absolutely crazy time to do this work, probably the best 15 weeks of the year for all town centre businesses.
“We have all put up with tremendous disruption over the last two winters, but at least that was the winter.
“To pick this time to shut down Corporation Street is a real kick in the teeth. It isn’t the contractors’ fault, it is entirely the fault of an out of touch local council leadership.
“It will potentially put people out of business.”
He questioned the short notice given ahead of the works, saying: “It seems that they cut it as fine as legally possible. I have no idea why they would do this.”
Mr Wynne said he was told by a council officer that notice was given on July 3 and the order made on July 12. Seven day is the minimum notice period required by law.
Coun Tony Williams, leader of the opposition Conservative group on the council, branded the timing of the work “a shambles”.
He said: “I understand the projected time scale for this work is 15 weeks which means Corporation Street together with parts of Church Street will be closed during the height of the season and even into the Illuminations.
“This is an absolute shambles as businesses on this street and adjacent shops on Church Street will undoubtedly lose trade during the busiest time of the year.
“Not only that, the taxi rank on Church Street, one of the busiest in the town, will have to be moved together with the bus stops on Corporation Street itself.
Agreed... but it's three authorities! - Wyre (Lancashire), Blackpool (Unitary authority) and Fylde (Lancashire).
No effort to extend tramway to St Annes, Pontins at Squire Gate is now being built on, which would have made an excellent transport hub, and widen the road for a tramway extension to St Annes.
Blackpool Council now support South Fylde railway needs a passing loop, for 2tph and to operate as a fast service to Preston & beyond.
I never understood why they were painted in Blackpool Council's colours. Cream & green would've been better.Apparently next year the trams are going to be rebranded into a "Palladium" livery (grey and yellow) to match Blackpool Transport's new bus fleet.
Certainly would. The Paladium livery is just really dull to start with. They should all look like OMO 5 in it's final livery, the greatest tram livery of all time!I never understood why they were painted in Blackpool Council's colours. Cream & green would've been better.
If they’d painted the trams in the Blackpool Bus livery of the time, wouldn’t it have been that horrendous black and yellow scheme?I never understood why they were painted in Blackpool Council's colours. Cream & green would've been better.