The Burnley, Colne & Nelson Joint Transport Committee was established in 1933 to merge the three municipal tramway and bus operations of those towns. The tramway network was progressively being abandoned with the last closing in May 1935.[2] In 1974 as part of the local government reorganisation Colne and Nelson boroughs were amalgamated to form Pendle and thus the transport operation became the Burnley & Pendle Joint Transport Committee.[3]
To comply with the Transport Act 1985, in 1986 the assets were transferred to a new legal entity and the operation rebranded Burnley & Pendle Transport Company. Deregulation opened Burnley & Pendle's routes to competition from other operators, with Blackburn Transport, Tyrer Tours[5] and Victoria Coaches establishing competing services. To stave off the competition five AEC Routemasters were purchased with each named after a character from the television series EastEnders. Deregulation also saw many Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive services contracted out. Burnley & Pendle successfully tendered a number of routes with their sphere of operation extending to Blackburn, Bury, Manchester, Preston, Rawtenstall, Rochdale and Skipton.
In April 1996 Pendle Council sold its share to Stagecoach North West. Burnley Council was livid, and stated strongly it would never sell its share.[7] Stagecoach put up a multi-million pound investment plan for Burnley and Pendle, but Burnley Council could not meet its share unless it cut other council services. In March 1997 it reversed its policy and sold out to Stagecoach.[6]
Initially branded Stagecoach Burnley & Pendle in May 2000 it was incorporated into the Stagecoach Ribble business. In 1997 Stagecoach purchased 10 Volvo B10Ms and 10 Volvo Olympians to upgrade the run down fleet.[8]
In April 2001 Stagecoach sold its East Lancashire operations to the Blazefield Travel. Soon after the business was split in two. What had been Burnley & Pendle once again became Burnley & Pendle[1] while the former Ribble Motor Services became Lancashire United. Before the sale many of the newer buses were transferred to other Stagecoach subsidiaries being replaced by Dennis Javelins, Leyland Atlanteans and Leyland Lynxs. Blazefield Travel purchased 15 Volvo B7TLs and 25 Volvo B10BLEs to commence a fleet renewal program.[9]
In January 2006 Burnley & Pendle was included in the sale of Blazefield Travel to Transdev.[10][11] Burnley & Pendle was rebranded as Transdev in Burnley & Pendle.
In January 2007 Blackburn Transport was purchased[12] followed in August 2007 by Accrington Transport and Northern Blue of Burnley with 65 buses.[13] In September 2009 Transdev Northern Blue was integrated into Transdev Burnley & Pendle.
In July 2017 the business was again rebranded as the Burnley Bus Company.
In 2016, The Harrogate Bus Company recieved new vehicles for its 36 service between Leeds and Ripon, 7 of the B7TL vehicles used were transferred to Burnley to operate the X41 service, this has been branded as RedExpress. 5 other vehicles went to operate the CITYZAP service between York and Leeds with 1 staying behind in Harrogate as a 36 spare.
On the 5th of November 2017, a new CITYZAP service was started between Manchester and Leeds. This is the second CITYZAP to be started, the first being between York and Leeds. The route uses ex Mainline Eclipse 2's.
The CITYZAP was withdrawn on the 21st of July 2018.