PASSENGERS on new state-of-the-art buses travelling between Blackburn and Bolton will enjoy new creature comforts such as free wifi, mobile phone and tablet charging points as well as on-screen latest travel information.

The first of 13 brand new buses for one of Lancashire’s busiest bus services – packed with the latest customer-friendly features – were unveiled at a special launch event in Blackburn on Friday.

The all-new buses started running on the busy route 1 between Blackburn, Darwen and Bolton on Sunday and it represented a total investment of £2.5 million by North of England bus operator Transdev's The Blackburn Bus Company.

Among the new features of buses include custom-built seats with each having mobile phone holders, USB and wireless charging, digital destination displays and countdown timers to arrival, contactless card payments, live tracking of buses on the Transdev Go app which is linked to each bus.

Alex Hornby from The Blackburn Bus Company said: "We are really proud to be investing in local bus services.

"We want to support the town centres and these buses will do that by reducing congestion and emission levels in town centres.

"We felt it was important to improve our services on this busy route every half hour to Bolton but now with these buses we have providing a link every 15 minutes. Also buses to Darwen are every seven minutes.

"This is something for everyone to enjoy and we would encourage them to make the most of it."

Among the added benefits include low emission engines with Euro VI rating to deliver cleaner air.

The very Rev Peter Howell-Jones, said: "It is an amazing backdrop to stage the unveiling of it and what better place to do it in Blackburn where there has been a lot of investment and have seen a lot of regeneration."

On the side of the buses they also feature landmarks of the bus destinations such as Blackburn Cathedral, Darwen Tower and Bolton Town Hall.