Brand New Buses for Cannock Services 60 and 825

Eleven brand new VDL single deck buses have entered service with Arriva Midlands at their Cannock Depot.

The 44 seaters, acquired at a cost of over £1.5 million, will be working on service 60 running between Cannock, Burntwood and Lichfield along with service 825 linking Lichfield, Rugeley and Stafford. Both services run up to every 30 minutes daytime Monday to Saturday and hourly evenings and Sunday.

The choice of VDL with Wrights 44 seat bodywork has followed an intensive evaluation of several makes and models. The VDL/Wrights combination provides excellent passenger accessibility, low emissions and fuel economy.

The introduction of these brand new ‘state of the art’ buses replaces older and smaller capacity buses – giving greater comfort to customers travelling on these popular routes.

Bob Hind, Regional Managing Director for Arriva Midlands said: “I’m delighted that we have been able to make this significant investment in our Cannock operation and I am sure that our customers will be impressed by the new buses. Arriva has a number of this type of vehicle in its fleet and has had a good experience with the VDL and Wrights combination which influenced the decision to choose the model for these services.  The VDL/Wrights has an ideal passenger capacity to cope with peak demand and provides more comfort to our customers. The modern styling also adds to its kerb appeal.”

The 12 metre VDL/Wrights features comfortable high back seats with headrests. The internal colour scheme is to Arriva’s standard style but externally a specially designed and very colourful livery has been adopted.
         
Destination equipment is by Hanover and includes a LED display at the front, side and rear on the vehicles. CCTV is fitted to both the interior and exterior of the buses.

This is an ideal time for Arriva to be moving up a gear and we’re sure we’ll see more customers transferring to our regular, reliable and robust network of local bus services in the Cannock Chase area”.