Tramtown museum getting ready to re-open

Blackpool’s Tramtown museum is gearing up to re-open to visitors this Easter in a move which will help preserve the town’s famous fleet of heritage trams for the future.

Campaigners are urging people to support the attraction which they warn is “the last chance to save the trams” which have been integral to the resort for generations.

Volunteers have spent the last few weeks smartening up the engineering workshop on Rigby Road with paint, new lights and even a shop in order to welcome the public back from Good Friday.

For a £5 entry fee (£2.50 for children), people will be able to sit inside a tram, learn about their history and get close up the engineering works inside the exhibition centre.

The heritage tram service which has operated along the Promenade in recent years was suspended by the council-owned Blackpool Transport last December sparking concerns about the future of the vintage fleet.

Coun Paul Galley, volunteer co-ordinator at Tramtown, said getting the exhibition centre up and running would support a bid for up to £5m of Lottery funding towards refurbishing the heritage tram depot.

He said previous funding of £800,000 which was linked to the ZEBRA Blackpool Transport scheme to provide zero emission buses had been withdrawn due to changes to that project.

However this has also meant the engineering workshops which had been earmarked for demolition, are staying on the site which is why they have been re-purposed for the exhibition centre.

Coun Galley said: “The new experience we are launching will mean visitors can walk around themselves and it will give a focus for the site and support a business case for the Lottery bid.

“This is the last chance to save these heritage trams and if it doesn’t work we will lose them as there will be nowhere to store them. It’s about protecting them and in time being able to recruit new engineers to maintain them.”

The heritage fleet continues to be stored in a dedicated depot at Blackpool Transport’s Rigby Road site which Coun Galley said is structurally safe for storage of the vehicles, but due to repairs needed to the roof can no longer be open to the public.

Therefore the neighbouring workshops building has been re-purposed as the Tramtown exhibition centre, to demonstrate there is a strong enough business case to secure Lottery funding to restore the depot.

Coun Galley added: “The heritage trams are fundamental to the DNA of Blackpool and that’s why it matters that we save them. And it is also about supporting people in this area which is one of the most deprived wards in Blackpool, through our volunteer scheme.”

Among the volunteers who have been hard at work in recent weeks is John Odenwalder who has been volunteering since 2018 after retiring from his job as a tram guard with Blackpool Transport.

He said: “I worked for 11 years on the trams and now this is keeping me busy being a volunteer here.”

John is part of a team of volunteers, with his task being to prepare and paint the floor of the workshop with a green route around the exhibits. New lighting has been fitted, while television monitors, information boards and barriers will also be installed.

Coun Galley said: “The budget for the  work is about £700 but thanks to so many donations and hard work by the volunteers, we have stretched the value of that to about £7,000. Nobody wants this to fail and when you explain what we are trying to do, people really buy into that.”

Concerns about the future of the heritage fleet led to a petition being launched to protect them which attracted around 2,000 signatures.

However Jane Cole, managing director of Blackpool Transport, gave reassurances last December the aim was to restore the heritage service.

She said the future of the heritage trams was “safe and we aim to have them back on the Promenade next year. However, before that can happen there are a number of complex operational issues that need to be addressed.”

The Tramtown exhibition centre will open to the public, with access from Hopwood Road, from Good Friday (April 18) for all four days over the Easter period, and then every Monday and Saturday, with hopes of adding Wednesday openings. People can book online or pay on the day.

Information and bookings will shortly be available through www.blackpooltransport.com