A popular ‘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 the X41 Red Express bus will divert from Haslingden and Helmshore to stop at Ramsbottom, which currently has no public transport linking it to Manchester.

However, operator Transdev has also announced it will be terminating the service at Accrington and 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.

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-le-Moors, 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 have looked closely at what people use Red Express for, and why. 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.”

Bury North MP James Frith had met with bus bosses to ask for Ramsbottom’s inclusion in the service. He said he was ‘delighted’ that the bus will now be re-routed, adding it gives residents a ‘fast, regular service into Manchester and up into Lancashire’.

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