I WAS incensed by the leaflet forced on me by a representative of the Northern Blue bus company as I was leaving Darwen market on Saturday.

This new company (November 27) claims the people of Darwen have been previously overcharged for their bus fares and that now it can offer a more realistic fare on the route from Darwen to Blackburn. They can only be implying that we are being overcharged by Blackburn Transport. What complete and utter twaddle!

As a regular user of Blackburn Transport, I have first-hand experience of the service they provide and they are nothing short of excellent.

We have a bus service from 5.30am to 11.30pm, which is extremely frequent. In fact, the service after 6pm is every 15 minutes and, between 9am and 6pm, every five minutes.

Blackburn Transport have purchased five brand-new buses, with access for wheelchairs and prams, at a cost, I am told, of £625,000. And I have been informed that 10 more are being delivered at the end of December.

Their dr-ivers are usually smartly turned out in their green uniforms and, while doing an extremely stressful job, always maintain their politeness with the passengers. Blackburn Transport are open 24 hours a day for telephone inquiries and also provide a manned office in Blackburn centre which is open from 6.40am to 11pm.

I have seen the new company in Darwen and while I applaud anyone starting out in a new venture, I cannot for the life of me think how they can accuse Blackburn Transport of overpricing, considering the quality of service they provide.

This new company has vehicles that look like they have been resurrected from the scrapyard while the un-uniformed drivers are not here in the early morning, late at night or on Sundays to assist us to arrive to our destination safely. I am not aware of any office that they provide and you can bet they don't have inspectors who can handle any queries. My weekly ticket costs £8, allows me seven days unlimited travel on all Blackburn Transport services, in any area of Darwen, Blackburn and Accrington. The leaflet by Northern Blue offers me a daily return, from Darwen to Blackburn only, for £1.40.

In comparison, the six journeys a week I make would cost me £8.40 per week with the new company.

All in all, if Blackburn Transport sold their fleet, sent back the new buses with disabled access, cancalled the other 10 new buses on order, purchased the kind of vehicles that Northern Blue provide, made their inspectors redundant, closed their town centre office, placed an answering machine on after 5pm, stopped issuing uniforms, stopped the early morning buses, stopped the evening service and all went home on Sundays, then I have no doubt that they could offer a weekly ticket for 50p.

Is this really what we want?

DAVID HELMN, Cobden Villas, Oldfield Avenue, Darwen.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.