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Mainline liveried Optare Versa at Showbus 2017, Donington Park Circuit
Parent	Transdev Blazefield
Founded	1933
Headquarters	Burnley
Service area	Burnley Pendle
Service type	Bus services
Routes	14 (June 2018)
Hubs	Burnley Accrington Manchester Nelson Colne Clitheroe Keighley
Depots	Queensgate
Fleet	78 (June 2018)
Website	www.lancashirebus.co.uk

The Burnley Bus Company is a bus operator running services in the boroughs of Burnley and Pendle, and into the surrounding areas including Accrington, Keighley and Manchester. It is a subsidiary of Transdev Blazefield.

History

Alexander RL bodied Leyland Olympian in Burnley in June 2012

Witch Way liveried Wright Eclipse Gemini in Manchester in 2013

Old Mainline liveried Wright Eclipse bodied Volvo B7RLE

The Burnley, Colne & Nelson Joint Transport Committee was established in 1933 to merge the three municipal tramway and bus operations of those towns. The tramway network was progressively being abandoned with the last closing in May 1935. In 1974 as part of the local government reorganisation Colne and Nelson boroughs were amalgamated to form Pendle and thus the transport operation became the Burnley & Pendle Joint Transport Committee.

To comply with the Transport Act 1985, in 1986 the assets were transferred to a new legal entity and the operation rebranded Burnley & Pendle Transport Company. Deregulation opened Burnley & Pendle's routes to competition from other operators, with Blackburn Transport, Tyrer Tours and Victoria Coaches establishing competing services. To stave off the competition five AEC Routemasters were purchased with each named after a character from the television series EastEnders. Deregulation also saw many Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive services contracted out. Burnley & Pendle successfully tendered a number of routes with their sphere of operation extending to Blackburn, Bury, Manchester, Preston, Rawtenstall, Rochdale and Skipton.

In April 1996 Pendle Council sold its share to Stagecoach North West. Burnley Council was livid, and stated strongly it would never sell its share. Stagecoach put up a multi-million pound investment plan for Burnley and Pendle, but Burnley Council could not meet its share unless it cut other council services. In March 1997 it reversed its policy and sold out to Stagecoach.

Initially branded Stagecoach Burnley & Pendle in May 2000 it was incorporated into the Stagecoach Ribble business. In 1997 Stagecoach purchased 10 Volvo B10Ms and 10 Volvo Olympians to upgrade the run down fleet.

In April 2001 Stagecoach sold its East Lancashire operations to the Blazefield Travel. Soon after the business was split in two. What had been Burnley & Pendle once again became Burnley & Pendle while the former Ribble Motor Services became Lancashire United. Before the sale many of the newer buses were transferred to other Stagecoach subsidiaries being replaced by Dennis Javelins, Leyland Atlanteans and Leyland Lynxs. Blazefield Travel purchased 15 Volvo B7TLs and 25 Volvo B10BLEs to commence a fleet renewal program.

In January 2006 Burnley & Pendle was included in the sale of Blazefield Travel to Transdev. Burnley & Pendle was rebranded as Transdev in Burnley & Pendle.

In January 2007 Blackburn Transport was purchased followed in August 2007 by Accrington Transport and Northern Blue of Burnley with 65 buses. In September 2009 Transdev Northern Blue was integrated into Transdev Burnley & Pendle.

In July 2017 the business was again rebranded as The Burnley Bus Company.

Services

As at June 2018 Transdev in Burnley & Pendle operate 14 routes (excluding school services).

The company operates bus services towards Accrington, Bury, Clitheroe, Colne, Keighley, Manchester, Nelson, Padiham, Rawtenstall and Skipton from its Burnley base. Connections to Preston are available from The Burnley Bus Company's sister company, The Blackburn Bus Company, on service 152. In 2004 the company introduced the high quality route The Witch Way, which is separately marketed.

Since Blazefield's acquisition of Blackburn Transport, Northern Blue and Accrington Transport, some routes formerly run by these companies have been taken over by Burnley & Pendle Travel. These include several Blackburn Transport school services and all of Northern Blue's operations.

Table Showing Current Bus Routes (Excluding School Services)

Brand	Route Number	Termini		Via	Typical Daytime Frequency	Allocated Buses
The Burnley Bus Company	1	Burnley	Stoops Estate	Woodcourt Avenue	Mon-Sat: 20 mins Sun: 30 mins	Optare Versa V1100 Volvo B10BLE Wright Renown TransBus Dart SLF Mini Pointer 2 Dennis Trident 2 Plaxton President
	2	Burnley	Higherford	Browhead, Burnley General Hospital, Marsden Cross, Nelson and Barrowford	Mon-Sat: 30 mins Sun: 60 mins
	3	Burnley	Pike Hill	Turf Moor and Brownhill	Mon-Sat: 30 mins Sun: 60 mins
	4	Burnley	Worsthorne	Turf Moor and Pike Hill	Mon-Sat: 30 mins No Sun Service
	5	Harle Syke	Rosegrove	Burnley General Hospital, Burnley, Accrington Road and Rosegrove Lane	Mon-Sat: 20 mins Sun: 60 mins
	9	Burnley	Accrington	Rosegrove, Network 65 Business Park and Hapton	Mon-Sat: 60 mins No Sun Service
Mainline	M1	Padiham	Barnoldswick	Burnley, Nelson and Colne Some buses serve Altham Business Park and Silentnight.	Mon-Sat: 30 mins Sun: 60 mins	Optare Versa V1170
	M2	Clitheroe	Colne	Whalley, Padiham, Burnley and Nelson Some buses serve Clitheroe Royal Grammar School.	Mon-Sun: 30 mins
	M3	Accrington	Trawden	Padiham, Burnley, Nelson and Colne	Mon-Sat: 30 mins Sun: 60 mins
	M4	Burnley	Keighley	Nelson, Colne, Cowling and Airedale General Hospital	Mon-Sat: 30 mins Sun: 30 mins Burnley - Colne, 60 mins Colne - Keighley
The Witch Way	X43	Manchester	Skipton	Prestwich, Rawtenstall, Burnley, Colne and Barnoldswick Some buses run fast during peak hours stopping at only key stops between Burnley and Manchester. Some buses serve Queensgate Depot, Nelson and Nelson & Colne College. Skipton services extended to Grassington on Sundays.	Mon-Sat: 15 mins Manchester - Burnley, 30 mins Burnley - Skipton Sun: 30 mins Manchester - Burnley, 60 mins Burnley - Grassington	Volvo B7TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 1 Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2
Vamooz	V1	Padiham	Boohoo	Rosegrove, Burnley and Burnley General Hospital	5 journeys a day (2 to, 3 from Boohoo)	Volvo B7TL Plaxton President
	V3	Colne	Boohoo	Nelson, Brierfield and Burnley General Hospital	5 journeys a day (2 to, 3 from Boohoo)

Fleet

As at October 2013 the fleet consists of 97 buses.

Liveries

Burnley & Pendle's buses were originally painted in a red and cream livery although can now be seen in a wide variety of liveries.

These include:

• The Burnley Bus Company - This new two-tone orange livery is slowly being phased in in place of the former Burnley Connect livery operating local services in and around Burnley.
• Burnley Connect - This livery replaced the phased out Starship branding, providing local services in and around Burnley.
• Cityzap - Red and silver livery with Cityzap branding based on the original Cityzap between Leeds and York.
• Mainline - Two-tone orange livery similar to The Burnley Bus Company colours however with Mainline branding operating services from Burnley to other places such as Padiham, Nelson and Colne.
• The Witch Way - Black with red silver stripes and a distinctive silhouette of a Pendle Witch on each side, each bus is named after a Pendle Witch, with the 15th bus being named after the judge who sent many of them to the gallows.
• Vamooz - Livery used on Vamooz services and branded accordingly. Usage includes on routes V1 and V3 as well as some one off trips and school services booked through the Vamooz app.
• Eclipse Driver Training - White with blue and yellow stripes.

See also

• List of bus operators of the United Kingdom

Further reading

• Catlow, A (November 1985). Burnley, Colne and Nelson. Curwen Institute. ISBN 978-0907941194.

External links

• Company website