Plans to expand Lancashire tram network considered

The trams are a familiar feature along Blackpool Promenade

A Lancashire tram network could be expanded by rejuvenating dormant railway lines.

Blackpool Tramway could be enlarged to form a loop, reaching the towns of Poulton le Fylde and Kirkham.

Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre councils are considering bidding for cash to support a £2m feasibility study into the plan.

It would use the bed of the disused railway line between south Fleetwood and Poulton le Fylde, and part of the current line to Preston in the south.

The plans have the support of Blackpool North MP Paul Maynard, while Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to re-open the Poulton to Fleetwood line as part of a £500m national campaign to restore closed down track, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The project would help make the region's towns more "accessible", a reporty said

The Blackpool Tramway currently runs from Starr Gate, on the Blackpool/Fylde border, to Fleetwood Ferry in Wyre.

An expansion to Blackpool North railway station is currently under development.

A report to the Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Economic Prosperity Board said a tramway loop would ensure the Fylde Coast's settlements are "better connected and more accessible to each other".

The councils are planning to submit bids to the Future High Street Fund by June.

The report stresses the feasibility study may or may not conclude that the plans are deliverable, and the project will be discussed on 7 January.