WORK has begun on the £23.4 million extension of Blackpool’s Tramway from the seafront to the town’s North railway station.
Construction work along Talbot Road has uncovered previously abandoned tram tracks buried under the road surface.
Blackpool has the country’s oldest surviving tram system, which dates back to the 1880s, but was relaunched in 2012 after a four-year, £100 million upgrade that saw a fleet of 16 new ‘Flexity2’ trams introduced for regular services. Use of the tram system has increased since then, with 5.1 million journeys recorded in 2016/17 compared with two million in 2008/09.
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Funding from the extension is being split between the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership (£16.4m) and Blackpool Council (£7m).
From a triangular junction near the North Pier stop, the line will run up Talbot Road to a terminus on the site of the current Wilkinson (Wilko) supermarket.
Read more and view more images in the June issue of The RM – on sale now!
