Arriva North West

Arriva North West is a division of Arriva that operates bus services around North West England. It consists of two companies: Arriva North West Ltd and Arriva Merseyside Ltd.

Arriva North West as an operating division (distinct from the registered company Arriva North West Ltd) came into being in its present form in January 2009, when Arriva Buses Wales was separated out from Arriva North West and Wales, although it had existed as an operating division between 1997 and 2002.

Arriva North West has a fleet of buses numbering just under 1,000.

History
Arriva North West was originally formed following the split of Ribble Motor Services in readiness for privatisation in 1986, with the operations in Merseyside, West Lancashire and Wigan operating as North Western. The name was taken from the former North Western operations, which ran between 1923 and 1976. The current North Western operations were taken over by Drawlane (who would later be renamed as British Bus) in 1988, who would also took over the operations of the Bee Line Buzz Company, who ran services in Greater Manchester. In 1996, British Bus was bought by the Cowie Group, which subsequently became Arriva, with services renamed as Arriva North West in 1998.

In February 2000, the company acquired MTL Trust Holdings, which created a larger presence in the Merseyside area and more than doubling the size of the company. In 2002, Arriva North West merged with Arriva Cymru and renamed as Arriva North West and Wales. Three former Arriva Midlands depots in Crewe, Macclesfield and Winsford were transferred into the North West & Wales operation, although the depot at Crewe was closed in December 2005.

Arriva expanded more in July 2005 by taking over Blue Bus of Bolton, which almost doubled their presence in Greater Manchester. In January 2009, the Wales operation was split from Arriva North West as Arriva Buses Wales with the Arriva North West name resurrected for the North West England operations.

Although the company is officially known as Arriva North West, some operations were originally registered under alternative Arriva names. Former Bee Line operations were registered as Arriva Manchester, some Liverpool operations and, slightly confusingly, the former Blue Bus operations were registered as Arriva Liverpool. As of Autumn 2011 a large proportion of services in Merseyside remain registered under the separate Arriva Merseyside Ltd licence.

Operating centres
The company has depots in:


 * Birkenhead - Laird Street.
 * Bolton - Folds Road.
 * Bootle - Hawthorne Road.
 * Liverpool (Stoneycroft) - Green Lane.
 * Liverpool (Speke) - Shaw Road (sometimes referred to as Woodend Avenue).
 * Macclesfield - Lyme Green - Gaw End Lane. (Now regarded as an outstation of Winsford)
 * Manchester - St Andrew's Square (near Manchester Piccadilly station).
 * Runcorn - Beechwood.
 * St Helens - Jackson Street.
 * Southport - Canning Road.
 * Winsford - Road Four, Winsford Industrial Estate.
 * Wythenshawe (Manchester) - Greeba Road, Roundthorn Industrial Estate.

Past depots, now closed or sold, have included:


 * Crewe - Delamere Street (closed December 2005)
 * Gillmoss - East Lancashire Road (sold to Glenvale Transport in July 2001, in response to a Competition Commission requirement)
 * Huyton - Wilson Road (closed 2006)
 * Skelmersdale - Neverstitch Road (closed 23 July 2011)
 * Warrington - Athlone Road (closed February 2002)

Main route network
As of April 2012

Cheshire
Some Arriva services in Cheshire are run by Arriva Buses Wales.

Night bus network
As of December 2011

Fleet
The fleet consists of approximately 950 operational vehicles as of March 2012, consisting of a wide variety of makes and types. The fleet is about 79% single-deck and 94% low-floor. Arriva stated its intention to make its main routes serving Liverpool completely low-floor by 2008, and the whole of Merseyside by 2011.

Single deck
The Dennis Dart SLF, along with its smaller variant the MPD, still makes up a significant part of the fleet, accounting for just over 200 vehicles. The last step-entrance Dennis Darts have been withdrawn. More recently, the VDL SB120 and SB200 have become the standard single deck types, the majority featuring Wright Cadet, Commander and Pulsar bodywork; between them, these types now make up over a third of the fleet. Other new deliveries since 2007 have included ten Alexander Dennis Enviro300, four Alexander Dennis Enviro200 Darts and fifteen Optare Solos.

The only remaining step entry single deckers are seventeen Scania L113s with Northern Counties Paladin bodywork, sixteen of which are based at St Helens, the other being unallocated.

Double deck
On the double-deck side of the fleet, a total of 47 new VDL DB300s with Wright Gemini 2 bodywork are being delivered to Speke and Winsford depots, the bulk of the order, 44 buses, intended for the former. 35 Alexander Dennis Enviro400s entered service in 2009, mainly displacing Volvo Olympians. Twenty-three of the Enviro400s were for routes through the Mersey Tunnels, these being the first vehicles in the fleet to carry the interurban (now standard) variant of Arriva livery, apart from a solitary demonstrator. The other twelve were for services between Bootle and Aigburth Vale. Previously, 30 Volvo B7TL with Alexander ALX400 bodywork had entered service on services between Liverpool and Garston in 2006. The low floor double-deck fleet has been boosted by over 50 DAF DB250 with Alexander ALX400 bodywork and six Wright Eclipse Gemini-bodied Volvos from Arriva London, and three Dennis Tridents with Plaxton President bodywork that were acquired with the Blue Bus business in Bolton.

The dwindling fleet of step-entrance double-deckers consists mainly of around thirty Northern Counties bodied Volvo Olympians.

Unusual vehicles
Unusual vehicles in the fleet include the Ikarus 481 and Polaris bodies on DAF SB220 chassis, acquired with the Blue Bus fleet. The seven Polaris bodies account for a majority of those imported. There are also four MAN 14.220s with East Lancs Myllennium bodywork based at Bolton. Until October 2008, twelve Neoplan N4016 were operated on service 18A from Liverpool to Croxteth Park, and were the only vehicles of their type in Britain.

Speke depot received a total of ten Mercedes-Benz Citaro articulated buses from Arriva London in 2011. Two branded vehicles arrived for use on the AirLink 501 route in June 2011, and from September 2011, a further eight standard livery examples found use on service 699 between the University of Liverpool and Carnatic Halls. In November 2011, articulated vehicles were first used on the AirLink 500 route between Liverpool city centre and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.