COUNCIL bosses today announced plans to revamp a £100,000 electronic timetable which has been confusing bus passengers for three years and admitted: "It's never worked."

In February 1998, Lancashire County Council launched the Real Time Information System on Blackburn Bus Station.

Beacons were placed around Blackburn and Darwen to alert a central computer system to delays so messages could be relayed to passengers waiting at the Boulevard.

However, more than three years on, the system has not worked once.

Instead of telling passengers when the next bus is due, electronic signs either tell them to look at the bus timetable or inform them the service is provided by Lancashire County Council.

Borough council chiefs -- who took control of the ill-fated system just three months after it was installed -- are looking for a new system.

County Hall bosses today claimed the system was merely experimental -- but Blackburn councillors questioned why such a new project was launched in Blackburn just months before the town gained unitary status. Blackburn council bosses today pledged to look at a new system as part of the regeneration of Blackburn bus station, saying that they should be able to implement much more advanced projects for a fraction of the cost of the 1998 project.

Neither council would reveal the name of the company which provided the system.

But Lib Dem leader Coun Paul Browne said: "It comes as no surprise that we have ended up with this situation thanks to county council.

"If it was such a great system that the county was keen on, why did they put it in Blackburn just months before we became a unitary authority? "They messed up the roads in Darwen town centre at that time, too. We have been left with a bus timetable system which does not work while other people have benefited from our misfortune.

"The controlling group here should have made sure we didn't leave this test machine doing nothing for so long. Three years is ridiculous."

Conservative councillor Edward Critchley added: "It has made our bus station a laughing stock at a time when we are supposed to be promoting bus travel as reliable.

"Lancashire County Council wasted £100,000 on a scheme which wasn't guaranteed to work and Blackburn with Darwen Council has let this white elephant sit in the town centre for three years."

Councillor Ashley Whalley, Executive Member for Regeneration, said: "The Real Time Information System was introduced by Lancashire County Council and was an experimental system that suffered from complex technical problems that led to the contract with the service provider being ended by mutual consent.

"In the meantime, there have been advances in technology that means Blackburn with Darwen may be able to introduce an efficient real time information system for bus users in the next few months.

"We are working with bus companies to try and develop a new system using the existing equipment and new advances in technology that will be up and running in the near future."

A Blackburn with Darwen spokesman added they thought they could implement a similar scheme for one eighth of the 1998 cost, thanks to advances in technology.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said various councils across the country had suffered problems with the first version of the Real Time system, including ones in Surrey, London, Tyne and Wear and Scotland.

Cities like Birmingham, Coventry and London now use real time systems similar to those used by airports which use more simple systems to report delays, simply stating what time services will arrive rather than how late they are.

A spokesman said: "This was an experimental demonstration project which received around £100,000 from the Government.

"A lot valuable of lessons were learnt from the project, which have helped aid the development of much more efficient real-time information systems, even though this one never worked properly.

"The purpose of demonstration projects is to try out new methods and new technology. Developing technology is only possible with research and trials.

"In 1998 the task of providing real-time information meant inputting a vast amount of data but as a result of research like this more efficient systems have been developed.

"There were many problems which resulted in the system being stopped."

"Real-time passenger information systems track buses and this is invaluable if buses are held up anywhere. Conventional timetables only say when a bus should be there.

"We have learnt many lessons from this system and new technology means that problems can be overcome with new systems."