Going off the rails - Telegraph One of the most cheering sights in Blackpool is generally the tram that goes to Fleetwood. The travel, along the briny coast, is hopeful and the arrival better. But yesterday the tram came off the rails. That was after £100 million had been spent on new track and tramcars. The sand was blamed. It was the wrong kind. It blew into the tramlines. Men with brooms swept it out. It blew back. Fleetwood is that very English thing, a good idea treasured because it didn't work. The man who built the Crystal Palace designed the town to emulate Brighton and serve as a railhead for Scotland. All was hunky-dory until 1847, when a line was constructed via Carlisle, bypassing Fleetwood for ever. Tranquillity set in, and they consoled the remaining tourists by building a tramway to Blackpool in 1898. It carried on fine until yesterday. We wish it a speedy recovery.