BUS passengers on two services in Burnley and Bacup have been told to brace themselves for fresh fare increases to keep their routes afloat.

Villagers in Worsthorne protested when it was suggested the Starship number two service, providing a link to Burnley town centre, was going to be axed.

And although the route was reinstated — after pressure from councillors, Worsthorne Primary head Louise Young and Burnley MP Gordon Birtwistle — it came with a warning reg-arding possible bus fare increases from operators Transdev.

Similar rises have also been announced for the Starship number eight service, which runs between Burnley and Bacup, with occasional buses linking to Rawtenstall.

Travellers must now fork out £6 for the service’s ‘day silver’ ticket — if they currently pay £3.20 to £3.70 for a return.

For the Worsthorne bus, there will be increases of 50p for a single journey and 90p for return fares, and for the Bacup route the rise will be up to 30p for singles, and up to 50p for returns.

Coun Jimmy Eaton, who represents Bacup’s Greensclough ward, said: “It is quite a sharp increase and I’m not sure how they can justify this. My concern is that there are a lot of young people who use these services to get to college and some of them might not be able to afford the new fares. Hopefully they will look at some concessions for students and people on low incomes and the unemployed.”

A Transdev spokesman said: “Unfortunately, these increases are necessary to safeguard the continuation of the services.

“Other Starship services, and day and period ticket prices, are not affected by these changes.”