Red Express bus is leaving town
CHARLOTTE GREEN
APOPULAR ‘express’ commuter bus service is to cut its link between Accrington and Blackburn and will take longer after it was re-routed to service a new town.
From April 8 the X41 Red Express bus will divert from Haslingden and Helmshore to stop at Ramsbottom, but will be terminating the service at Accrington.
Operator Transdev said it will end its link from Manchester to Blackburn because they are seeing ‘very few people’ travelling along the entirety of the route and are struggling to compete with the enhanced rail link.
Jimmy Holden, who lives in Oswaldwtistle and travels to Manchester for his work as a university researcher, said he was concerned that people who had travelled on the earliest X41 would have to walk to Accrington as the 6 and 7 bus service did not run through the town until after 6.20am.
He said: “If I have to be in work really early I would have to go from Oswaldtwistle to Accrington without a bus. That would add about 20 minutes walk for me which is awkward, so I have had a look at getting the train but that would increase costs.”
Shaun Walmsley, General Manager for The Blackburn Bus Company, which is part of Transdev, said people wanting to travel on to Blackburn will now have make ‘one quick, easy change’ at Accrington and take the 6 and 7 service, which also calls at Oswaldtwistle, Accrington, Clayton-leMoors, Great Harwood and Rishton and is scheduled to run every seven minutes.
The company says the Red Express service, which runs every 30 minutes, will rejoin the M66 after calling at Ramsbottom but journey times are also expected to increase by an average of ten minutes to account for the diversion. Mr Walmsley said: “We are now seeing very few people travelling between Blackburn and Manchester, with most people using it along the section of route between Accrington and Manchester. The recently doubled rail service between Blackburn and Manchester is obviously an influence here and it is very difficult for us to compete with trains who have more certainty of a quicker journey time on this route.
“With this in mind, we’re focusing our efforts instead on improving the service between Accrington and Manchester, including the creation of a brand new link from Ramsbottom into the heart of the city.”