The story
In August 1924, Burnley Corporation Transport operated their first bus service between Rawtenstall and Burnley Summit. The Burnley, Colne & Nelson Joint Transport Committee was established in April 1933, merging the three municipal tramway and bus operations of the respective towns. The tramway network was progressively abandoned, with the last line closing in May 1935.
Following local government reorganisation in April 1974, the boroughs of Colne and Nelson were amalgamated to form the present-day Borough of Pendle. Subsequently, the transport operation became known as the Burnley & Pendle Joint Transport Committee.
In 1986, as part of the deregulation of bus services and to comply with the Transport Act 1985, the company's assets were transferred to a new legal entity named the Burnley & Pendle Transport Company. Deregulation opened Burnley & Pendle's routes to competition from other operators, with Blackburn Transport, Tyrer Tours and Victoria Coaches establishing competing services. To stave off the competition, five AEC Routemaster double-deck vehicles were purchased, with each named after a character from the television series EastEnders. Burnley & Pendle also successfully tendered a number of Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive-contracted bus services, allowing for operations to extend to Blackburn, Bury, Manchester, Preston, Rawtenstall, Rochdale and Skipton.
Stagecoach and Blazefield ownership
In April 1996, Pendle Borough Council sold their share of the company to Stagecoach Holdings. Burnley Council was unhappy with the decision, and stated that they would never consider selling their share. In response, Stagecoach proposed up a multi-million pound investment plan for the area, but Burnley Council could not meet their share unless it cut other council-supported services. Burnley Council eventually reversed their decision in March 1997 and sold out to Stagecoach, a deal valued at £2.85 million (equivalent to £5,618,000 in 2025). Initially branded Stagecoach Burnley & Pendle, the company was encompassed within Stagecoach Ribble in May 2000.
In April 2001, Stagecoach sold their operations in Blackburn, Bolton and Clitheroe to the Blazefield Group, which rebranded them as Burnley & Pendle and Lancashire United. The sale was valued at £13 million. Following the sale, Blazefield purchased a total of 15 Plaxton President bodied Volvo B7TL double-deck and 25 Wright Renown bodied Volvo B10BLE single-deck vehicles for Burnley & Pendle as part of a fleet renewal programme; prior to the sale of Burnley & Pendle, many of the newer vehicles Stagecoach purchased for the fleet were transferred to other subsidiaries, with Burnley & Pendle receiving older vehicles as replacements.
Transdev era
In January 2006, French-based transport group Transdev acquired the Blazefield Group, along with 305 vehicles. Locally, the company was rebranded under the name Transdev in Burnley & Pendle.
In August 2006, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council announced that after 125 years of municipal ownership, Blackburn Transport had been sold to Transdev Blazefield. The sale was finalised in January 2007. This was followed in August 2007 by both Accrington Transport and Northern Blue being acquired, with both operators' staff and combined 65 vehicles transferring to Transdev. After initially being maintained as a separate brand, in September 2009, Transdev Northern Blue was integrated into the Transdev Burnley & Pendle business.
In July 2017, the company was again rebranded, now operating as The Burnley Bus Company.
From Wikipedia’s article on Burnley Bus Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4