East Lancashire buses to get evening services boost

Later and more frequent services to and from destinations including Blackburn, Padiham, Burnley, Rawtenstall and Haslingden will start on Sunday.

The extra buses are funded under Lancashire’s Bus Service Improvement Plan, for which Lancashire County Council has secured £41.9 million of funding to date.

It means passengers on these routes can take advantage of the £1 after 7pm single fare.

The services affected include Service 152 between Preston, Blackburn and Burnley.

The 152 bus service between Preston and Blackburn will be extended from its existing journeys at 10pm and 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays to Mondays to Thursdays.

The Friday and Saturday 8.28pm and 9.28pm buses from Burnley to Blackburn via Preston will be extended to Mondays to Thursdays.

Some further updates to timetables can be expected to improve reliability.

Service 481 between Rawtenstall and Blackburn will also be upgraded.

There will be enhanced evening service from Mondays to Saturdays on bus service 481 covering Rawtenstall, Haslingden and Blackburn.

Extra buses will run to Rawtenstall

The new services will run at 8.36pm and 10.06pm from Rawtenstall to Blackburn, at 11.36pm from Rawtenstall to Haslingden and at 9.47pm, 9.17pm and 10.47pm from Blackburn to Rawtenstall, with some timetable updates expected.

There will also be improvements to Service 483 between Rawtenstall and Burnley.

More evening buses will run on the 483 bus route - covering Rawtenstall, Water and Burnley - from Monday to Saturday.

The new journeys will start at 11.08pm from Rawtenstall to Burnley, and at 9.20pm and 10.20pm from Burnley to Rawtenstall, while several updates to the timetable are expected in future.

Cllr Rupert Swarbrick, Lancashire County Council's highways and transport boss, said: "Thanks to the funding we have secured from the Department for Transport for our Bus Service Improvement Plan, we're making some big improvements.

"One of our main aims is to encourage more people to use the bus by providing extra journeys at times that people find convenient.

"Later services are often helpful to people who use the bus to get to and from work, as well as being convenient for anyone going out for the evening or visiting friends and family.

"I'm also really pleased that more people have easy access to bus services, with more to come in September.

"We've been working closely with operators Transdev Rosso, Transdev's The Blackburn Bus Company and Vision Bus to build passenger numbers with the aim of making these services sustainable over the long term.

"This is a huge benefit as people can now travel on any bus in Lancashire for £1 for each journey, after 7pm, seven days a week and all day Sunday."