TRANSPORT Secretary Alistair Darling was today warned he risks becoming the man who killed the Blackpool tram.
The claim was made by Blackpool's Euro MP Chris Davies who has called on the Government to support the upgrading of the resort's tram system before a lack of investment brings the system to a shuddering halt.
In a letter to the Department of Transpo
rt, Mr Davies said much of Britain's oldest electric tram system faces closure within two years unless the Government approves its part of the £88m upgrade.
At a recent meeting, Blackpool Council officers told the Liberal Democrat MEP that without funding from the Department for Transport "the full extent of the network is unlikely to stay open beyond 2006/2007."
More than 55 per cent of the track is in a poor or very poor structure with electrical infrastructure also rapidly deteriorating.
The Government's refusal to fund, in full, the extension of the Metrolink system in Manchester and its rejection of plans for Liverpool's first new tramway, has raised fears for the future of the only tram system to have survived the whole of the 20th Century.
Mr Davies says the Blackpool scheme offers best value for money.
He said: "The tramway is already in operation, its land is in public ownership and no utilities will have to be moved before work is carried out.
"Refusal to support the proposal would leave the Government's commitment to public transport improvement in disarray."
The modernisation would buy 14 low-floor articulated trams and raise average speeds along by 60 per cent.
The Department of Transport is being asked to fund 75 per cent of the £88m cost, with the rest being met by Blackpool Council and Lancashire County Council.
