Historic moment as trams return to Blackpool North Station for the first time in 60 years

Crowds had gathered near North Pier to witness the momentous occasion after the tram had left Starr Gate just before 10.50am on Wednesday, June 12 to make the 20-minute journey to Blackpool North Station.

Full passenger services are due to start operating from this Sunday (June 16).

It was 1936 when the last trams ran up Talbot Road on their way to Layton, and 1963 when the last trams travelled to Blackpool North Station but that was via Dickson Road. However thanks to a £23m injection of cash, the service has been restored with a new transport interchange built alongside the Holiday Inn Hotel.

Around two million people arrive in Blackpool by train each year and from now on they will be able to buy through tickets to hop straight on-board a tram taking them either north towards Fleetwood, or south towards Starr Gate.

The launch marked another milestone in the history of Blackpool's tramway which in 1885 was the first electric street tramway in the British Isles.

Tram driver Tommy Pridding, from Layton, had the honour of being at the controls for the special occasion.

Tommy, who has worked for Blackpool Transport for 20 years after starting off as a tram conductor, said: "I feel very proud to have made a little bit of Blackpool history by driving the tram today. All the drivers have had lots of training and today felt very significant for the tramway."

Jane Cole, managing director of Blackpool Transport, said the opening of the tramway extension was important for the whole of the Fylde coast.

She said: "It is another artery into the town centre and it is important in this time of sustainable transport to say we are now able to invite people to arrive by train and use public transport as a means of getting around.

"All around us Blackpool is booming. We have had lots of investment. It is unprecedented the investment at the moment. There are 20 million visitors a year, with two million arriving by train every year. What a great opportunity to bring people onto the tramway so they can use public transport as a means to integrate from the tram to the bus and use public transport while they are here."

Those on board for the first passenger journey included 24 competition winners who were greeted by tunes from the Park Community Band as they disembarked.

Among them was Stuart Greaves, from Marton, who remembers when trams regularly ran along Whitegate Drive and Dickson Road.

He said: "I remember the trams running until the mid-60s so it is exciting going forward to see the tramway running back to North Station again. One of the heritage trams at Starr Gate was a flat-topped double-decker that operated on Dickson Road, so we have gone full circle with the launch today."

Barbara Hirst, from Thornton, said: "I've lived on the Fylde coast all my life so it is nice to have been a part of Blackpool's history today. It means people arriving by train can now hop straight on a tram and it will encourage them to use hotels and visit attractions further away from the town centre."

Timeline

At times it has been a bumpy ride to reach this moment with the original completion date having been in 2019. But the tram terminal could not be built until Wilko's vacated the site.

It was later hoped the extension could be completed by March 2021 but there were hold-ups in the deal to buy the Wilko site. Demolition of Wilko finally began in 2020, and construction of the Holiday Inn and tram terminal on the site began in 2021.

Progress was also slowed down by the pandemic, while hopes the trams could begin running in 2023 were dashed as work to build the Holiday Inn was hampered by an issue with the cladding. However the hotel opened on May 1 this year, followed by the tramway on June 12. Full passenger services are due to begin operating on Sunday, June 16.

The extension follows a £100m investment in the tramway which was relaunched with the modern fleet of Flexity trams in April 2012. Two new trams have been added to the fleet to operate the additional service to North Station.

Timetable

Once fully open, trams will leave and arrive at the new North Station tram stop roughly every fifteen minutes between 0545hrs and 2345hrs. As a general guide, trams going south to Squires Gate will leave on the quarter hours (15 minutes’ past and 45 minutes’ past), with trams going north to Fleetwood Ferry leaving on the hour and half hour, however the timetable will be adjusted based on need. These routes will work alongside with the mainline tram operation which continues to run between Starr Gate and Fleetwood between 0500hrs and 2300hrs.

• A protest by taxi drivers against Uber drivers operating in Blackpool, which had been planned for the junction of the Promenade and Talbot Road, was broken up by police who were on duty at the tramway launch.