Into Leather?

When is a double deck not a double deck? When it’s a twin deck…

Those awfully nice gentlemen at Blazefield have come up with another idea, very similar to their Harrogate & District’s "Route 36." Except this time, there’s leather seating upstairs *and* down.

The 3-buses-per-hour Burnley & Pendle X43 Nelson-Burnley-Rawtenstall-Manchester sees £3.1mil invested in 16 Wrightbus Eclipse Gemnini double decks. Well, actually they are *not* double decks. They’re "twin decks". Now, that’ll confuse the Americans.

They’ve chosen the term "twin deck" carefully. It sounds so much more 21st century. It lends itself to leisure travel and days out. "Double decker" says working class, heavy industry and "down t’mill".

The X43’s no stranger to new tackle. In the 1980s under NBC, Ribble introduced dual purpose "Timesaver" Olympian deckers. And in the 1990s, it even saw Stagecoach Express articulated coaches.

The new Eclipse Geminis are branded "The Witch Way", after the long association with so-called witchcraft at Pendle Hill. Is Blazefield trying to capitalise on the Harry Potter phenomenon, we wonder?

But will commuters take the image of an ugly old woman with a pointy hat seriously enough to leave their cars and grow the market by the extra 6% needed to repay the £40,000 premium on each Eclipse Gemini?

Will Christians be repulsed by references to witchcraft and the so-called "lucky" amulets, within Burnley & Pendle’s publicity? Black liveries and references to "magic" may be a deterrent to some. And although we are sure Burnley & Pendle didn't mean to, some would argue that the concept trivialises the unjustifiable death on one day alone in the 17th century of 10 suspected witches.