Luggage... the Achillies' heel of tram extension

Why is nobody taking any notice of the luggage issue regarding this ridiculous tramway extension?
Has enough thought been given to passengers with luggage on trams from Blackpool North station?Has enough thought been given to passengers with luggage on trams from Blackpool North station?
Has enough thought been given to passengers with luggage on trams from Blackpool North station?

As many passengers will be carrying luggage of some description it becomes obvious there will be massive problems on every tram journey.

The figures do not add up as it doesn’t seem to have taken into account the amount of time passengers and their luggage will take both alighting from the tram from Bispham or Pleasure Beach followed by new passengers and their luggage boarding the tram to return to Bispham or Pleasure Beach.

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Figures seem to indicate that the average number of passengers per tram to be around 36. For trams which can carry 218 passengers this seems ludicrously low. But even if only half of these are accessing the tram with their luggage, the question arises ‘Where do you put 18 suitcases when there are NO facilities?’

One cannot use the disabled passenger spaces as these need to be kept free both at the station and in case of disabled passengers joining the tram further down the track.

This is just the start. How long would the turnround at the station take for passengers to load all their luggage on to a tram with no facilities as luggage on seats or in aisles is not allowed?

One cannot pile luggage on top of each other. What if your luggage is at the bottom of the pile when you reach your stop? Massive delay!

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There is no way that the two timetables can work in conjunction with each other as no two journeys will be the same as it would solely depend on how many passengers there are and how much luggage they are carrying.

The final nail in the coffin is that the trams are joining the promenade on the same track as used by the promenade trams which in high season especially are scheduled for every 10 minutes. It would be impossible for extension trams to slot in on any sort of timetable.

I believe this is the Achilles’ heel and I personal cannot see a way round it other than run trams completely empty on to completely new tracks on the promenade solely to accommodate the Extension.

This is obviously not going to happen.

Scrap it now and not later!

Jack Gledhill

Blackpool

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