[Blackpool] Who needs new trams?

[Coxster]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/6296493.stm

 

[Dennis]

I thought modern trains and presumably trams were supposed to be made out of fire resistant materials...that seems to be burning quite nicely though!

 

[Nick W]

Why not used a tried and tested tram such as was done in Croydon?

 

[Mojo]

The "Trampower" tram is what caught alight... it's meant to be a revolutionary low cost, low weight tram, made out of bus parts so I hear.

http://www.trampower.co.uk/

Initial reports say the electrical cabinet behind the driver blew up, which doesn't reflect on the concept.

I hope this doesn't set them back too much. I went on the Blackpool Trams a few years ago and they were uncomfortable, old, bumpy and generally not a very plesant vehicle to be on. I can't believe I'm saying this, but the buses looked more comfortable!

 

[gordonthemoron]

They may be uncomfortbable but thay have more character than the more modern trams

 

[tramboy]

Well, Trampower are to be commended for attempting to build a lightweight tram that could put light rail back into UK cities. However, the technology used under the tram itself isn't as modern as some of the designs from the larger manufacturers...much of it being old spare parts, put together in this new design. Trampower are attempting to get Blackpool to buy their tram model, something that might not happen now (not after such a public fire like that).

It's not Blackpool's fault that the trams are uncomfortable...they're suffering from the same apathy from Government that every other system or proposed system in the UK has.

I believe that the original idea was to use Skoda trams as seen in Portland, or the Inekon developed design (Skoda and Inekon both fell out with each other, and now have incredibly similar low floor tram designs..hmm!), as they are cheap, low floor and lightweight. Tried and tested, slightly more modern technology than Trampower...just not British.

However, our manufacturing industry itself is shot to bits...so maybe they ought to use a Bombardier design, so that we can keep Derby in business.

It's a tricky and complicated business is light rail...but for Blackpool doing nothing to the infrastructure and vehicles is not an option.

Regards

Dave

 

[ChrisCooper]

I can't see that this will cause the project to fail, afterall, similar things have happened to a lot of other vehicles (look at the Citaro bendy buses in London), which have been sucessful. The main difference is that with other types, the faults have occured once the vehicles were in service, wheras at least this happened during testing, so modifications can be made before it enters passenger service. If it does fail due to this, it suggests that it's best to rush a design into production, and wait for faults to occur when in passenger service, and hope they don't kill or injure anyone, since by that point it's to late to go with another design. Overall, this seems like a very good design, especially if it's low cost allows places to go for trams that would otherwise find them too expensive, and if it saves the Blackpool system. The fact that it's British is nice too.

 

[Guinness]

Why not used a tried and tested tram such as was done in Croydon?

Are you suggesting using an existing tram design such as the Bombardiers used on Croydon and NET? If you are then that won't happen in the near future. Blackpool Transport is more in favour of buses then Trams, in reality all that's keeping the trams running is tourism and that's declining in Blackpool. Recently, since they lost the Super-Casino bid there will no major funding or tourism boost for the region and hence no new expensive trams.

So the door was wedged for "Tram Power" stepped in with an alternative solution.

"The original design brief was a tram which would have a lower operating cost than a bus. The design was encouraged by Blackpool Transport Services Ltd, who consider that the present generation of new trams are too expensive to buy and who face increasing difficulty in maintaining a tram fleet with an average age of 60 years."

http://www.trampower.co.uk/CityClass.html

 

[Andy]

Initial reports say the electrical cabinet behind the driver blew up, which doesn't reflect on the concept.

But dose that not sound like what some vayagers have done just not with so much dramatic effect

 

[tramboy]

So the door was wedged for "Tram Power" stepped in with an alternative solution.

"The original design brief was a tram which would have a lower operating cost than a bus. The design was encouraged by Blackpool Transport Services Ltd, who consider that the present generation of new trams are too expensive to buy and who face increasing difficulty in maintaining a tram fleet with an average age of 60 years."

I have nothing against trampower, and think that it's good that we're at least trying to keep Blackpool open with a cheaper solution, but vaguely recall that many years ago, Skoda Astra trams (as seen in Portland, USA) were slated for Blackpool...lightweight, and cheap. The only problem I think with that was that Skoda fell out with Inekon, who they'd designed it with, and so now there are two designs...Inekon's Trio (delivered to Ostrava) and Skoda's Astra...which look exactly the same!

Trams will never have lower operating costs than a bus...they aren't designed for that, and what this country actually needs it to realise that road improvements aren't just the way forwards, that some investment into the railways and light rail would make a load of difference, and also that cutting planning/build times would also help too (Nottingham: one line opens in 2004 after inception in 1989; Karlsruhe (twin city) at least ten lines, including tram train concepts open in the same amount of time.)

Regards

Dave