The ‘Tram’ programme was instigated by the ‘Tram Research Group’ on Merseyside, and sponsored initially by ‘Powergen’ who put £100,000 into the development fund.
The vehicle was styled by John Worker, and the consortium of the group consisted of; Powergen; Tram Power, BDA, Blackpool Transport and Pullman Transportation.
The prototype vehicle was designed in its entirety by BDA and built by Pullman and operated out of hours by Blackpool Transport.
A mock up was built initially by Tickford Rail who were start up partners in the group to show potentialoperators the benefits of the project.
The Tram was intended to provide a relatively low cost alternative to existing product and due to its light weight be able to run on a specially designed cushioned rail system that did not require the entire road surface.
The basic design was of a 24metre articulated unit with a double bellows in the centre and a seated capacity of 140 passengers. Four double air operated doors allowed speady entry and exit and the majority floor area was set as a one step entry, or straight in from a low platform with no step.
Although the unit performed well on the Blackpool Transport route using the standard overhead cantenery no orders were placed from new proposed Tramway systems. |
