IT'S 1929 and passenger transport in Blackburn is about to turn into the modern age.

For Blackburn Corporation took delivery of its first buses - 12 of them - and all made by Leyland.

Six 30 seat, single deck Leyland Tigers and six double-deck Leyland Tigers, with space for 48 seated passengers, had been purchased at a cost of more than £18,000.

This photograph, from our archives, shows eight of them lined up outside the town hall, ready for an inspection by council officers and members of the transport committee.

It was a Wednesday, so the outdoor market was in full swing and the new buses caused much interest among shoppers and passersby, too.

Regular bus services for townsfolk got under way two weeks later, on six routes and these dozen buses ran for nearly 20 years - the corporation did add more and more vehicles to the fleet during that time - being taken off the road in 1948.

It was also time to say goodbye to the trams. For 20 years, buses and trams had run side by side across the town, till finally it was only the combustion engine which powered the town's transport services.