PASSENGERS are to get a £4.6million fleet of 30 new buses specially tailored to their requirements.

Operator Transdev will launch the ‘bespoke’ vehicles on its Mainline routes serving Burnley, Colne, Nelson and Padiham in the summer. The single-deckers are based on the Optare Versas, similar to those introduced on the number six and seven services in Blackburn in August.

MORE TOP STORIES:

However they have been specially redesigned after a market research programme among passengers.

Features onboard the new buses will include free WiFi, USB power at every seat, next stop audio-visual announcements, ‘countdown to departure’ destination screens, more legroom, and other special features to be announced.

In 2016 more than 3.6m passengers used the four mainline services linking Burnley and Pendle’s main towns and reaching out to Clitheroe and Accrington.

Burnley and Pendle’s MPs Julie Cooper and Andrew Stephenson have welcomed the investment as a major boost to public transport in their constituencies.

The 30 vehicles will be a compete replacement for the Mainline fleet which also serves Earby, Barnoldswick, Trawden, Laneshaw Bridge, Airedale General Hospital, Keighley, Whalley and Huncoat.

The peak frequency for services between Burnley, Nelson and Colne is every seven minutes.

Transdev chief executive Alex Hornby said: “It’s relatively easy to come up with a new bus, bought ‘off the peg’ from one of the big manufacturers that offers standard design features which passengers have come to expect nowadays.

“We started with the already very successful and popular Optare Versa single decker as the basis of our new buses, and then we decided to invite our customers to tell us what they most wanted to see on-board.”

The new Transdev Burnley buses are ‘heavily-customised’ and will be quite different to the Blackburn Bus Company vehicles following the special ‘Make My Mainline’ survey in December which received more than 200 customer responses.

Mr Stephenson said: “This huge investment into our public transport network is extremely welcome.

“It will be a huge benefit to, not only regular bus users, but hopefully it will attract more passengers to use the service for either work, school or pleasure.”

Mrs Cooper said: “This is good news.

“Investment in buses is very welcome and I hope this will encourage more people to use them so Transdev can invest in keeping or starting other feeder routes.

“Not everybody has a car and there are many elderly bus users in Burnley,”

Cllr Gordon Birtwistle, Liberal Democrat group leader on Burnley Council, said: “This is fantastic news.

“Transdev is a good company but this investment in new local buses is very welcome.”

Mr Hornby said: “No-one knows better than our own customers what makes an amazing journey.

“They travel with us every day, and they’re best placed to tell us what they want from their buses.

”No motor manufacturer would design a new car without thinking long and hard about the features most likely to attract buyers, and so why would we possibly design our new Mainline buses without capturing the views of our customers from across Burnley and Pendle?

“We knew the only way to come up with a new fleet of buses that our customers will really love using was to put their ideas centre stage.”

The four Mainline routes to get the new buses are:

• M1: Padiham – Burnley – Nelson – Colne – Earby – Barnoldswick;

• M2: Clitheroe – Whalley – Padiham – Burnley – Nelson – Colne;

• M3: Accrington – Huncoat – Padiham – Burnley – Nelson – Colne – Trawden; and

• M4 – Burnley – Nelson – Colne – Laneshawbridge – Airedale Hospital - Keighley