Arriva orders 419 new buses for UK bus fleet
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Posted: 22 February 2011 | Arriva plc | 1 comment
Arriva plc have placed £70 million of orders for its UK bus business which will see more than 400 new buses come into service during 2011…
Arriva plc, one of the UK’s leading bus operators, today confirmed it has placed £70 million of orders for its UK bus business which will see more than 400 new buses come into service during 2011. The orders build on the significant fleet renewal and growth by the group in recent years bringing the total in UK bus fleet investment to £250m since 2008.
The investment will mean passengers across the UK will see new or newer buses on the roads in all of Arriva’s operating areas, including London. The new buses will further increase the proportion of accessible low-floor vehicles in the company’s UK bus fleet, which reached 86 per cent in 2010, making bus travel more accessible to more people.
Arriva has improved the environmental performance of its services through the use of EcoManager, a dashboard-mounted fuel-saving system, now installed across all UK bus operations. Passengers have also noted improvements in the cleanliness and condition of Arriva’s buses in an independent survey of UK bus customers.
Mike Cooper, managing director – Arriva UK Bus, said: “This order demonstrates our commitment to further improving the reliability and standards of our bus services for our customers. Together with our operational performance record, the commitment to maintaining investment will give our local authority partners added confidence to do business with us.
“New investment and the bus refurbishment campaign being rolled out across the business help us meet the quality service standards our customers have told us they expect and value. Bus travel offers great value for people, especially with recent VAT increases and fuel price hikes. We hope this investment will encourage more people to give the bus a try.”
Arriva’s sightseeing business in the capital, The Original Tour, will take delivery of 16 new open-top buses. The investment will play an important role in building upon the popularity of the sightseeing tours. The order also features 20 hybrid double deckers for London which will operate on route 73 from September 2011.
All new buses will feature Euro V engines, CCTV and EcoManager as standard and easy-access low floor entry.
Notes:
* Vehicle manufacturers include: Optare, VDL, Volvo and Wrightbus
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Mike Cooper
FAO Mike Cooper:
Sir – I have been flitting backwards and forwards through Google, trying to make sense of the Arriva policies in Kent, specifically the Maidstone/Grafty Green service, No 59, which I have to use, as I do not drive.
Walking to the Loose Road to catch Marden or Coxheath buses is quite simply not an option; too far for anyone older or with any health difficulties.
I see that Arriva joined the Green Journeys campaign, with a blueprint to take one billion car journeys off the UK roads?
How on earth do you square this with making the last bus from Maidstone now leave at 5.15, meaning that most people who work (and are therefore your PAYING customers!) will not have time to get to the last bus before it leaves and will be reduced to taking their cars….??
Since there is no bus to town, from Boughton Monchelsea between the 7.45 and 9.52,presumably workers are now having to get into town at about 8am and hang around for one or two hours before work….or TAKE THEIR CARS….
I fully understand that you are running a business and altruism is not a top priority, but I do wonder if a site visit to Maidstone might not be (financially) beneficial?
The adjoining village to Boughton Monchelsea is Coxheath, which runs buses at twenty minute intervals, most of them with only four or five passengers. All the residents of BM need to be registered with doctors in Coxheath, as there is no surgery in our village. We have to make a four- buses journey, to and from the Coxheath, standing on a cold, windy main road intersection, to wait for the Coxheath bus. Is there not a case for having a feeder bus from Boughton Monchelsea to Coxheath at intervals, so that your Coxheath service would be better used (and possibly you could also win back the commuters that you have treated so dismissively? ) We also I suspect have on the 59 service a good proportion of that remaining 14% of old buses. This is quite tough on elderly people, wrestling with shopping trolleys on high steps into the old double deckers.
Mr Cooper, please come to Maidstone and take a ride on one of our (THREE!!) daily 59 buses into town from the villages and do a straw poll amongst the passengers; I suspect you may be surprised at the level of disenchantment. I believe that someone needs to take an informed overview of how your rural services might be improved, in a way that should encourage greater bus usage,winning you more paying customers, more profit…and contributing to, rather than working against, that “billion car journeys” promise.
Kind regards
Trishka Saffery