New hospital bus route trial starts

A new bus service from Royal Blackburn Hospital to Audley is starting a six-month trial from the first week of January.

The buses will be run by Travel Assist and the service will run from the Hospital – North Road – Romney Walk – Queens Road – Audley – Church Street (Markets) doing three return trips a day, three days a week Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

NoWCARDs will be accepted on this route which will be trialled for a six month period.

It is a replacement service for the former commercial Transdev service which was withdrawn at the end of August 2016. Residents in the Audley, Queen’s Park and North Road areas started a petition to re-instate a service to the hospital.

A leaflet has also been produced with Travel Assist and Dial A Ride to advertise alternative transport provision. A bookable, ring-up door to door service is available on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from the North Road/Queens Park/Audley area. This is a chargeable service with fares ranging from £2 to £5 return.

Neighbourhood teams have also worked with other agencies to identify vulnerable residents and drum up interest for an alternative service, and to identify people – where people could possibly gather around a community centre and then make their way together to the shops i.e. buddy up/friendship clubs  – information then shared with Travel Assist and Dial A Ride

Care Network has helped circulate leaflets and Dial A Ride application forms on an ongoing basis and at the Your Support Your Choice event this month.

Councillor Phil Riley, Blackburn with Darwen Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration, said:

We are really pleased that this trial is running and that residents will be able to travel on this route. I know lots of residents were upset and affected by the cancellation of the previous route so this is good news.”