Author: Roving Mick

Blackburn’s new £5M bus station finally opened on Sunday, May 1^st 2016, after several false starts and over a year behind schedule.

We now have our new modern bright bus terminus open and ready for Blackburn’s travelling public.  First impressions outside look very nice and shiny, a bit like a giant greenhouse, when the sun is shining.  There are even flower beds and concrete slabs which suffice as benches for a sit down while waiting for your bus.  These are already proving popular with smokers and should give extra work to the street sweepers.  At least the Ainsworth Street shops will be pleased, the first thing you see, when looking at the bus station windows are mirror images of their signs.

Inside the building, it is bright and clean, though feels a bit cramped and claustrophobic.  This is down to the usual Blackburn town centre custom of trying to fit everything into as small a space as possible.  Being in a river valley and having the Blakewater flowing underneath – some things never change.  We were also used to having had a large open air facility on the old Boulevard, followed by something similar with the temporary site next door on Brown Street.  But there is always going to be room for improvement with such a new facility, though maybe not too much room to play about with.

My first impression was the design theme of the bus station and the preponderance of these rounded ‘V’ shaped structures everywhere.  Its ceiling reminded me of an upturned toast rack.  There also seem to be other obstacles in your way as you make your way through the building.  These are the information monitor stands and other new facilities added to help bus users.  But having facilities to assist the bus travelling public is something we’re not used to in Blackburn.  An information desk with helpful staff, large monitors giving departure times and bus service numbers and destinations are all very welcome indeed.  One of my old pet hates was sitting in a bus shelter on the ‘Bouly’ and people coming up to me asking if I was waiting for a bus.  And then asking me which one I was catching.  No excuse now, it’s all there in easy to read real-time.

We have a strange situation with our buses these days.  When I first saw the shape of our new bus station, I thought it was going to be too small for a place as big as Blackburn.  Now, after various withdrawals of council and county council subsidies and subsequent cutbacks of services, our new bus station might end up being too big!  On the bright side, Blackburn’s new bus station has opened during an unusual run of warm sunny weather.  Remember winter and the cold weather won’t be long in coming.  Then we will really start to appreciate our new transport facility and especially its handy sliding doors, keeping the cold, the rain and the wind out.

Blackburn’s Outer Circle bus could become the Outer Centre Circle.  This follows a suggestion to take it into the town centre.

As regular users know, this bus was set up to link the suburbs of Blackburn, without going into our town centre bus station.  But some passengers have found getting off at Daisyfield Toll Bar, where the two Whalley roads start, is only a five minute walk to the bus station.  This would be a lot quicker if the bus diverted its route there and would be worth considering as an additional service for Blackburn’s bus users.

It is an opportune time to consider extra uses for the Outer Circle, especially with it being under review by transport authorities.  Bus services have been gradually cut across town.  Where I live up Revidge, the No.9 route only starts at 9.25am and ends at 1.25pm.  Darwen Coach Services runs a limited service later, covering some of this area at 6.15pm and one more two hours later.  But for workers, shoppers and schoolchildren there is nothing in between.  It is a similar story of service cuts and reductions all over Blackburn.  Even the Outer Circle itself only runs at peak times, with a four hour gap from mid-morning to when it resumes in the afternoon..

If the Outer Circle ran the short distance from its nearest point to the town centre and the bus station, it would provide extra services to all parts of the town’s suburbs where none exist or are very limited.  It would also generate extra passengers, in both directions.  This could help make the bus run all day, rather than having a four hour gap between morning and afternoon services.  In Preston their local bus company copied our Outer Circle with their own version, called Orbit.  But they take their Orbit into the town centre to their bus station.  This has proved a popular service.

I was able to put this suggestion to our local bus provider and a council transport representative when they recently had a drop-in session in Blackburn Mall.  I spoke with a driver, an inspector and a chap from Blackburn with Darwen Council.  All of them agreed it was a good idea and certainly feasible.  Their only concern was adding an extra ten minutes to the existing Outer Circle journey.  But this extended route was certainly worth considering.

Hopefully my suggestion will be taken up and given a try.  We have a new bus station nearing completion.  At first I thought it was going to be too small.  With the subsequent cutbacks in bus serves, it might end being too big.  Why not make use of it then with the one service which brings the town’s suburbs together – our good old Outer Circle.

Ask any bus or taxi driver what part of their job they really hate. They will tell you about their backs being done in due to driving over sleeping policemen and other road humps.

They give us the Hump

I know how they feel from personal experience; my street has a school nearby. So sleeping policemen are crashed out every few yards, including right outside my front door. They are described as traffic calming measures. But few people would describe themselves as calm after going over them on a dark night, especially while dropping off in the back seat of a taxi.

Blackburn’s worst areas for speed humps seem to be Revidge, Highercroft and Shadsworth. A bus ride up Highercroft is like going up and down a roller coaster. Things are not helped by the twists and turns the buses have to take along their route, no thanks to bad parking.

Shadworth’s assault course is more direct, travelling along Rothesay Road. But it’s not only humps which impede the flow of traffic. Speed cushions are also in use here. Those annoying twisting single file chicanes also add to a road user’s misery.

On the other side of town, Wimberley Street has a particularly difficult chicane to navigate, not helped by parked cars. Here one marvels at the skills of the bus driver in action. Sadly, some of the car parking here leaves a lot to be desired.

Pride of place for sleeping policemen must belong to the north side of Blackburn’s infamous Revidge Hump, where you pass the Golf Club. Despite warning signs, this tarmac obstacle seems to catch everybody out. You can sometimes see evidence in the road of this, where dumper trucks have shed part of their load after misjudging the hump.

Unfortunately, sleeping policemen and other traffic calming measures are there for a reason. The drivers who wouldn’t slow down are the reason why they exist in the first place. Sadly, they also add extra time to the fire engines, ambulances and wide-awake policemen’s response times.

These emergency services are often sent to save the victims of accidents caused by those unreasonable drivers whose actions merited traffic calming measures being brought in. But if the humps were taken away, you can guarantee somebody would be complaining within 24 hours about traffic going too fast down the street. Whatever happens with sleeping policemen – somebody’s going to get the hump.