| Arriva North West | |
| Parent: | Arriva UK Bus |
| Headquarters: | Aintree |
| Locale: | North West England |
| Service Area: | Merseyside Cheshire Greater Manchester Lancashire |
| Service Type: | Bus services |
| Hubs: | Wigan Liverpool Manchester Runcorn St Helens Southport Widnes |
| Fleet: | 605 (November 2023)[1] |
Arriva North West[2] [3] is a major bus operator running services in North West England in the Merseyside area. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus.
Arriva North West was originally formed following the split of Ribble Motor Services in preparation for privatisation in 1986,[4] [5] with the operations in Merseyside, West Lancashire and Wigan trading as North Western. The name was taken from the former North Western operations, which ran between 1923 and 1976. In 1988 the North Western operations were sold to Drawlane who was later sold to British Bus,[6] who 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.[7] [8] In November 1997 Cowie was rebranded as Arriva with North Western becoming Arriva North West in 1998.
In February 2000, Arriva North West purchased MTL Trust Holdings, which created a larger presence in the Merseyside area and more than doubled the size of the company.[9] [10] [11] In 2002, Arriva North West merged with Arriva Buses Wales to form Arriva North West & Wales. Three former Arriva Midlands depots in Crewe, Macclesfield and Winsford were transferred into the North West & Wales operation, although Crewe closed in December 2005.[4] [12]
In July 2005, Arriva purchased Blue Bus & Coach Services for £2.9 million, which almost doubled their presence in Greater Manchester.[13] 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.[4]
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 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[2] licence, all other services are registered under the Arriva North West licence.[3]
The company has depots in:
Past depots, now closed or sold, have included:
As of November 2023, the Arriva North West fleet consists of 605 buses operated out of the company's eight depots.
During the 2010s, Arriva North West heavily invested in Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B5LH hybrid electric double decker buses, operated mainly alongside its fleet of conventional diesel Alexander Dennis Enviro400s. Arriva first took delivery of 44 Volvo B5LH hybrids with Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodywork in spring 2013, with eleven delivered to Bolton and 33 delivered to Birkenhead for "CrossRiver" branded services.[16] [17] An additional 51 Volvo B5LH hybrids with Wright Gemini 3 bodywork would later enter service at Green Lane and Speke depots in early 2017 on services in Liverpool, after initial use on rail replacement services.[18]
Alongside the large fleet of hybrid electric buses, Arriva North West has also invested in smaller amounts of zero-emissions buses. In 2014, nineteen Caetano EcoCity compressed natural gas-powered buses entered service with the company,[19] followed by a batch of twelve BYD Alexander Dennis Enviro200EV battery electric buses at Green Lane depot in November 2017, which were both the first fully electric powered vehicles operated by Arriva North West and the first Enviro200EVs to be delivered to an operator in the United Kingdom outside London.[20]
Arriva North West took delivery of ten Alexander Dennis Enviro400FCEV fuel cell buses funded by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority in early 2023, intended for use on service 10A between Liverpool and St Helens via Knowsley in partnership with Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire,[21] [22] however issues with the supply of hydrogen fuel have meant that Arriva's Enviro400FCEVs have yet to regularly enter service.[23]