I'm struggling to fault The Burnley Bus Company, which is owned and run by Transdev, they do a…read morefantastic job of offering reliable, frequent buses in and around Burnley, an area which would otherwise be left behind and be an almost impossible nightmare to travel around, due to irregular train times and poor pedestrian streets/pavements.
They are going above and beyond to fuel and support the passenger experience, which includes investing millions of pounds on brand new buses for the X43 - Witchway, the buses were already comfortable and impressive but they just had to do one-up on themselves, I hate being on buses for a long period of time, especially with their Manchester - Burnley service taking way over an hour, but they find a way to make that journey enjoyable including
- A mini-library on the bus, where you can even take buses home and return them on your next visit
- Free wi-fi, the wi-fi isn't too fast but at a time where most other major bus companies have removed it due to either cost or COVID reasons, the fact they're maintaining a wi-fi is great
- Mobile phone charging, you can charge your phone here through the USB charging or even the wireless charging at certain tables
- Tables upstairs or at the back of the bus downstairs, making the journey much more comfortable again.
- Orange front of the bus and lights going around a bus which is predominantly black if there was a limousine version of the bus it'd be the Witchway.
I also like the stop announcements which don't just announce the stop, but they also announce the route along the way, for example, it gives you a warning before the bus enters the motorway at Prestwich as obviously it won't be able to stop for a while until it heads into Rawtenstall, it also announces when arriving into city/town centres, I've also noticed this on other Burnley Bus Company services too, such as the Mainline services which connect Burnley with a huge chunk of East Lancashire including Clitheroe.
The frequency of the buses is still pretty good, buses regularly run on-time and never seem too overcrowded, which is handy especially during the current pandemic, where many operators have cut their services down to a poor level.
I also like how different bus services have a different bus lively, but they all seem to stand out and look good inside and out, buses are as clean as they can be, bearing in mind they don't have cleaners on board, another COVID precaution is cleaners getting on/off the bus to sanitise everything at stations along the route, on the X43, someone got on at both Rawtenstall (Mid-way point) and Burnley (terminating point).
The drivers always seem friendly too, it seems there are idiots who work for every bus company who are rude, clueless or even abusive, but I've never experienced a driver from Burnley Bus Company to be anything but friendly and eager to help.
5* - Empowering East Lancashire, not just connecting them into Greater Manchester and parts of Yorkshire, but providing a comfortable experience with friendly drivers, all in all, a great company, I just wish they offered more services which served Manchester.