Blackburn Bus Company

This article is about the current Transdev subsidiary. For the historic Atherton based bus company, see Lancashire United Transport.

File:New lancashire United Logo.jpg
A Lancashire United Volvo B7L with Wright Eclipse bodywork in Darwen
Founded	15 April 2001
Headquarters	Manner Sutton Street, Blackburn (Head office: Prospect Park, Harrogate)
Service area	United Kingdom
Service type	Bus services
Destinations	Blackburn, Accrington, Clitheroe, Burnley, Haslingden, Preston, Skipton, Bolton, Manchester, Chorley.
Fleet	Approx. 140 buses
Operator	Blazefield Group
Chief executive	Russell Revill, Managing Director
Website	www.lancashirebus.co.uk

A Lancashire United Volvo B7TL (Plaxton President) at Accrington.

File:Transdev Lancashire United logo.png

The first logo under Transdev ownership.

Transdev Lancashire United is an English bus operator, running mainly in and around the boroughs of Blackburn, Hyndburn and the Ribble Valley. The company was founded in April 2001 following the buyout of Stagecoach Ribble by Blazefield Holdings and has since overcome other operators. Since 2006 Lancashire United Ltd has been a subsidiary of the global Transdev Group.

History

In 2001, Stagecoach sold its former Ribble operations in Blackburn, Hyndburn, Clitheroe and Bolton to the Blazefield Group after a series of reasonably high-profile industrial disputes. The resultant company was named Lancashire United for buses operating in the Ribble Valley, Hyndburn, Bolton and Blackburn and a separate operating company, Burnley & Pendle Travel was set up to operate buses in that area (see Burnley & Pendle). Investment commenced in new vehicles almost immediately, with over 30 brand new single-decker buses arriving in September of that year, displacing Stagecoach's much older models.

A number of service revisions followed with many marginal services withdrawn and a number of school contracts were terminated. Much of this work, mainly contracted to Lancashire County Council, was picked up by Northern Blue. A focus was then made on developing high quality trunk routes, namely the 152, 225 & Hyndburn Circulars. Also later the X1.

Later, in 2002, the Bolton garage was sold on to independent operator Blue Bus run by Roger Jarvis, who eventually sold out to Arriva in 2005. The contracted services in the Clitheroe area were given up and the garage was sold to a housing developer. Most of the Clitheroe contracted work passed into the hands of the Northern Blue bus company. The Blazefield Group became part of the multi-national transport Transdev group in 2006. The Clitheroe services were operated by LUL for a second time through the Northern Blue takeover, however these passed out of LUL's service profile in June 2008. The original Blackburn garage acquired from Ribble remains in use.

From 26 March 2011 the Manor Sutton Street fleet gradually transferred into the former Blackburn Transport depot at Intack, although the depot remained open for fleet refurbishments and repaints, the former tram sheds at Intack are currently being demolished and the site will be resurfaced to accommodate the extra fleet transferred from the Mannor Sutton St site, Blackburn with Darwen Borough council purchased the land in March 2011 and it is currently being leased back to Transdev until their new Intack Station is completed. As of 28 August 2011 operations at Mannor Sutton St have now ceased and the entire fleet are now based at the Intack depot, on 28 August 2011 an event was held at the Mannor Sutton St depot to mark the end after 83 years.

Acquisitions

• Blackburn Transport

On 22 January 2007, Lancashire United acquired the business of Blackburn Transport from Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, a move that was anticipated for months. The company stated that all drivers from Blackburn Transport would remain, as would all fare deals and passes. The buyout increased Lancashire United's fleet size by over 130 buses.

• Northern Blue/Accrington Transport

On 5 August 2007, Blazefield acquired the businesses of Northern Blue of Burnley and Accrington Transport, the company inherited a further batch of 65 buses to their fleet. Transdev Accrington Transport moved to Lancashire United's depot at Intack. On 16 March 2008, Lancashire United took over the Accrington local bus network from Accrington Transport.

Routes

Spot On

Following the acquisition of Blackburn Transport, both its services and Lancashire United's Hyndburn Circular routes were combined and branded as 'Spot On', the service was launched on 14 May 2007 with a fleet of 25 brand new single deck buses. .

As of 6 November 2011

Number	Route	Notes
1	Darwen Cemetery - Darwen - Ewood - Blackburn - Intack - West End - Church - Accrington	Some journeys terminate at Blackburn. Runs combined service from Blackburn to Darwen with service 225 and to Accrington with service X41
2	Blackburn - Blackburn Royal Hospital - Newfield Drive - Chapels - Pole Lane - Darwen
3	Blackburn - Bank Top - Mill Hill - Green Lane - Feniscowles
4	Blackburn - Bank Top - Mill Hill - Kings Road - Leyburn Road - Moorgate Street (Circular)
6/7	Blackburn - Rishton - Great Harwood - Harwood Bar - Clayton-le-Moors - Accrington - Oswaldtwistle - West End (6) - Knuzden (7) - Intack - Blackburn
9/9A	Blackburn - Granville Road - Revidge - Earl Street - Blackburn (Circular)
12	Blackburn Town Centre - Higher Croft - Newfield Drive	Main day time service
12A	Blackburn - Higher Croft - Newfield Drive - Royal Blackburn Hospital	Certain Evening Journeys
12C	Blackburn - Royal Blackburn Hospital - Newfield Drive - Higher Croft	Certain morning and evening journeys
14	Blackburn - Little Harwood - Sunnybower
17/17A	Blackburn - Blackburn Royal Hospital - Shadsworth	17A runs evenings and Sundays only
18	Blackburn - Audley Range - Shadsworth (Dunoon Dr/Fecitt Brow)- Oswaldtwistle - Accrington - Great Harwood	Shadsworth-Great Harwood section runs weekdays only

Interurban routes

The company operates interurban routes to Bolton, Clitheroe, Chorley, Burnley, Preston & Skipton & its separately marketed, high quality services into Manchester branded as The Lancashire Way. On 2 April 2011 Transdev lost the contract to Routes C1 and 241.

From 6 November 2011

Number	Route	Notes
124	Blackburn - Feniscowles - Abbey Village - Brinscall - Great Knowley - Chorley	Monday to Saturday daytimes only.
152	Preston - Hoghton - Feniscowles - Blackburn - Rishton - Clayton-Le-Moors - Padiham - Burnley
225	Bolton - Darwen - Blackburn - Wilpshire - Langho - Whalley - Clitheroe	Most journeys terminate at Blackburn. Some terminate at Darwen. Runs combined service from Blackburn to Darwen with service 1
231	Accrington - Clayton-Le-Moors - Great Harwood - Whalley - Clitheroe	Saturdays only
280/X80	Preston - Mellor - Whalley - Clitheroe - Gisburn - Barnoldswick (280) - Thornton-in-Craven (280) - West Marton (X80) - Skipton

The Lancashire Way

Number	Route	Notes
X40	Whalley - Great Harwood - Accrington - Haslingden - Prestwich - Manchester	Weekdays only
X41	Great Harwood/Blackburn - Accrington - Haslingden - Helmshore - Prestwich - Manchester	Buses run to/from Great Harwood at peak times only. Other journeys run to/from Blackburn. One evening journey runs via Rawtenstall. Runs combined service from Blackburn to Accrington with service 1

Other town services

From 15 August 2010

The Outer Circle

The Blackburn Outer Circle is a circular service that connects schools, hospitals, and leisure opportunities around the edge of the town. It was started by Blackburn Borough Transport in 1980 as the 50 (clockwise) and the 51 (anticlockwise). The Transport Department did not register the service for commercial operation, and after deregulation, it became one of several routes in the area won by GM buses on a nil tender basis. GM buses found out that these services were not as profitable as they had imagined and pulled out of the area entirely, on 26 January 1987 the route was returned to Blackburn Transport, who re-instated Leyland Atlanteans double-deckers to operate the service. At the next round of tenders, the services passed to Ribble, who operated it using Leyland Olympians from Preston's Frenchwood garage, The route again reverted to Blackburn Transport using Optare Metroriders, the route was then renumbered as Track 5 with an A or C suffix denoting direction of travel.

In March 2006 the route became The OC and used Volvo Olympians which received a purple and orange livery with route branding, the vehicles and branding were retained on takeover by Lancashire united.

Number	Route	Notes
5A/5C	Intack - Shadsworth - Hospital - Higher Croft - Ewood - Mill Hill - Revidge - Little Harwood - Greenbank - Intack	Runs on Monday to Friday peak times and on Saturday and Sunday.

Blackburn contract services

Number	Route	Notes
39	Blackburn - Pleasington Cemetery	Infrequent service
314	Darwen - Blackburn - Little Harwood - Whitebirk Ind estate	Infrequent service

Past Services

Hyndburn Circular

This was a circular service that connected Blackburn with the towns of Rishton, Clayton-le-Moors, Great Harwood, Oswaldtwistle and Accrington in the district of Hyndburn, the service was taken over from Stagecoach Ribble's Blackburn depot in 2001 and shortly after a brand new fleet were purchased and carried branding for this service, as of May 2007 the service is now part of the Spot On network.

The X1

The X1 was a semi-express route linking Clitheroe, Whalley and Accrington with Manchester. The route was for a time operated by a fleet of route branded Volvo Olympians and won a number of awards. The X1 and associated X2 were replaced with the X40/X41 service running between Blackburn, Accrington & Manchester. Route 241 was created for passengers between Clitheroe and Accrington, however this route has since passed in and out of the company's control a number of times. A very limited number of journey's still commence at Whalley or Great Harwood.

The Whalley Ranger

This service was introduced in late 2009 following customer requests after two years of the Whalley Range area being unserved by bus, the route used specially branded buses and operated every 10 minutes with a flat single fare of £1, on 14 June 2010 the service was extended to serve Openshaw Drive to replace Spot On route 24, with the frequency reduced to every 15 minutes and period tickets became valid.

It was announced on 16 November 2010 that this service was to be withdrawn due to low patronage, the last service operated on 24 December 2010.

Boxing Day and New Year's Day services

On both Boxing Day and New Years Day 2010 bus services in Blackburn and Darwen returned to operation after a three-year gap, with financial support from Blackburn With Darwen Borough Council, special reduced single fares were also introduced.

Number	Route	Notes
1	Intack - Blackburn - Darwen
3	Blackburn - Mill Hill - Green Lane - Feniscowles	Continued as Route 124 from Feniscowles Star Drive
9B	Blackburn - Lammack - Revidge - Blackburn
12A/12C	Blackburn - Newfield Drive - Blackburn Royal Hospital
17B	Blackburn - Shadsworth - Blackburn Royal Hospital
25	Blackburn - Emerald Avenue - Wilpshire
124	Blackburn - Cherry Tree - Feniscowles	Continued as Spot On 3 from Feniscowles Star Drive

Fares

The company sell a wide range of tickets besides single and return fares, from day, 7 day and annual travel tickets, which can be purchased on the bus, or from an information office in Blackburn town centre. From 9 July 2010 passengers are able to purchase period and 12 journey tickets online.

Ticket Types

Spot On Tickets

Allows one day or seven days unlimited travel within the Blackburn & Darwen and Hyndburn areas.

Spot On Hyndburn

Allows one day or seven days unlimited travel within the Hyndburn area.

Silver card (formerly Spot On plus)

Allows one, seven days or a months unlimited travel as far as Preston, Bolton, Clitheroe, Keighley, Skipton and Rawtenstall.

Gold tickets

These tickets are valid on any Burnley & Pendle and Lancashire United service, tickets valid for 1 month, 6 months or a whole year are issued as Gold cards whilst a day ticket is issued as a Day Gold.

12 Journey Tickets

These tickets allow 12 single journeys for a month on any Lancashire United or Burnley and Pendle bus Within the Spot On, Silver and Gold zones.

Ribble Valley Day Ranger

For travel within the Ribble Valley area, and to many places beyond as well. Tickets are valid on bus services run by most bus companies.

Fleet

Fleet history

A Leyland Olympian bus, bodied by ECW in Lancashire United's school bus livery in Darwen

When Lancashire United took over Stagecoach Ribble in April 2001, the fleet was predominantly made up of aging buses. These included double-decker models such as Leyland Atlanteans and Bristol VRs and single-decker models such as Leyland Lynxes and Leyland Nationals. The new company also inherited a couple of Mini Pointer Darts and Mercedes minibuses with the Clitheroe depot. Not all of these vehicles were repainted into LUL blue and cream, many just had LUL logos covering the Stagecoach ones retaining their distinctive striped livery. By September 2001, most of these had been replaced by more modern Leyland Olympians, more Leyland Lynxes and some brand new Volvo B10BLEs, bodied by Wrightbus. Over 30 of these were purchased, and are still providing quality low floor service today. They were the company's first buses bought new to them.

Whilst the Leyland Olympians and Volvo B10BLEs remained with the company for years, other models were bought and sold, mainly middle aged versions at the time. Included were Dennis Darts, Volvo Olympians and some other Volvo single-deckers, many cascaded from Blazefield's other operations in Yorkshire.

During 2006 the company had five Volvo B7TL/Plaxton President buses, however one of these buses was badly damaged after a fatal accident in 2006 on the M66 and has now been repaired and transferred to fellow Transdev Blazefield company Harrogate & District. Therefore LUL had only four of these currently in the fleet, In summer 2008 two additional Volvo B7TL/Plaxton Presidents were transferred in from Yorkshire Coastliner, with an additional Wright-bodied double decker in Lancashire Way livery.

New bus orders

In 2007, now under Transdev ownership, Lancashire United gained a batch of 25 Wrightbus-bodied Volvo single-deckers, these were painted in a white and sandy gold livery, with purple Spot On brandings for routes 6 & 7 and a deeper shade of purple for route 1. Altogether, they cost £3,750,000. These were originally destined for Burnley & Pendle, but due to the acquisition of Blackburn Transport they were diverted to Lancashire United.

In early 2008 Lancashire United gained a second batch of brand new buses in the form of 6 Optare Versas for Spot On routes 18, 19, 22 and 22A serving the Mill Hill, Leyburn Road and Feniscowles areas of Blackburn, these were the newest Optares in Blackburn since the Optare MetroRiders were purchased by Blackburn Transport in 1998, however following overhaul of services in Blackburn these buses have now been transferred to Transdev Yorkshire operating on routes between Leeds, Tadcaster, York and Heworth.

In May 2010 two demonstrator buses were trialled on Route 225, one was an Optare Tempo and the other was a Wrightbus Eclipse 2, the company purchased eight Optare Tempo single deck buses and entered service on this route on 26 September, these are the first Optare Tempos in any Blazefield group.

Current fleet

This is a detailed list of the buses operated by Lancashire United (some of which were inherited from Blackburn Transport and Accrington Transport/Northern Blue).

Type	Body	Image	Number		Notes
Single deck vehicles
Dennis Dart	Plaxton/Transbus MPD		9		These buses wear Spot On brandings and operate many local services around Blackburn, Darwen & Accrington. Route 241 was operated by 2 of these up until the contract was awarded to another operator in April 2011.
Dennis Dart	Plaxton/Transbus SPD		1		This Training vehicle wears the Eclipse Driver Training livery.
Optare Tempo	Optare		8		These buses operate on Route 225; they feature leather seats and wear the new style of the Lancashire United livery.
Volvo B7RLE	Wright Eclipse Urban		22		The majority of these wear Spot On livery
Volvo B7L	Wright Eclipse		2		These ex-Volvo demonstrators spent a number of years with Burnley & Pendle on town services, before being used on 'The Mainline'. They were then transferred to Lancashire United, and wear the Spot On livery.
Volvo B10BLE	Wright Renown		30		Some of these still retain the blue and cream LU livery, some wear the new 152 branding, while one wears The Lancashire Way livery. The rest carry the Spot On livery.
Total (single deck)			72
Double deck vehicles
Leyland Olympian	Leyland		3
Leyland Olympian	ECW		15		One of these is painted in the traditional blue and cream livery, while some carry the all-yellow school bus colours and others are still in obsolete Blackburn Transport livery. Can be seen operating on Blackburn local services as well as school runs.
Leyland Olympian	Northern Counties		2
Volvo Olympian	Alexander RH		1		This ex-Transdev York bus wears the traditional blue and cream livery but without the rear swoop.
Volvo Olympian	Northern Counties		3		These still retain the former Blackburn Transport livery, two of which still retain the Blackburn Outer Circle livery.
Volvo B7TL	Plaxton President		9		Five are in The Lancashire Way livery, four wear the Spot On livery, one wears the traditional blue and cream lancashire united livery.
Volvo B7TL	Wright Gemini		3		These 3 buses are being transferred from Transdev Coastliner and will wear the new Lancashire United livery. One of these has received The Lancashire Way branding .
Total (double deck)			36

Current & Former Depots

Intack, Whitebirk road: Former Blackburn Transport.
Manner Sutton Street: Former Stagecoach Ribble depot, all buses transferred to Intack in Summer 2011.

Liveries

A Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TL in Lancashire Way livery

Lancashire United's original livery was a predominant cream with blue and red stripes with a swoop towards the back and a black skirt in standard Blazefield style, many buses in this livery carried route brandings such as Route 152, 225 and the Hyndburn Circular, in recent years the vehicles started to receive various new liveries, the majority of Lancashire United's buses can now be recognized in a wide variety of liveries.

As of September 2010 following the introduction of the new eight Optare Tempos, the interurban fleet is now being standardized into the new Lancashire United livery of blue and cream with most buses receiving route brandings, whilst the spot on fleet are now starting to receive a new Spot On livery

• Lancashire United - This new style livery consists of cream and blue with a distinctive red rose swooping up along the curve, the livery also carries a new Lancashire United logo, The new Optare Tempos are the first to carry this livery with route branding for Route 225, the interurban fleet is now being standardized into this livery and will carry route brandings.

• Spot On - Predominantly white, with sandy brown skirts and wear Spot On branding, the livery features lifestyle pictures of passengers advertising attractive features of the service on the back of the buses. They originally carried varying colours of each route they operate, however since the overhaul of services in February 2009 most of the Spot on branded buses had their coloured route brandings removed, As of August 2011 new version of this livery is now being applied to the buses.

• School buses - Older double-decker buses used on school and college services carry an all-yellow livery scheme.

• Eclipse Driver Training - Predominantly white with blue and yellow stripes.

• Obsolete liveries - A small number of double-deckers inherited from the now defunct Blackburn Transport still retain the old two-tone green & cream livery and the green and yellow Schools+ livery while two still wear the purple and orange Outer Circle livery, the colour-scheme is now gradually disappearing.

• • Urban Cool - This was a new school livery for Lancashire, however, due to funding problems, they scrapped the idea, and have stuck with yellow double deckers.

• • The Whalley Ranger - This consisted of a predominant white, orange skirt and branding.

• • The Ribble Valley Express -This livery consisted of a predominantly white with a large crimson circle with route listing below the windows and Ribble Valley Express logo above the skirt, this livery is being replaced by the new Lancashire United livery.

• • The Lancashire Way - In Similar style to Burnley & Pendles The Witch Way* but with a distinctive red Lancashire rose and white stripes rather than silver, Each bus running The Lancashire Way is named, this is now being replaced by the standard Lancashire United livery with The Lancashire Way branding.

Awards and honours

• In 2004 Lancashire United were winners of the Marketing Award for Local Authorities and Joint Projects at the prestigious Bus Industry Awards held in London, for their joint work with Lancashire County Council in promoting route X1-X2 to Manchester. Parts of the route have since been upgraded and branded The Lancashire Way as services X40/X41. Clitheroe is no longer served and Whalley only served at peak times, a far cry from the hourly service to Manchester before.

• Lancashire United's The Lancashire Way route was shortlisted at the 2007 Manchester Tourism Awards at Hilton Deansgate Hotel. They were entered into the Tourism Transport Provider of the Year category at the event by the judges.

• In late 2008 Lancashire united were nominated in three categories for the prestigious UK Awards. The categories nominated are:
  * Shire operator of the year, with the winner from this category put forward for UK Operator of the year.
  * Express Operator of the year, for The Lancashire Way X40/X41 service to Manchester.
  * Bus Marketing Campaign of the year, for the Spot On Services in and around Blackburn.

See also

• Blackburn Transport
• Burnley & Pendle
• Harrogate & District
• Keighley & District
• Yorkshire Coastliner
• Northern Blue
• List of bus operators of the United Kingdom

External links

• Transdev Lancashire website
• Transdev website