Shuttle Bus

From April 1, 2025 Moving People Bus and Coach Services, will begin operating a direct commercial service between Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital (RBTH) and Burnley General Teaching Hospital (BGTH), with additional stops in Blackburn and Burnley town centres.

The Trust currently offers a free transport service between the RBTH, BGTH and Pendle Community Hospital (PCH) for staff, patients and visitors. If you are looking for timetables, please click here.

We recently announced that this service will cease to operate as we know it from 31 March 2025 as the Trust can no longer afford it.

Moving People Bus and Coach Services, which is based in Oswaldtwistle, near Blackburn, has submitted papers to formally register the route between Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital and Burnley General Teaching Hospital.

It intends to begin operating a commercial service from April 1, 2025, when the existing service is closed.

The new route, which is supported by Blackburn with Darwen Council and Lancashire County Council, will remain a direct service between the two hospitals for patients, visitors and staff at the Trust, but add on stops in both Blackburn and Burnley town centres to improve travel for passengers. It will start around 6am and include regular routes throughout the day, until about 8.30pm at night. It will initially run between Monday and Friday, with a review once operational to consider an expansion over the weekend.

Glen Chamberlain, managing director of Moving People, said: “This will be commercial service with a charge in place for passengers and run independently and without subsidy from the hospital trust. It is clear from data provided from the existing service that patients, visitors and staff rely upon it and, as a local company, I am delighted we have been able to step in and pick up the route.

“In the coming weeks we will be sharing the exact stops and timetable and I want to urge people who are currently using the bus to continue using it. We do need to make this commercially viable for Moving People and the people of East Lancashire and protect the service for the future.”

Martin Hodgson, Chief Executive at East Lancashire Hospitals, said: “It is absolutely brilliant news that Blackburn company Moving People will provide a similar commercial service when ours ends on March 31 and we will continue to do everything we can to support them, to publicise the route and encourage people to use it.

I speak for everyone at East Lancashire Hospitals now when I say we’re grateful to Moving People and everyone who has worked so hard in the background to make this happen and that includes our local MPs, local authority leaders and local people as a whole.”

To support passengers, there are links on this page to other bus services, community transport options and information about how some patients may be able to claim back their health care travel costs.

If you have any questions, please email shuttlebus@elht.nhs.uk

If you have a question, please email shuttlebus@elht.nhs.uk