Wirral Tramway

Wirral Tramway

250px Two trams pass each other at Pacific Road.
Overview
Owner	Wirral Borough Council
Locale	Wirral
Transit type	Trams Light Rail
Number of lines	One
Number of stations	Woodside, Shore Road, Pacific Road, Wirral Metropolitan College, Egerton Bridge, Wirral Transport Museum.
Chief executive	Steve Maddox
Headquarters	Wirral Transport Museum
Operation
Began operation	1995
Operator(s)	Wirral Borough Council
Number of vehicles	Heritage Trams
Technical
System length	0.7 miles (1.1 km)
Track gauge	Standard
Average speed	12mph

Wirral Tramway is a heritage tramway opened in 1995 by the Wirral Borough Council and Hamilton Quarter partnership and was operated by Blackpool Transport Services until 2005 when the council took over the license to run the tramway. The Wirral Transport Museum and tramway were set up with the assistance of The Hamilton Quarter and various volunteer groups including Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society, 201 Bus Group and the Merseyside Bus Club. At present, the service operates on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, plus school holidays. In recent years Wirral Council have sought a new owner with the funds to develop the tramway further and talks are in progress with possible new owners. In the future, there may be extensions to the centre of Birkenhead, Seacombe, as well as certain railway stations.

Vehicles

The tramway operates two Hong Kong trams specially built for the tramway in 1992, although they run on standard gauge tracks of 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in) rather than the usual Hong Kong tram gauge of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm). They are numbered 69 and 70 to follow on from the numbering of the original 'Birkenhead Corporation Tramways, the numbers of which went up to No.68. These are run from the Wirral Transport Museum in Taylor Street.

As well as these, trams from the Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society (MTPS) are also used at various times. These are:

• Liverpool Corporation Tramways 'English Electric' Fully Enclosed 8-wheel Bogie car No.762;
• Birkenhead Corporation Tramways Open Top Milnes 4-wheel car No.20;
• Wallasey Corporation Tramways 'Bellamy' Brush 4-wheel car No.78;
• Lisbon (Carris) Single Deck 4-wheel car No.730; and
• Liverpool Corporation Tramways 'Baby Grand' 4-wheel car No.245 (Owned by Liverpool Museums and part of the National Collection), restored in 2014

Another tram in the process of being refurbished by the MTPS is the Warrington Corporation Tramways 4-wheel Milnes car No.2, which could be either a Canopy car or fully enclosed as a decision has not yet been made.

There are also two other trams at the museum:

• Birkenhead Horse car No.7 (in storage at present)
• Liverpool Horse tram No.43.

Both require new wheelsets, and are not, at present, capable of running on the tramway.

The museum also displays numerous other old vehicles including cars, buses, motorbikes, cycles, a large model railway, as well as various other static displays and information about old vehicles. The museum is run by very helpful paid and voluntary staff, who can provide much information about the exhibits. The museum is one of the most comprehensive transport museums in the country and connects directly to Woodside with the Wirral Tramway.