On the 29th of September 1885 the Blackpool Tramway was officially opened to the public by Alderman Harwood, the Mayor of Manchester.
Work had started on the electric tramway on 24 February 1884.
Blackpool Corporation had paid for and built the tramway and the Blackpool Electric Tramway Company, which had been created in January that year, provided the electrical equipment, depot and tramcars.
It did not take long for the major weakness of the conduit system used for powering the trams to become apparent. The conduit system was so called as the trams took their power from a supply laid in a grooved slot between the tram rails which, being a seaside location, soon became full of sea-water when they weren’t actually clogged with wind-blown sand. Water and electricity not being exactly compatible it lead to a somewhat haphazard operation of the trams.
The theory of electricity supply was not as well understood as it is today and the drop in power from the generator to the distant tram, with the complication of sand and water, often caused the trams to simply grind to a halt. So much so that on many occasions they had to hitch horses to the front of them and pull them up the prom on horsepower alone! History of our Tramway
It is the second-oldest electric tramway in the United Kingdom, the first being Volk’s Electric Railway in Brighton, which opened two years earlier. Both tramways run along the seafront.
The first section in 1885 was a conduit line from Cocker Street to Dean Street on Blackpool Promenade.
