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 includes services once operated by North East Bus (in its southern region) and Northumbria Buses (in the northern region) It is a major operator around County Durham, Tyneside and the Tees Valley and runs regular buses as far north as Berwick-upon-Tweed and as far south as Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire. It operates over 400 buses.

History

The Arriva North East company was previously named North East Bus (composed of "United Automobile Services", "Trimdon Motor Services" (TMS) and "Tees & District Ltd"). When the parent companies of Northumbria and North East buses was purchased by Arriva, North East Bus and Northumbria were merged into one group. On the 2 April 1998 these sub-companies were renamed "Arriva Durham County", "Arriva Teesside", "Arriva Tees & District", and "Arriva Northumbria". respectively and the whole group becoming Arriva North-East. The Arriva livery had begun to replace the former colours by December 1997 when Lynx 5005 and new Darts 1601-9 gained the turquoise livery. The last vehicle delivered in United livery was Metrorider 2710, and the last to wear it before repaint into Arriva colours was Delta 4020. The fleet of the Leyland National buses were expected to be repainted into the Arriva livery but were never repainted but an Arriva logo was patched over the old United, TMS and Tees logo on the buses. They were withdrawn from service between 2001 and 2002 due to the age of the Leyland Nationals with the newest of the buses being 20 years old.

Buses from the original North East Bus company display "Arriva, Serving the North East", whilst the ex Northumbria group buses display " Arriva, Serving Northumbria". Although primiarily Arriva Northumbia serve Newcastle Upon Tyne and its surrouding area, Arriva Durham County and Arriva Teesside run services in the area, namely the X1 from Middlesbrough to Newcastle via Stockton and Durham the 21/21A (213/214) from Middlesbrough/Darlington to Sunderland and the 23 (230) from Hartlepool to Sunderland.

Depots and services

The "Southern" half of the company consists of three operators and a total of eight depots. "Arriva Durham County Ltd" has depots at Bishop Auckland, Durham, Peterlee and Darlington with an outstation at Barnard Castle. "Arriva Teesside" is based at a depot in Stockton-on-Tees and "Arriva Tees & District" at Loftus with an outstation at Whitby, and the Redcar depot based at Dormanstown in the outer suburbs of the town.

The "Northern" half of the group consists of "Arriva Northumbria" having a total of five depots at Alnwick, Ashington, Blyth, and the Jesmond depot in Newcastle Upon Tyne, and also Hexham

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. The Scania Omnicity used by Stockton depot is usually provided by the Redcar depot.

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 "United" in 1995 and operated in Bishop Auckland. This continued under Arriva ownership (although no vehicles remained in Eden livery and were mostly in United red and white) and the company was closed by January 2000, with operations taken over by Bishop Auckland depot. However the Eden name lives on with an independent operator in Bishop Auckland who bought the trading name from Arriva.

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 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. If the takeover goes ahead this will make Arriva the primary bus operator in the town and the current Arriva depot near the town centre at Feethams will be closed with all operations moved to the present Stagecoach depot in the north-west of the town at Faverdale. [ [http://www.arriva.co.uk/arriva/en/media_centre/press_releases/2007/2007-05-09/ Arriva - Cheaper travel for passengers as Arriva takes over Stagecoach's Darlington services ] ]

As of 26 August 2007 all Stagecoach Darlington services are now operated by Arriva North East with most of the transferred vehicles being repainted into Arriva colours.

From 9 March 2008 all Arriva vehicles will operate from the Faverdale depot. Feethams will only operate as an administration outpost from then, until the Tubwell Row offices have been refurbished.

Major locations served

*Alnwick
*Ashington
*Barnard Castle
*Berwick-upon-Tweed
*Bishop Auckland
*Blyth
*Carlisle
*Catterick Garrison
*Chester-le-Street
*Cramlington
*Darlington
*Durham
*Durham Tees Valley Airport
*Gateshead
*Guisborough
*Haltwhistle
*Hartlepool
*Hexham
*Ingleby Barwick
*Loftus
*Metrocentre
*Middlesbrough
*Morpeth
*Newcastle upon Tyne
*Newton Aycliffe
*Peterlee
*Redcar
*Richmond
*Scarborough
*Stockton-On-Tees
*Stokesley
*Sunderland
*Tynemouth
*Whitby
*Whitley Bay
*Yarm

Fleet

Compared to rivals Stagecoach and Go North East, Arrvia's fleet is quite old. In particular, the fleet around Redcar and East Cleveland is very old and unreliable, while Newcastle/Darlington/ Durham have new vehicles replacing more modern buses. The number of low floor buses around the Redcar and Cleveland area is now very low, and the fleet is in urgent need of modernisation.

ee also

*List of bus operators of the United Kingdom

References

External links

* [http://www.arrivabus.co.uk/ Arriva UK bus website]