Arriva North East

Arriva North East is a division of the transport group Arriva. It is a major provider of bus services around north east England, alongside Stagecoach North East, and Go North East. The company has its origins in United Automobile Services (see history below), encompassing the current day operations of Arriva Northumbria, Arriva Tees & District, Arriva Durham County and Arriva Teesside.

It is a major operator around County Durham, Tyneside and the Tees Valley and runs regular buses as far north as Berwick-upon-Tweed, west to Carlisle and as far south as Scarborough in North Yorkshire (southern half of North Yorkshire and West, South and East Yorkshire are served by Arriva Yorkshire. It operates over 400 buses on a mixture of local and interurban work.

History
In the mid-1990s, North East Bus Ltd (formerly known as United Automobile Services) operated bus services across North East England under the United, Tees & District and Teesside Motor Services brands. The company was then owned by West Midlands Travel, which sold it to the Cowie Group on 31 July 1996.

The deal reunited United with Northumbria Motor Services, an existing Cowie subsidiary, whicha had been spun off during from United during deregulation in 1986, subsequently becoming part of the Proud Mutual Group. Northumbria, together with Kentish Bus, has been acquired by Cowie in 1994.

Now under common ownership, North East Bus and Northumbria Motor Services continued to operate separate entities. From 17 November 1997 Cowie became Arriva and, over the following months, the Arriva identity was introduced. North East Bus became Arriva North East, United became Arriva Durham County, Tees & District became Arriva Tees & District, Teesside Motor Services became Arriva Teesside and Northumbria Motor Services became Arriva Northumbria. Gradually, the operations of Arriva North East and Arriva Northumbria were integrated, with common fleet numbering and management.

Depots
Depots in company ownership are as follows:

Arriva Durham County
 * Darlington Faverdale – ex-Stagecoach in Darlington depot
 * Durham - (Belmont Business Park, Belmont)
 * Stockton-on-Tees - (Boathouse Lane)
 * Redcar - (Ennis Road, Dormanstown)
 * Whitby - (Fairfield Way, Stainsacre) (Is now outstation of Redcar)

Arriva Northumbria
 * Ashington - (Lintonville Terrace)
 * Blyth (Bridge Street)
 * Newcastle (Jesmond) - (Portland Terrace, Jesmond Road)

Routes
This is a list of services run by Arriva North East:

County Durham
Areas covered: Bishop Auckland, Chester-le-Street, Darlington, Durham, Newton Aycliffe, Peterlee

Northumbria
Areas covered: Ashington, Berwick, Blyth, Cramlington, Morpeth

Tees Valley & Whitby
Areas covered: Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar, Scarborough, Stockton, Whitby, Yarm

Tyne and Wear
Areas covered: Gateshead, Gosforth, MetroCentre, Newcastle, North Shields, Sunderland, Whitley Bay



Moorsbus
Arriva North East operate two duties on Moorsbus, from their Darlington & Stockton on Tees Depots. These services are normally operated by Scania OmniCity vehicles.

From 2010, Moorsbus service M12 will no longer commence from Hartlepool, instead starting from Middlesbrough bus station.

Richmond
Until 4 March 2006, a depot was also operated at Richmond however this was closed with the only remaining Arriva services through Richmond being the X26/27/28 and 34 routes linking the town with Catterick Garrison and Darlington and now operated from the Darlington depot. At this time most of the council supported services previously run by Arriva were taken on by Dales & District to the same timetables and staffed by many of the drivers from the former-Richmond depot.

Bishop Auckland: The Eden
The Eden bus company was acquired by North East Bus in 1995 and operated from a base at West Auckland. This depot was quickly closed and the operations moved to Bishop Auckland depot, taking on the function of a "low cost unit". Of the Eden fleet, really only the Leyland Nationals served for any length of time after the take over, though some native United vehicles did wear Eden fleetnames. By the time the Arriva identity appeared, the Eden brand was extinct. The Eden name was subsequently purchased from Arriva by Graeme Scarlett, who revived the spirit of the Eden and operates a small, smart fleet in the familiar red and ivory livery.

Bishop Auckland: Go North East
In March 2006, Go North East announced it was withdrawing from Bishop Auckland with the exception of 3 flagship routes, mainly those linking to Durham and Newcastle, which were transferred to their Chester-le-Street depot. The bulk of its operations (but no vehicles) which had been taken over from OK Travel by Go-Ahead Northern in the 1990s were transferred to Arriva Bishop Auckland. The Go North East depot in Bishop Auckland has since been demolished.

Darlington: Stagecoach
On 9 May 2007 it was announced that Arriva North-East would take over Stagecoach's operations in Darlington, pending OFT approval. As of 26 August 2007 all Stagecoach Darlington services, drivers and vehicles (expect one) were transferred to Arriva North East and repainting of the ex Stagecoach fleet began. From 9 March 2008 all Darlington operations moved to the Faverdale depot. Feethams briefly then operated as an administrative outpost, until the Tubwell Row offices were refurbished. The Feethams depot is now completely closed, and demolished. The site now belongs to Darlington Borough Council, with a car park built on the site.

Loftus
Loftus depot closed after operations on 17 January 2009. Prior to this, services X3/X4 Loftus – Middlesbrough and 789 Redcar – Easington were transferred to Redcar depot from 17 November 2008. After the closure, services 56/X56 Middlesbrough – Whitby were shared between Stockton depot (most of the short journeys) and Whitby outstation (the rest), while Redcar gained services 65/65A Middlesbrough – Loftus and Whitby outstation gained service 828 Laurence Jackson School – Lingdale and kept all of their existing work.

Hexham
On 18 October 2009 it was announced that Arriva will take over Go North East's Ashington Depot in exchange for the operation of Hexham Depot. Arriva will still joint-operate Service 685 Newcastle – Hexham – Carlisle service with Stagecoach North West (Stagecoach in Cumbria), Arriva's buses on the route operating from Jesmond Depot. This exchange took place on 29 March 2010.

Durham
On 1st December 2012 Durham – (Waddington Street) saw use for the final time as a result of the completion of the new Belmont depot, despite the fact that this bus depot was only one minute away from Durham Bus Station, however one depot is cheaper to run than two leading to the closure.

Fleet
Compared to rivals Stagecoach and Go North East, Arriva North East's fleet is fairly old. That said, over the past year Arriva North East have invested hugely in new buses, ousting a large percentage of the older vehicles that once operated in Newcastle, County Durham & Teesside.

Most recent deliveries include:
 * 37 DAF/VDL Wright Pulsar 2 (12 x Redcar, 20 x Stockton, 5 x Darlington transferred from Bishop Auckland)
 * 20 Temsa Avenue (All Redcar)

Arriva North East were the pilots of the very first Temsa Avenue within the United Kingdom, with First Bus following suit.

In 2010, Arriva North East invested in major refurbishment work to some of the newer, existing vehicles, with full interior and exterior refurbishment.

By the end of 2011, another batch of almost 50 new vehicles is expected to have entered service for Arriva North East, replacing some of the older fleet.

Buses expected to be refurbished include:


 * 19 DAF Wright Cadet (All Based At Stockton)
 * 4 Dennis Dart MPD (Redcar Depot)

There are more expected to follow.