A ‘LIFELINE’ bus service, used by mainly elderly residents, is set to be axed.

Accrington-based bus company Pilkington Bus will withdraw the service next month, blaming a lack of passengers.

The number 12 bus takes passengers in a loop from Accrington station to Baxenden and Woodnook.

Hyndburn’s MP Graham Jones said he has been contacted by bus users concerned at the withdrawal of the service.

He said: “They tell me that the service is very well used and that the vast majority of those using the service are elderly people in their 70s and 80s, many of whom have medical conditions.

“Some elderly residents using the service live nearly a mile away from the main route, and have said they do not have the ability or stamina to walk to the main road to catch the main route.

“As one told me, the bus is a lifeline for many of them.”

Pilkington said it had been running the service for four years without any county council subsidies but it had become financially unviable.

The service, which currently operates two times every weekday, will end in mid-July.

John Threlfall, specialist transport adviser at Pilkington Bus, said in a letter to Mr Jones: “No bus operator likes likes to withdraw bus services but latterly the service has been carrying an average of 15 passengers per day and as these are mainly concessionary pass holders, travelling free of charge, our income is about £22.50 a day.

“The service was only viable at these low levels of return since for operational reasons we had a relief driver and a spare bus.

“However recent changes have meant that the driver and bus have had to be allocated to other work.The service cannot be justified as a stand-alone operation, so inevitably, we have reached the end of the road.”