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Concept
Blackpool Tramway
Summary
The Blackpool Tramway runs from Blackpool to Fleetwood on the Fylde Coast in Lancashire, England. The line dates back to 1885 and is one of the oldest electric tramways in the world. It is operated by Blackpool Transport Services (BTS) and runs for . It carried 4.8 million passengers in 2019/20.
It is the second-oldest electric tramway in the United Kingdom, the first being Volk's Electric Railway in Brighton, which opened two years earlier and similarly runs on a reserved track along the seafront. These are also the two surviving first-generation town tramways in the UK, though the majority of services on the line have since 2012 been operated by a fleet of modern Bombardier Flexity 2 trams. A 'heritage service' using the traditional trams operates year-round on weekends, certain weekdays and bank holidays, as well as during the Blackpool Illuminations. Excluding museums, it is one of only a few tramways in the world to still use double-deck trams, the others including the Hong Kong Tramways and the Trams in Alexandria, Egypt.
The first section opened on 29 September 1885, a conduit line from Cocker Street to Dean Street on Blackpool Promenade. It was one of the first practical electric tramways in the world, just six years after Werner von Siemens first demonstrated electric traction. The inauguration was presided over by Holroyd Smith, the inventor of the system and Alderman Harwood, the Mayor of Manchester.
It was operated by the Blackpool Electric Tramway Company until 1892, when its lease expired and Blackpool Corporation took over. A line was added in 1895 from Manchester Square along Lytham Road to South Shore, extended to South Pier with a line on Station Road connecting Lytham Road to the promenade in 1897.
Conduit operation, in which trams took electricity from a conduit below and between the tracks, though very successful in locations such as town or city centres, proved to be very problematic on a line so close to the coast.
Official source
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