WORK on Accrington's new £6.4million bus station is hoped to be completed by May 13.

The building was originally planned to be in operation in March but bad weather put back the work schedule for the Crawshaw Street public transport hub to a spring opening.

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Council bosses expect the station to be opened to the public on Sunday, May 22 to allow time for testing and staff training.

County Cllr Gareth Molineux, who represents Great Harwood, said he hoped the opening would encourage more visitors into the town.

He said: "Obviously we're really pleased at the speed at which it's coming together.

"It's good that they are now back on target to finish at the end of May.

"This will go some way towards trying to attract the public back into town."

The new station is part of the major £40million Pennine Reach scheme designed to transform transport links between Blackburn, Darwen and Accrington.

Both Accrington and Blackburn have received new bus stations.

Works at the Sparth Road junction in Clayton-le-Moors are also due to be completed on today.

Once works are completed the bus lane which is being introduced on Whalley Road between Clayton Hall Drive and the Sparth Road junction will become operational and only buses and cyclists will be able to make use of the lane.

At the end of the bus lane there will be a bus gate with two sets of traffic signals, one for the bus lane and one for the general running lane which will work to give priority to buses over general traffic.

This is expected to help to improve bus journey times along this stretch of road and through the junction.

Enforcement of bus lanes has been approved and the relevant systems are currently being set up to undertake this.

The opening of the entire Pennine Reach scheme is expected to be Sunday, May 22.

A second phase to works at the Hare and Hounds junction will see the introduction of a bus lane for buses heading northbound towards the junction subject to approval.

Off street parking areas are being introduced to alleviate the loss of on street parking on Whalley Road.

The parking area adjacent to Frank Street behind the houses on Whalley Road still needs to be completed.

A Statutory Quality Bus Partnership has also been proposed as part of Pennine Reach, a partnership agreement between Lancashire County Council, Blackburn with Darwen and all bus operators who are operating services in the area to agree standards of bus service in exchange for investment by the two authorities and a commitment to ongoing maintenance of the facilities introduce as part of the Pennine Reach Scheme.

Hyndburn MP Graham Jones, said: "A new bus station was needed but what was also needed was a review of several sites to gauge the merits of each site."