The A678 is slightly longer than it was originally, having been renumbered over the original A677 from Blackburn town centre. It now therefore starts on the Blackburn ring road with the TOTSO half a mile later being the original western end of the road. The stretch from the A6078 to the M65 at Whitebirk (junction 6) is the only primary section, now running on a massively widened corridor and the newly opened Carl Fogarty Way – east of there it is all secondary, passing through Rishton first and meeting the A6185 at the other side which allows traffic to hop onto the motorway at junction 7.
The next junction is with the A680 which is confused as to if it is primary or not, but it heads happily northwards to Clitheroe from here. For the A678, a gentle slog through Altham and then the sprawling industrial estates that exist near Padiham come next. This bit of road once boasted a three-lane section but this was removed in the late 1990s. After a while the A6068 is crossed near the gates of the old power station at Shuttleworth before the A678 itself blends into the A671 in Padiham town centre.
