Arriva Midlands



Arriva Midlands is a division of Arriva. It operates bus services around the Midlands area of England and is made up of various previous bus operators.

Arriva Midlands North
Formerly part of Midland Red and latterly Midland Red North until been rebranded as Arriva in late 1997. This part of the business operated buses in:

Cheshire with depots at (Crewe, Macclesfield & Winsford)

Shropshire with depots at (Oswestry, Shrewsbury, Shifnal, Bridgnorth (since closed) & Wellington)

Staffordshire with depots at (Burton, Cannock, Stafford & Tamworth)

South Derbyshire Swadlincote Garage closed on 24th December 2007. All operations have now moved to Burton Depot.

In early 2003, the Cheshire garages passed to Arriva North West. The remaining part of Arriva Midlands North were combined with Arriva Fox County, forming Arriva Midlands. Buses still operate with Arriva Midlands North legal name (except Burton which uses Stevensons of Uttoxeter, trading as Arriva) but the headquarters changed from Cannock to Thurmaston (Leicester), the headquarters of Arriva Fox County.

Services cover Shropshire, Staffordshire around parts of the West Midlands county, most notably Walsall and Wolverhampton although several services stretch as far west as over the Welsh border into Powys and Wrexham and far south as Birmingham. On 25th February 2007 Chase Coaches Limited sold out to Arriva Midlands and the operations merged into Cannock from 28th April 2007.

In late 2007 a new Chase Linx brand (similar to the Leicester Linx brand below) was introduced, reflecting the purchase of Chase Coaches.

Arriva Derby
Formerly Derby City Transport this part of the business originates from the Derby Corporation buses pre-deregulation. An extensive service operates within Derby although numerous services stretch beyond the city boundaries. In 2007, a new Town Linx brand was introduced to services in South Derbyshire and East Staffordshire, similar to the schemes in Leicester and Cannock.

Arriva Fox County
This was the part of Arriva responsible for operations throughout Leicestershire with a network largely based on the county town, Leicester. This part of the business was formerly part of Midland Red and latterly traded as Midland Red East and Midland Fox. Services stretch from Nottingham in the north and Coventry in the south.

In May 2006 Arriva launched Operation Overdrive in Leicestershire, with a new Leicester Linx brand. "Local Linx" is used for the more local routes, while "City Linx" is used for town-to-town express services.