I live in Blackpool. I don't think the council know anything at all about timetables! They buggared up the buses a few months ago too. But I think it will get sorted as time goes on and it does improve the area which will hopefully bring in more investment as that part of the town center is looking great these days

IT'S NOT GOOD? what the hell am I hearing? believe me, this project is necessary, and that extension means less people driving, more people cycling, walking, taking public transport. I don't care how crap an extension is. It's good because it is useful, and it encourages active or public transport. I know I don't live in Blackpool, but Leicester, but can you look at the US for a moment and see the point of public transport and the correlation between better active/public transport infrastructure + walkability and less driving?

I think one of the big problems we have had from Central Government in the last few years is that they have been focused on reopening stations and reopening branchlines, and the like and have not really spoken about service patterns at all. Although the rails and the stations for railways and tramlines are very important, what is more important is how many people you can fit on each vehicle and how long it would take to do stuff like get everyone who is at a tourist attraction, like a pier over to the train station. That might not be a big enough measure of demand, but if you look at things like the NEC, and you imagine a big pop concert ending at a specific time, you can see that the entire audience need to be got onto trains and sent off to wherever it is they live. What I would like to see some transport nerds to is to create Top Trumps style cards for stations that show how many people can be moved in and out of that station per day. And also show how long it would take to evacuate the entire local population via that public transport link. Not all public transport needs to have the same capacity as Crossrail, but transport links should have daily capacity and service patterns that are roughly comparable, with respect to local population and visitors. Right now, when people say "This is not good enough" the problem is that we do not have any sort of agreed standard measurement of transport provision. And we just end up on the "London gets all the money" track. And that doesn't really help people in places like Lewisham who have waited and waited while over two dozen projects to extend the Bakerloo Line were cancelled. We need to have continuous tram building programs, a number of projects to hand over railways close to the cities of the UK to local transport authorities that can run higher frequency trains. And we need to have a very very easy way to show scientifically how much extra public transport needs to be added to various parts of the UK, so that campaigners can point out under-provision and demand catch up funding.

New transport is always good news. Please shut your negative trap.

haha! great video. I enjoyed your Marston Vale Line video, so happy its back after the horrific replacement bus service!!!! Although it still has its teething problems and replacement busses sometimes still happen when they cancel trains last minute :/

How long until someone tries to nick a tram

Absolutely the right message

Good old bedfordshire

Even the 700 bus from Chichester to Bognor Regis has a better frequency and spacing than a tram in Blackpool, a hugely more significant seaside resort.

I suppose it really isn'tt an extension but a partial route re-instatement that looped back to Gynn Square down Dickson Road. It closed in 1963.

I really dislike Blackpool (mainly because it’s full of Glaswegians, and I can see that at home), but last year, out of boredom I decided to jump on a train at Preston to Blackpool North. I came out of the station to find two drunks kicking lumps out of each other on the square. I went down the front, took a photo, and went back on the train to Preston. I won’t be back in Blackpool anytime soon.

I've seen many comments about the poor timetable. Hopefully if demand warrants, it will get better. But I am underwhelmed by the tram terminus. It has taken years and £23m to get somewhere near the North Station, through a subway that looks a bit intimidating. Why couldn't they do a proper job and run the tramway another 100 metres or so and end up as part of the station? Better still, make it a proper bus/tram/ train interchange. It feels as if it was designed as urban regeneration rather than for actual passengers.

Oh well HS2 of Blackpool

Inspired film-making

New interchange is open now! (I think it opened like 2 months ago) it’s quite nice

I don't think the new extension will last either Gen xx

You'd think with a connection like that, the trams would become the people movers of that whole coastline. They are sitting on a gold mine and not prospecting enough.

It's not the extention that is bad. I actually would say it is very useful. The timetable is just not good.

I think Blackpool needs to stick to what it's good at which is heritage trams because even with the new trams and extension it's not very well thought out the current timetable is terrible and who doesn't include real time travel information stops especially new ones

9:27 chippieeeeeees

super cool! also how did you get the announcement? did u get it for free or did u pay for it?

Walk on the wild side thinks it's o.k.

In a few weeks I am using a North West Rover to travel all the lines in the area and I need to get from Blackpool North to South as quickly as possible. I had no idea this link to the station had just opened and was looking at the timetables just the other day. I'm sad to report that, in order of speed, my options are: WALK - quickest. BUS - middle, TRAM - slowest! The whole Blackpool tram system seems pretty pointless, to be honest. I haven't been since I was a kid in the 80s and the service used to be really frequent. I get that it needed modernising and upgrading but it seems it was only retained for it's historic value - which is no longer there with a modern tram service. Surely it's the least-densely populated area in the UK to have trams? They should have just retained a small section, with historic trams for tourists and replace the rest with buses.

Yeah as far as know trams are bi-directional, in the Uk we drive on the left, so our trams and trains are understadardly orinatated that way too. (consider the confusion if not). Here in Manchester we operate trams at turn around against signals, consider single line running with a token. Just like it seems at Starr, but in Manchester we'd do the switch to the left hand rail, with pax aboard. The "station" from a trams point of view is single line. Would have thought the engineering/depot turning loop, is just that for engineering/depot moves, who knows the state of any trams that need to use it. But it does seem to have not been thought out that well. Going to try it in the next week or two.

You're right, the timetable is a real shocker, considering they used the lack of a heavy rail service to Fleetwood as one of the justifications for building this spur. I can see no reason why the first tram of the day from Fleetwood at 0710 could not run as a T3 to North Station, and then onto say, Pleasure Beach as a T2. Is there really so much demand for a service to Starr Gate at such an early hour? I suspect not... that would provide an 0800 arrival at North Station, an 0805 departure and an 0827 arrival at Pleasure Beach, from which it can turn on the circle and depart as a slightly retimed 0828 T2 service to North Station, at say, 0830, running 2 minutes later throughout.

Unless I’m looking at the time table wrong, if you travel from Fleetwood to Starr Gate via North Station I assume that the tram pulls in and then straight out again heading south, but if travelling from Starr Gate to Fleetwood via North Station, then there is a 21 minute stop before you head north again (assuming that the T2 then becomes a T3), why?

OH the cat's the stat of the show

Its quite simple Jen; If the price is too high, I SIMPLE WON'T TRAVEL BY TRAIN; I got a Disabled railcard and enjoy travelling by train for a day somewhere (I live in Co Durham) But if its too costly I'll use my bus pass more often;; And I think the Government wants to destroy the railways;

This just seems really badly thought through. Blackpool isn't a huge place so i understand that it might not 'need' the same frequencies as a big city, but if the infrastructure is there to support it you'd might as well run it and encourage more people to use it. Equally though, having the hotel between the tram stop and the station feels very strange. I know there's a cut through but it makes it feel disjointed and like the tram was an afterthought. It also adds a liminal space which might not feel particularly safe/secure between the tram and the train station, especially on a night. It seems a particularly bad decision when you consider that a future extension beyond North station to the zoo and hospital could have been a really sensible next step.

BLACKPOOT TRANSPORT need to re do the Tram Timetable; And maybe scrap the T1 T2 &T3 and just have 1 service serving the station in both directions every 12/15 mins; And 09,15 from the North side to the station is unacceptable; It needs to start at 05.30; It would have been better thought out for the T2 to be extended to Cleveleys; And the T3 to be extended to Pleasure Beach; But this is what I would have done; BT and the boffins in HQ have made a big error; And this will become very clear very quickly;

Given that there are electronic information boards for the tram stops in most of the UK's other tram networks (including Manchester, Sheffield, Edinburgh etc.), its absolutely ludicrous they didn't add any electronic information boards for the Blackpool Tramway stops (I know its the oldest running non-heritage tram line in the country without counting the special heritage services, but still, that's not good enough) on top of having such awful frequencies - I pretty much agree with all your points Jen because its pointless operating tram services with frequencies at every 30 minutes (every 10 minutes should at least be the minimum for trams).

I wonder what the new map looks like…

All these machines need to be able to do is sell tickets without selecting atrain. If anyone is stupid enough to buy a ticket for a journey that doesn’t exist that’s their lookout in my book.

I experienced this at Cottingley when I tried to buy a ticket to Chinley once. Normally I never have a problem, but when there were buses on part of the route between Leeds and Wakefield/Sheffield it wouldn’t sell me a ticket because the system was sending me via York with no valid fare. I’d have quite happily gone via York to avoid a replacement bus, but; “computer says, no”! In the end I went via Hambleton to Doncaster and changed there for Sheffield. Came back via Manchester.

I’m surprised you didn’t walk it between Pont-y-Pant and Dolwyddelan.

Sounds like the Spanish rail infrastructure, outside the MAD-BCN corridor. Build fantastic infrastructure, don't run any trains on it. (Eg the HS line Barcelona to France. 2 trains per day. Station on line between Seville and Cadiz at Jerez airport. 4 trains per day stop. And not timed with flights either.). So in summary. to make this work, they really need to run a much more frequent service, in all directions?

Go to Blackpool for the airshow, see the Red Arrows, get the hell out.

Great video, and I agree with all that you say. Tram services should be frequent, and the service at North station is ridiculous. Also why on earth didn’t they take the tram right into the station forecourt ? The link to the station is horrible for pedestrians, especially anyone with luggage. The trains themselves are very good however !

Reference your timetable comments.. perhaps the "planners" watched Field of Dreams first...."build it and they will come". Seems to be a case of timetabling to suit the trams rather than passengers.

My understanding is that Blackpool Transport is short of staff and that they would want to run a more frequent service but this is the best they can do (frequency wise) with the resources they have.

Can you have a purple 'white elephant'? - - It seemed very bumpy and rather noisy inside, too!

Just needs to buy more trams! Any tram line with a service less than every 10 minutes is a failure

Although most Tramstops on the South Yorkshire Supertram network have PIS displays, the stop that has the most interchanges (Ponds Forge / Fitzalan Sq) doesn't....

Great video Jen 😊

I’m always happy that there’s new infrastructure but that service pattern is rubbish! And that the first tram of the day from the north is after 9am is absurd!

Upside: it can't be extended. No wait, that's not an upside. Sure, the town is pretty linear along the water, but it does have enough depth that a line going north-south further east could make sense? Maybe to form a loop at the southern end of the line? But no, let's make it a permanent end of line station.