Pledge to Get Fire Tram Back on Track

A LIVERPOOL engineering firm has vowed to bounce back from a devastating blaze that destroyed its prototype supertram.

Tram Power, based on Gill moss Industrial Estate, designed the tram which was undergoing trials in Blackpool.

Its makers hope it will replace Blackpool’s current ageing fleet and the resort’s council has allowed the tram to run on seafront tracks to assess its performance.

But last week the supertram was engulfed in a blaze believed to have been started by an electrical fault.

Tram Power chief Prof Lewis Lesley said: “We’re now working on plans to repair it and bring it back to Blackpool. The fire was caused by a small electrical fault which a small modification will eradicate.”

He hopes the new tram could be running by June.

Transport expert Prof Lesley was dismissed by Liverpool John Moores University in 2003 after a disciplinary hearing into claims of gross misconduct linked to his criticism of transport authority Merseytravel’s own plans for a tram system.

Colleagues passed a vote of no-confidence in the university’s governing body over the dismissal.

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