Tram service disrupted due to Elton John concert

The seating for the Elton John concert extended over the tramway and main road in front of the tower

On Saturday 16th June, the Tower headland saw its first use as a concert venue, with Elton John playing to a crowd of 11,000 people on a specially constructed stage. As the temporary seating for the concert went over the tramway and road, this was obviously going to cause some travel disruption over the weekend. From late Friday evening until Sunday afternoon, the tramway operated in two separate halves. The northern section operated from North Pier to Fleetwood Ferry, while the southern section shuttled between Starr Gate and Manchester Square (turning at Foxhall). This operation saw as many as three and four trams at a time together at North Pier, and at times all three tracks were occupied adjacent to the southbound North Pier stop, near Festival House. This bottleneck meant that some southbound trams had to unload their passengers adjacent to the North Pier entrance, well short of the platform which was occasionally occupied by another tram. The disruption to the tram service lasted until Sunday afternoon, as the clearing of the concert seating had been delayed due to the poor weather over the previous night.

Trams on the northern section of the tramway turned at North Pier, 008 seen in service with 006 on the loop in reserve

Trams on the southern section terminated at Manchester Square, Flexity 009 is seen turning at Foxhall

Elton John in concert at the open air arena in front of the Tower

Flexities 010, 011, 012 & 013 at North Pier at 20:30 on Saturday evening, while the concert was still under way

012 unloading passengers short of the platform at North Pier on Sunday, due to trams already occupying the stop

Flexities 008, 012 & 010 at North Pier on Sunday morning (the full tramway was only opened again in the afternoon)

By Monday all the seating had been removed, the stage was left for a John Barrowman concert the following weekend