Conor Lyons's Blog

[comment off]
By 1939, he had a considerable list of achievements to his credit, including 116 new tramcars, new depot and transport offices at Blundell Street, modern fare collection and accounting systems, and extensive track relaying and modernisation of turning facilities.
At this time and the Blackpool Transport fleet totalled 350 vehicles and had become the seventh largest in the country.
Luff described himself as “something of a visionary “, and during a talk in 1940 indulged in some Wellsian flights of fancy, producing drawings of a tram whose driver’s cab was on the roof giving passengers a clear view forward, and a bus which had folded wings!
In a post-war broadcast in 1946, he referred to the development of eight-feet wide trams with resilient wheels which he hoped to introduce to Blackpool, and these were manifested in the 1952 Coronation trams.
Significantly he was awarded the gold medal of the Institute of Transport in 1949 for a paper entitled: “Budgeting and Statistical Control of Road Passenger Transport “.
In 1952 Walter Luff should have retired, but was twice persuaded to stay on for another year by the Transport Committee.
Writing as President of the Light Railways Transport League in 1952, he continued to show optimism over the future of the tramway: “Here in Blackpool there is no talk at all about abandoning tramways, but on the other hand our progressive modernisation programme continues”.
Luff’s achievements have now become legendary in the history of Blackpool’s tramways, but it should be recorded that he was fortunate in presiding during a time of expansion, and also enjoyed the political support of the Transport Chairman Ald. C. E. Tatham from 1934 until his death in 1954.
Upon retirement he declared that he had only one regret: his failure to divert the tram track round the sea-side of the Metropole Hotel! Joseph Franklin 19541974
It fell to Joseph Franklin and the Rochdale Manager and to succeed a man who had become a legend in his time, but whose legacy was not an easy one.
Franklin, as a Lancashire man, had always wanted the Blackpool job, and had regarded his appointment to Rochdale in 1951 as a stepping-stone to Blackpool.
He recalled that he was overjoyed when he heard that Walter Luff was staying on until 1954 and thus providing him with the chance that he needed.
He later admitted that his knowledge of trams was limited to his experience where, as Chief Engineer, he was lucky to get fifteen out of a decrepit fleet of fifty-seven trams into service each day!
It must have been a relief when trams were never once mentioned at his Blackpool interview! His first weeks in Blackpool were ” on his own admission “”an eye-opener “.
He had inherited from Walter Luff an undertaking whose proud boast was that it had contributed £454,361 in rate relief during his management.
However the good financial years had ended, and it fell to Franklin to break the bad news that Blackpool’s trams and buses would actually make a loss in 19545.
A stunned Council considered selling the Undertaking to private enterprise, but Joe Franklin persuaded them that it could be made to pay providing economies were made.
During the Fifties and the national pattern of soaring costs and falling revenue was reflected in Blackpool; Franklin countered by cutting winter and off-peak services and the generous concessions which had previously been given.
He was always something of a showman and sought to attract extra revenue by utilising the tramway as an attraction: to this end he introduced Illuminations tours and reintroduced the Circular Tour and created new feature cars, attracting commercial sponsorship.
This policy culminated in the 75th anniversary of the tramway in 1960, which was a publicity triumph of the tramway.
By this time and the climate in the Council was increasingly hostile to tramways, and the Management had to take desperate measures to secure the future of the Promenade and Fleetwood lines.
Franklin later admitted: “Right from square one I knew that the street routes would eventually have to go”.