Improvements? Just ask the villagers left behind

AT election time, it would be easy for the bus station questions to be turned into political point scoring statements - after all, the leader of Rossendale Council is also the Labour candidate, under whose watch the bus station has been built and the bus company sold.

But it poses questions for the Tory candidate too, current MP Jake Berry. Just a few weeks ago, Mr Berry appeared on a Facebook video singing the praises of Transdev.

Praising the fact passenger numbers were up 15%, Mr Berry said: “The figures speak for themselves – Rosso’s success is outstanding, and it’s being achieved by hardworking people who are dedicated to delivering excellent customer service. Transdev has transformed our services.

“In the last 18 months, the company has benefited from significant investment to improve the quality and reliability of its buses in East Lancashire and Greater Manchester.”

Whether those users of the 7, 8, 11, 12 and 13 services, which will be cut from January unless Lancashire County Council finds someone else to take on the subsidised routes, remains to be seen.

Transdev chief executive Alex Hornby took Mr Berry on the 464 route so show how great the new buses are - and they are.

Mr Hornby said: “When Rosso joined our family of bus companies 18 months ago, we promised to keep on delivering a better and more reliable service for our customers, and on buses that people want to be seen on.

“The 15 per cent increase in customer numbers travelling with us shows our investment is attracting more people to choose and use the bus.

“And there’s more to come, as we look to build on Rosso’s impressive performance with further improvements across the region.”

Quite where ‘further improvements across the region’ squares with taking away some village’s last bus service remains to be seen.