The worlds only pier tram will be unveiled in Southport next Monday.
The 100-seater custom built British vehicle will link the end of the UK's second longest pier with Southport town centre, passing the Ocean Plaza complex en-route.
It has been funded with £250,000 from Mersey Waterfront, £45,000 from Sefton Council and a further £30,000 from the Pier Trust.
The modern air conditioned tram is an updated version of an origional feature seen on the Pier pavillion when it was first built in 1860.
Estimates suggest the tram could attract an extra 70,000 visitors to the resort anually.
Louise Hopkins, Director of Mersey Waterfront, said:
"Southport Pier Tram is expected to generate more that £140,000 for the local economy in the next 12 months alone and will help secure the pier's future."
This is going to be so cool. I wondered why they were digging up the middle of a few town centre roads when I last visited! The origional version only ran the length of the pier, but this is going all the way into the town centre!! Maybe in the future they will run more than just one tram along the line.
Its much needed. Southport's town centre where all the shops are is quite a distance from the seafront. You have about 3 blocks of streets, a park, the marine lake and then various entertainment complexes before you get to the seafront, and then there is the whole length of the pier, so this tramway will be quite long :) Will get piccies ASAP!

Piccies from lrta.org:
http://www.lrta.org/news/images/news0523.jpg

http://www.lrta.org/news/images/news0523b.jpg

This is superb,

Accura if you could be a real hero, next time you are in South Port if you could take any pics that would be great.

By the way, what is the distance from the Pier to Southport Town Centre?

On another front isn't there a diddy Tram on the North Pier at Blackpool?

What about Blackpool's North Pier? That has a tram...

I went last tuesday and it was running then, with passengers, thought it was new!

What about Blackpool's North Pier? That has a tram...

hay thief, that's what I said ;)

This is superb,

Accura if you could be a real hero, next time you are in South Port if you could take any pics that would be great.

By the way, what is the distance from the Pier to Southport Town Centre?

On another front isn't there a diddy Tram on the North Pier at Blackpool?
Yeah, I was wondering that. I'm going to try and find out what makes this the world's first. I also believe that there is a tram running along Southend's very long pier.
The distance from the end of the pier to Lord Street is roughly 2 miles, I may be wrong though. Thats just judging it from when I've walked it several times.
I'm going to Southport on Sunday. Will get some pics for you then. Promise :)

Oh yeh sorry didnt see that. I guess they just got their facts wrong- the Blackpool pier tram isnt exactly wideley advertized....

I feel pretty sad whenever I walk along the North Pier. I goto Blackpool every month and I have NEVER seen the pier tram running, not even during the peak season.

Really? I go to Blackpool quite a bit, well not as much as you, but probably once a year and whenever I go its running- we usually walk to the end and get the tram back. (I know people there so thats why I go)

I assume this is a first because the other pier trams are confined to the pier whereas this will go from street to pier. Just a guess mind.

I assume this is a first because the other pier trams are confined to the pier whereas this will go from street to pier. Just a guess mind.

I think Gavin has got it.

It makes sense I don't know any other systems that go from road to pier.

Although isn't there something on the Isle of Wight (although that may not be a pier and the transport is an ex underground car not a tram)?

Ah, I know the one you are talking about. Yeh, its ex-underground cars so I assume that counts as trains.

im pretty sure brighton and many others around the uk have trams, though southports is probably worlds first 21st century tram on a pier, you have too google it to check facts, newspapers rarely care if they get facts wrong so long as they sell papers

It wasnt just the newspapers that said it. I went on the Mersey Waterfront site and they are claiming its the world's first too.

I remember riding on the old train before the pier was closed as a kid in the 80's.
frankly the thing was a death trap. Glad to see this one looks a bit better :)

I went into Southport today. The tram doesnt go all the way to Lord Street as I though it would. The roadworks just turned out to be a street refurb. Its still pretty impressive though, and goes right along the pier, so its still about a mile of inland running too. Very popular with visitors.
pics:

from the pitch and putt
http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/8559/tram11jw.jpg

http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/8043/tram25ey.jpg

http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/2485/tram33nv.jpg

from on the pier. I couldnt believe that the tide was actually in.
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/9866/tram49dh.jpg

http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/7995/tram58oh.jpg

excellent work and excellent pics Accura.

Well done sir :cheers:

They're repaving Nevill Street and relocating the statue of the porky woman to the Lord Street end I think Accy. Do me a flavour and keep the hell away from Souey on a Sunday. I'm back up there working as of next week. :)

However, next time you're there, dump the car at the park & ride and have a look around the eco centre. Woody installed the displays in there.

Those pics are fakes BTW. He's stuck pictures of trams in France onto a pic of Southport pier and then added water. The sea never, ever, EVER goes that close to the sea wall...

I bet the heritage lobby will be shitting their kecks in anger when the see those things. They campaigned for, and won the right to have those twiddley lighting structures placed all along the pier to keep in with the towns Victorian heritage. Maybe they should've saved their breath and opted to campaign against the ghastly cheapness of the Ocean Plaza complex instead. Half-arsed gobshites. :rant:

how far does it go?

Those pics are fakes BTW. He's stuck pictures of trams in France onto a pic of Southport pier and then added water. The sea never, ever, EVER goes that close to the sea wall...
Despite the sea being in at Southport being a rare occasion, it does happen.
If it didnt, they wouldnt have spent millions 3/4 years ago rebuilding the wall.
Proof!
http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/4981/marinedrive0io.jpg
It was nice having the sea in for once, and not miles away into the Ribble estaury over a giant plain of mud. It couldnt have happened at a better time either, with the flower show and such.
BTW, I agree with you about Ocean Plaza. Its so crap. At the back facing onto Marine Drive, it doesnt even have any windows :(

how far does it go?
The tram? A bloody long way. It begins at the Funland amusement arcade on the town centre side of the Marine lake, out across the lake, past the skate park (which everybody likes to stand and watch sk8erpunks do their thing), alongside the Pitch and Putt, alongside the crappy Ocean Plaza and McDonalds, then across Marine Drive to the beach and out to sea, right to the small amusement arcade at the end of the pier. I walked the entire route (and back again) and was pretty tired afterwards.

what is the point of this tram going a hundred yards down an old pier?

what is the point of this tram going a hundred yards down an old pier?
A hundred yards?!?! :eek: You have got to be joking! The pier must be at least a mile long! The pensioners like it :)

The tram? A bloody long way. It begins at the Funland amusement arcade on the town centre side of the Marine lake, out across the lake, past the skate park (which everybody likes to stand and watch sk8erpunks do their thing), alongside the Pitch and Putt, alongside the crappy Ocean Plaza and McDonalds, then across Marine Drive to the beach and out to sea, right to the small amusement arcade at the end of the pier. I walked the entire route (and back again) and was pretty tired afterwards.
oh right i thought i just went down the pier for some reason.

A hundred yards?!?! :eek: You have got to be joking! The pier must be at least a mile long! The pensioners like it :)
didnt realise the pier was that long although i can remember the train they had their.

didnt realise the pier was that long although i can remember the train they had their.
Blackpool's North Pier has a tramway on it too, but North Pier is only about a third the length of Southport. The North Pier tramway was actually built for a purpose though. At the end of North Pier, there is a large theatre. Back in the day when people went there to go and see shows at night, people found it hard to walk the pier back in the dark and wet, so they built a tramway for them.
Southport has got too many spoofy transport systems around the marine lake now! They have got that annoying road train going from Funland to Pleasureland, the miniature railway running from Ocean Plaza to Pleasureland, and now this tramway! :no:

BTW, I have no idea now how they can claim this being a 'world first'. Gavin suggested it was because it ran on the street, but now we know it doesnt run on the street, soo..... :dunno:
I'll send an email to MerseyWaterfront asking at some point.

Sloppy journalism Accy. Nothing more. Any news on the proposed water park/snow dome ideas they had for Ocean Plaza? :? Not read the Visiter for yonks. :)

^I wonder where they would put that... there is only a small amount of space left at Ocean Plaza now, a pretty small patch in between the plaza building and Pleasureland.
Blabbernsmoke also said there was a 32-storey tower planned for Southport.

http://www.photo-digital.co.uk/england/lancashire/southport/pics/southport%20pier%20aerial.jpg

http://www.redstarline.org.uk/images/southport/spt1.jpg

Some cracking pics here http://www.redstarline.org.uk/southport_photo.html

Nice pics. I found out something totally wierd yesterday. Apparently the whole of West Lancashire from Southport to Burscough used to be a massive lake (one of the largest in England), but then hundreds of years ago, monks drained it so it could be good farmland. Imagine how great that would be now :(

I'd love to see Southport completely submerged. You're absolutely right Accy. ;) Didn't think it was a proper lake though, just masses of marshland where Martin Mere spread out for miles and miles. The Mersey used to be a lake that stretched from Warrington to Bootle but was ground out by glacial action 10,000 years ago. :)

Why do you want to see Southport submerged? Its a great place. Had a bad experience there?
Even if it was just a marsh lake, its still more interesting than what is there now. West Lancs is quite possibly the dullest place in the world. Everytime I go through it, I feel like slitting my wrists.

I lived there for two years don't forget. Not a bad place to visit, but depressing and far too inbred for me to enjoy living there. The amount of times I'd witnessed glasses and bottles being used as weapons was mind boggling, not to mention all of the tramps and pissheads who litter the streets at night....

I'm not sure that Southport is a great place to live if you're a young person. If I lived in Southport at my current age, I would see no other option but to leave in the near future. Southport doesnt have much in the way of employment.

Plenty of shop work Accy. Great if you're after pocket money whilst you're studying etc, but apart from a handful of solicitors firms, notably Barrets, and the many care homes, there's fuck all else. That's why they all piss off down to Bootle and Liverpool and to a lesser extent, Preston for their money.

I bet just as many people in Southport commute to Preston as they do to Liverpool. Half the teachers at my old school live in Southport...
The A59 is absolutely jammed every weekday morning heading into Preston.

So is the Formby bypass Accy, as well as Merseyrail. the Liverpool-Southport service alone has 16m passengers per year. They're all Sefton council office lackeys and Health & Safety monkeys.