Witchway will run between Burnley and Manchester only, with the Burnley to Skipton section separated (see below). Customers travelling across Burnley will still be able to do so, by changing buses in Burnley bus station.
Why? Making this change means we can give buses more time between their journeys. This doesn’t affect the timetable for you, but for us it means that if we meet congestion on the route it’s less likely to have a knock-on effect on later journeys – so we can be more reliable for you.
Between Burnley and Skipton there will still be a bus every 30 minutes, running fast along the motorway to Colne, then to Skipton. These buses will go through Earby as well as Barnoldswick, giving customers in Earby a much faster link to Burnley
Why? Feedback from customers tells us the fast link between Colne and Burnley is really valuable, and that people in both Barnoldswick and Earby would like to have a direct link to Skipton.
Mainline M5 will no longer run between Colne and Earby or Barnoldswick as this link will be provided as described above. This means that customers travelling between Earby or Barnoldswick and Nelson will change at Colne. There will still be an every 7 minute frequency on Mainline between Burnley and Colne.
Why? With an every 30 minute bus from Burnley fast to Colne and onto Earby or Barnoldswick, the current M5 bus would only serve to duplicate a small part of this journey, so this change is just to remove that duplication.
In addition to the changes to the routes of Mainline and Witchway above, some more improvements are proposed:
- The morning fast journeys from Burnley to Manchester will be retimed to leave Burnley at 6.20am, 6.40am, 7am and 7.20am, leaving Rawtenstall at 6.44am, 7.04am, 7.24am and 7.44am. Buses falling between these times will take the usual route through Prestwich. It means there is a bus to Manchester every 10 minutes during the morning rush hour.
- In the afternoon, there will be an additional trip from Burnley to Manchester – new trips at 5.15pm and 5.40pm will replace the current 5.25pm bus. This means there will be buses every 15 mins until 3.35pm, then every 20 mins until 5.40pm when the evening service starts. There will also still be two fast rush hour buses.
- An extra trip will run in the evening from Manchester to Burnley, meaning there are buses every 15 minutes until 3:30pm, and then every 20 minutes via Prestwich until 7.30pm which gives more journeys into the early evening. There will still be three fast rush hour buses.
- We’ll add later buses from Skipton to Burnley, with the last bus Monday to Saturday at 8.45pm – an hour later than now.
- We’ll also add a later bus from Burnley to Skipton, leaving at 7.15pm, which connects from Manchester.