Rossendale Transport

Rossendale Transport is a bus operator running within the Borough of Rossendale (including the towns of Rawtenstall, Bacup, Whitworth and Haslingden) and into surrounding areas, including Rochdale, Bury, Manchester, Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn and Todmorden. The network of services in branded under the names Easyride or Rossendalebus, with vehicles and publicity carrying this name. The limited company "Rossendale Transport Ltd." is wholly owned by Rossendale Borough Council, which makes it one of the few remaining municipal bus companies in the United Kingdom today.

History
Rossendale Transport can trace its history back to 1907 when both Rawtenstall and Haslingden Corporations (both independently) ran a motor bus within their boroughs. Both undertakings merged in 1968 to form Rossendale Joint Transport Committee and later in 1974 with the local government reorganisation which took place in that year the boroughs were merged, along with Bacup (which was already served by Rossendale buses; Bacup Borough not having its own bus company) and Whitworth to form the present Borough of Rossendale. The company then became the Transport department of the new Rossendale Borough Council.

On 26 October 1986 came the deregulation of bus services across the UK (outside London and not including Northern Ireland). As part of the 1985 Transport Act which empowered this deregulation, Rossendale Borough Council was required to set up an 'arms-length' company in order to continue operating buses. Rossendale Transport Limited, as the company is now known began trading on this date and over the last 20 years has expended greatly and now operates buses throughout Rossendale, Bury and Rochdale as well as operating into Burnley, Blackburn, Bolton and Todmorden.

Fears were raised at the beginning of 2009 about the council's intentions with regards to its continued ownership of the company, culminating in a public protest outside the town hall to dissuade the council from selling. However in July 2009 the council announced that it was retaining its ownership of the company, its valuation not having been met by potentially interested parties.

Depots
Rossendale Transport's main depot and office facilities are situated in a modern unit on the Knowsley Park industrial estate in Haslingden (53.69222°N, -2.32389°W), close to the A56 bypass. The company moved here from its previous Bacup Road depot in Rawtenstall town centre in September 2008. The previous occupant was an industrial filtration manufacturer, and the building consists of offices and maintenance facilities, along with an outside compound for overnight storage of buses.

The company also operates from a depot on Corporation Road, Rochdale (53.6125°N, -2.17222°W) which was established in September 1990 to support new routes introduced in the town following bus deregulation. The site is on the western outskirts of the town centre, located next to the River Roch. Around 40 vehicles are based there.

The original bus depot on the south side of Bacup Road in Rawtenstall dated from 1933 (with an extension in 1938) replacing the former tram shed on the other side of the road&mdash;although the offices remained in use. The depot has now been demolished and replaced with a Lidl supermarket, although the adjoining bus station facility remains in use pending redevelopment. Haslingden Corporation originally operated from a depot at John Street until its closure at the time of the merger in 1968.

Fleet
Rossendale Transport has a fleet of 105 active buses, consisting of 90 low floor single deck buses and 15 double deck buses (3 of which are low floor). The single deck fleet provides the bulk of the company's scheduled bus network in conjunction with the low floor double deckers. The older step-entrance double deckers are mainly confined to school services, with the three coaches assigned to contract work.

Future fleet
There are no vehicles known to be on order.