Ribble 813 (ARN 813C) at Rochdale - 12 Sep 1976

Sunday 12 September 1976 – Ribble 813 (ARN 813C) was a Leyland Leopard PSU3/3RT with Weymann dual purpose bodywork new in May 1965. In this view it sports the National Bus Company’s red and white ‘local coach’ livery. The ‘local coach’ livery was applied to dual purpose vehicles that, in the main, worked limited stop or express services which were not part of the National Express network. Having said that they could often be found duplicating the latter. Part of Rochdale Town Hall is in the background of this photograph of the vehicle as it picked up outside the main Post Office (always referred to as ‘The General’) when working the 1222 Manchester-Burnley-Morecambe X14 service. This lunchtime departure from Manchester picked up in Rochdale at 1259 and was always referred to as the ‘minute to one’ when advising passengers.
Services X4 and X14 were dovetailed and shared a common route between between Manchester and Preston travelling via Middleton, Rochdale, Littleborough, Todmorden, Burnley and Blackburn. From Preston service X4 operated to Blackpool via Lytham St. Annes and service X14 continued to Morecambe via Garstang and Lancaster.
Broadly speaking the service between Manchester and Burnley was every two hours (most of which were numbered X4) with a couple of the trips running through to Morecambe which showing X14. Towards the end of the life of the services the Manchester-Burnley portion of the Blackpool bound services were deleted. The road service licence carried quite a number of restrictions barring the carriage of local passengers (or charging a premium fare). The boarding points in the city of Manchester were Lower Mosley Street Bus Station, Queens Road and Victoria Avenue plus one defined as ‘Salford, Junction of Chapel Street and Victoria Street’ (but wouldn’t that be on the Manchester side of the Irwell?). The next boarding points were Middleton and Slattocks. Passengers boarding at these points were permitted to travel ‘to subsequent points provided that at least the fare to Todmorden is paid’.From Castleton, Rochdale and Littleborough the first set down point was Holme Chapel. On the 2242 service from Manchester passengers could be carried from Rochdale to Todmorden and from Todmorden/Cornholme to Burnley.