A LONG WAY TO GO FOR A PAIR OF TROUSERS...
1 October 2022
Above: Blackburn Bus Company 2766 (BF63 HCE) on the Preston Old Road just east of Feniscowles, working Hotline route 152 from Burnley to Preston. All photos in this article were taken on Wednesday 21st September 2022.
I have a large waistline. It makes buying trousers in shops difficult. “Why don’t you try our website” is the usual advice I get from shop workers, apologetic that they don’t stock anything larger than a 36” in store. But you can’t try trousers on over the internet (not yet anyway – I’m sure someone is working on that right now).
There’s a little shop in Fleetwood, in Lancashire, that I used to call in from time-to-time when I was staying in Blackpool, and they usually had some decent stock in my size. So, whilst staying in Manchester, I decide to take a trip to this shop and work in a bus ride back.
It’s too far to get all the way there and back by bus in a day, so I decide to take a train one way, with the intention of returning to Manchester exclusively by bus. So I’ve arrived in Layton, just outside Blackpool – a suitable railhead from which to get to Fleetwood.
The bus stop flag here is in some disrepair, with one side showing routes 6 and 14 and the other just referring to a 42. A good clean timetable display confirms that all three of these services do stop here. I ponder on a ride on the 42 (Blackpool to Lancaster) one day, as it sounds interesting!
I have a large waistline. It makes buying trousers in shops difficult. “Why don’t you try our website” is the usual advice I get from shop workers, apologetic that they don’t stock anything larger than a 36” in store. But you can’t try trousers on over the internet (not yet anyway – I’m sure someone is working on that right now).
There’s a little shop in Fleetwood, in Lancashire, that I used to call in from time-to-time when I was staying in Blackpool, and they usually had some decent stock in my size. So, whilst staying in Manchester, I decide to take a trip to this shop and work in a bus ride back.
It’s too far to get all the way there and back by bus in a day, so I decide to take a train one way, with the intention of returning to Manchester exclusively by bus. So I’ve arrived in Layton, just outside Blackpool – a suitable railhead from which to get to Fleetwood.
The bus stop flag here is in some disrepair, with one side showing routes 6 and 14 and the other just referring to a 42. A good clean timetable display confirms that all three of these services do stop here. I ponder on a ride on the 42 (Blackpool to Lancaster) one day, as it sounds interesting!
I’m starting on Blackpool Transport service 14 to Fleetwood. It’s a frequent service using modern ADL E400 City vehicles in the unusual grey and yellow “Palladium” livery. You wouldn’t think that a grey livery would work, but it does!
Blackpool Transport 440 (SN67 WZE), an AD E400 City, is caught at Westwood, Beach Road, Fleetwood on its way to Blackpool
Blackpool Transport accepts contactless payments using Tap-On, Tap-Off (TOTO), so I tap on and take my seat upstairs for the circa 45-minute journey into Fleetwood. Quite quickly we reach the Blackpool Sixth Form College, which has a Smoking Area marked out!
There are next stop audio announcements, but each one is preceded by a four-note chord – for example: "do, me, sol, do ... Next Stop, Meadow Crescent”. This starts to jar quite quickly, especially as supplementary announcements are also being made.
To be fair, some of those announcements are justified – there’s one about a fares change at the weekend, and another warning that some stops in Blackpool Town Centre will be affected by the Illuminations season arrangements. But there are also “Don’t forget to touch out” and “no smoking” messages, so it’s a relatively noisy journey!
Marsh Mill in Thornton-Cleveleys is a Grade II* listed tower mill, standing over seventy feet high.
A decent load for most of the way has largely evaporated by the time we reach Fleetwood. The “tap off” console has a light on it, but it doesn’t work. (I saw a lot of this in Cornwall.)
The place I used to know as Fleetwood Freeport is now Affinity Lancashire (have Lord Sugar’s apprentices been on a branding exercise?), but otherwise it looks about the same. It’s a lovely day now, with the sun shining across the harbour as the summer officially transitions into autumn.
A decent load for most of the way has largely evaporated by the time we reach Fleetwood. The “tap off” console has a light on it, but it doesn’t work. (I saw a lot of this in Cornwall.)
The place I used to know as Fleetwood Freeport is now Affinity Lancashire (have Lord Sugar’s apprentices been on a branding exercise?), but otherwise it looks about the same. It’s a lovely day now, with the sun shining across the harbour as the summer officially transitions into autumn.
Fleetwood Haven Marina sits alongside Affinity Lancashire and links into the River Wyre
My shopping trip done, I’m heading for Preston on the Blackpool Transport route 74. I’ve not come across this service on previous visits to the area, but it and the associated route 75 link Fleetwood and Preston. Apart from the two towns at the ends of the routes, there are few common sections between the services; Poulton-le-Fylde being the notable exception (and the only sizeable intermediate town on the route).
It’s only the third week of the 74 calling in at Affinity, following a recent service revision. Curiously, Affinity is not identified on the online route map.
Thanks to Blackpool Transport’s online bus tracker, I am able to see that the bus is on its way from Rossall Point, on the Esplanade at the other end of town. It is six minutes late arriving, though, and there are four passengers already on board. I’m the only one to join at Affinity.
This is an E200 MMC, but I can’t quite decide on its length. It doesn’t quite feel like the ‘standard’ 10.8m, and I wonder if it’s a 9.7m. Bustimes.org doesn’t record vehicle lengths, and Googling “how long is my bus” tends to bring up answers like “23 minutes”.
Blackpool Transport 227 (YX18 KWG), an ADL Enviro200 MMC, has just arrived at Preston Bus Station after a run on route 74 from Fleetwood.
There is an information screen but it alternates between route information and adverts for this winter’s pantomime at the Grand Theatre in Blackpool (Sleeping Beauty since you ask). There are some next stop announcements but they are rather intermittent.
This is a distinctly rural drive, through a succession of small villages – Little Singleton, Great Eccleston, Copp. At Inskip the roads get distinctly tight, and in Catforth, there's a floral display for HM Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee on what looks like a gun carriage, which feels rather poignant given what has happened since.
The most we have on board at any one time is 10; there are seven of us riding into Preston. It feels like we’re a few minutes early, but the traffic congestion and the interminable drive to access Preston Bus Station (more than once we have to turn away from the bus station) use up those spare minutes and we arrive on time.
This has been another service offering TOTO payments, and the machine to touch off actually works!
From Preston I am catching a service that I have had my eye on for some time. Marketed as Hotline, the 152 to Blackburn is operated by The Blackburn Bus Company (Transdev). I picked up a leaflet for it a year or so back and was reminded when I found the leaflet recently - bus operators who are abandoning printed materials please note!
We just have to wait for the companion local service 153 (the Little Hotline) - a really smart vehicle - to vacate first.
An unidentified Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Mellor Strata awaits departure on 'Little Hotline' route 153 from Preston Bus Station to Leyland.
We have a decent load aboard from Preston Bus Station, where the 152 has the ‘honour’ of departing from the highest-numbered bay in the bus station, number 39 (there is a Bay 40 but it hasn't got any scheduled services).
The service is operated with nine-year-old Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2s. They have been fitted with leather coach seats and mine is pretty comfortable – just as well as I have an hour and forty minutes on this bus.
There’s a “welcome aboard” announcement that is used just twice, on departure from Preston and again after Blackburn, the main intermediate town on the route. It draws attention to the wi-fi capability and the availability of charging points.
The next stop announcements sound a bit more homely than some others – possibly because they have been recorded with some emotion in the voices!
Blackburn Bus Company 2771 (BF63 HCN) on Hoghton Lane, east of Higher Walton.
On the approach to Blackburn, we come to a stop called "Three Arches", where the impressive Feniscowles Viaduct is partly visible. As far as I can make out from online materials, the viaduct carried the Chorley to Blackburn railway line over the road and then swung round to join the Blackburn and Preston Railway. The line closed in the 1960s and the viaduct no longer carries anything over the road. Still looks pretty impressive, though.
Feniscowles Viaduct, known locally as "Three Arches" (the third arch is behind the undergrowth on the left).
There’s a bus interchange outside Blackburn railway station, but there’s not much going on and our bus doesn’t even need to stop. Just around the corner is the main bus station, which is a very different story.
No problem for our service, which has decent churn but retains sufficient capacity, even at school run time. But on the next bay is a single-decker bus loading on route 22 to Clitheroe. There seem to be far more people trying to squeeze on it than it can possibly hold, and I wonder how many of the people are going to be waiting another half hour.
Blackburn Bus Station, viewed from the top deck of the 152
We’re soon back into Lancashire, and passing through the town of Padiham, three miles west of Burnley. The Anglican Church of St Leonard's comes into view. It's stunning - far more than I can do justice to from a bus - so have a look at photos that have been posted online.
St Leonard's Church in Padiham still has its flag at half-mast, reminding us of recent events. Straight in front of us is the also-distinctive Starkie Arms public house.
Most of the schoolchildren on board are well-behaved and not too noisy, but there’s an annoying youngster in the seat opposite me now. His phone conversation is mainly mono-syllabic and peppered with swear words. Despite his seemingly poor grasp of the language, the ‘conversation’ continues all the way into Blackburn, which we reach on schedule.
My last leg for the day is back on the X43 Witchway service into Manchester City Centre. A very smart-looking modern E400MMC is on the stand at Burnley Bus Station and the driver is just getting himself set up and ready. It’s the 1635 departure, so we’re in between the school run and the rush hour proper.
The branding is based on the trials of the Pendle Witches in 1612.
There’s a schoolgirl at the front of the queue and two schoolboys immediately behind them. The driver opens the door to start loading, but the girl is distracted by her phone. One of the boys helps out – by walking around the girl and getting on the bus ahead of her (who said chivalry was dead)?
The bus leaves, bang on time, with about a three-quarter load. This is another Transdev service, but it’s run by a different subsidiary (The Burnley Bus Company), so one has to go to a different company website to find the timetable. (The various subsidiaries are all listed at the bottom of each site, but it’s not always obvious which one you need.)
A Burnley Bus Company Enviro400 MMC on route X43, the "Witchway", at the New Waggoners on the Machester Road, a few miles outside Burnley.
After the broadly west-to-east direction of the 152, the X43 is broadly north-south. The major intermediate stop here is Rawtenstall (pronounced Rottenstall by the next stop announcements), where 24 people leave us and six join.
It seems to have gone very dull outside, but that could be the effect of the tinted windows on these buses. The air-con is quite noisy and, coupled with the engine noise, it makes the “Welcome Aboard” announcements, recorded by Jennie McAlpine (who plays Fiz Stape in Coronation Street) rather inaudible.
The slightly brutalist style of Rawtenstall Bus Station is demonstrated by this approach shot.
On departure from Rawtenstall, the X43 dives straight onto the A56 motorway-style dual carriageway, which soon morphs into the M66. We use about 10 miles of this motorway (non-stop, obviously), bypassing the major suburb of Bury (birthplace of the aforementioned Jennie McAlpine, incidentally). We then follow about a mile-and-a-half of the M60 Manchester Orbital, although transitioning from one to the other, a broadly right turn around a busy roundabout, takes several minutes.
Moving from the M66 to the M60; our route takes us forward onto the very congested road in front of us. No wonder buses are late sometimes! (Despite this traffic, we arrive into Manchester on time.)
We come back down to earth in Prestwich, just over three miles from Manchester City Centre. The X43 remains a limited-stop service the rest of the way into Manchester, passing Strangeways prison en route. There are some rush hour journeys that cut out this bit of the route entirely, to get people into town even faster.
We come back down to earth in Prestwich, just over three miles from Manchester City Centre. The X43 remains a limited-stop service the rest of the way into Manchester, passing Strangeways prison en route. There are some rush hour journeys that cut out this bit of the route entirely, to get people into town even faster.
Another of the very smart E400 MMCs on the X43 Witchway service has just arrived in Manchester, Chorlton Street.
As the light has started to fade, I get the impression that there is a flashing light on the front of the bus. I finally work out that it’s the destination display, alternating between “X43 Manchester” (bright) and “Witchway” (less bright).
And so I have reached Manchester City Centre, just under six hours after I left Fleetwood. And I’ve been carting two new pairs of trousers around with me all that time - it was a successful shopping expedition!
A parting thought: I can see what this advert is trying to do, but I'm not sure that a bus driver in uniform, holding two alcoholic drinks, is quite the right image to present!