All aboard for new Blackpool trams to celebrity restaurant

All aboard! The first services on Blackpool's new tramway extension begin this weekend - with the new stop right next to a top restaurant. Scheduled services will begin on Sunday (June 16) on the extension following its official launch.

The new Blackpool North tram stop sits alongside the Holiday Inn hotel and Marco Pierre White restaurant, which opened in May, while passengers can walk through to Blackpool North train station via a new underpass. A range of retail units surround the new tram stop and underpass.

Competition winners were among the first passengers to make the historic journey up Talbot Road on Wednesday (June 12), marking the first time trams had returned to Blackpool North Station in 60 years.

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Regular services will begin on Sunday morning, with the new timetable seeing trams leaving and arriving from North Station roughly every 15 minutes between 5.45am and 11.45pm. 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.

The timetable will also be adjusted at times based on demand, for example when major events are being held in the town. The new routes will operate alongside the mainline tram services on the Promenade between Starr Gate and Fleetwood between 5am and 11pm. To support the additional journeys created by the extension, two new Flexity-2 trams have been added to the running stock.

The £23m tramway extension was funded by Blackpool Council and received £16.4m from the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership’s Growth Deal funding. Alan Cavill, director of communications and regeneration at Blackpool Council, said the tramway extension provided a commuter route for workers needing to reach the town centre, as well as transport for visitors. Work is currently underway to build a new civil service hub on Cookson Street which will house up to 3,000 workers, while plans have been submitted for another office block on Talbot Road.