Tram Talk

John Woodman The Five Year Plan presented by Walter Luff to his Transport Committee and Council in early 1933 following his succession to Manage the town's transport system included recommendations for closure of two street tram routes and replacement by buses. These were services with town centre terminii directly outside the Town Hall in Talbot Sqiare running to Layton and to Central Station. Both lines involved small sections of single track operation and faced increa

John Woodman The aftermath of World War Two saw the Corporation Transport Department plunge ahead with its planned renewal of both the tram and bus fleets. The deferred replacement of ageing and worn out buses from the early 1930s had already been dealt with by executed orders for two tranches of new vehicles from the long familiar suppliers; Leyland Motors and HV Burlingham. Both companies were inundated with orders from operators large and small similarly needing to rene

John Woodman Not a location readily identifiable today but this is Abingdon Street directly in front of the GPO. Blackpool & Fleetwood 'Rack' 2 in its special retro colours is about to turn sharply into Clifton Street while a Marton bound railcoach has just completed traversing the curve outbound from Talbot Square. The new Timothy Whites store block has yet to be erected behind Number 2. A relatively lightly loaded Tour conveys some serious looking enthusiasts on this cl

John Woodman Two boat cars on the connecting track from Talbot Square on to the Promenade (southbound), Both are lined up for the Circular Tour with the first car nicely loaded. A traffic policeman with white sleeve covers will halt road traffic to allow the boat car to traverse the promenade at the start of its 'Tour'. After 1962 with closure of the Marton tram service, the Transport Department launched its Tramway Circular Tour starting from the centre track at the Ce

John Woodman The seemingly over eager desire to run 'heritage tours' in the depths of winter begs the question where are the published ridership numbers of these seemingly never ending repetitive events month after month? In years gone by the Transport Department, as it was in former times, made a meticulous record of passenger loadings on its 'Circular Tours' which never operated in the winter months. Both by revenue and ticket numbers was a healthy review of public take

John Woodman Balloon Car 263 was selected from storage to become the 'guinea pig' for a conceptual one-man operated double deck tram following on the successful rebuilding of English Electric since deck rail coaches to 'OMO Car' configueration during the 1970s. Thirteen in total examples being modified in Rigby Road Works to create a fleet large enough to sustain winter season service. The need for larger capacity models grew in part through the proliferation of schools a

john Woodman Blackpool Transport's determination to institute year round services with one man operated trams mirrored the same approach already in place with the bus fleet in the 1970s. The large capacity crew operated Metro Cammell bodied Leylands were no longer financially sustainable and had been replaced by AEC chassis single deckers with austere Marshall bodies. Painted in all over cream which was then the prevailing economics driven policy of Manager Joe Franklin, t

John Woodman Blackpool's Victoria Hospital complex - ever expanding as the important health treatment centre is one of the busiest year round locations on the Fylde coast. Its vital services require continuing 24 hour staffing, with significant expansion in numbers in daytime hours. Enlargement of car parking spaces testify to the increasing volume of visitors to the Layton location, while the Fylde's ageing population demographics and the Fylde coast's attractiveness f

John Woodman Viewing online transport maps of both the West Midlands and Manchester Metrolink provides strategic thinking and forward plans of both operators - together with supporting information on the economic, social and business case for extensions to the respective systems. Free from over indulgence in nostalgia and top heavy reference to 'heritage' it is refreshing to read the 'blue skies' approach of planners involved with light rail development. The ongoing extensi

John Woodman As previously referenced on this Blog - the sixteen Local Authorities within Lancashire plus Lancashire's County Council have agreed to jointly work together but without need for an Elected Mayor in order to gain a unified status and subvention of up to £5 Billion from central government. This would be applied to agreed infrastructure improvement and new developments benefitting the County. The bid to central government for this new status for the County (which