Arriva North West
National Bus Company subsidiary Ribble Motor Services was divided into smaller units in readiness for privatisation. A new operation comprising Ribble’s routes in Merseyside, West Lancashire and Wigan revived the old North Western name. This was bought by Drawlane, the predecessor of British Bus, in 1988. Drawlane merged the operation with its Bee Line Buzz business in Greater Manchester.
Arriva North West acquired the operations of Merseyside Transport in February 2000. These had originated as municipal operations in Liverpool, Wallasey, Birkenhead, St Helens and Southport, which had merged to form the former Passenger Transport Executive business. This acquisition more than doubled the size of our business in the north west of England.
Arriva North West and Arriva Cymru, its Welsh neighbour, were merged in 2002, to form Arriva North West and Wales. Responsibility was taken for the Crewe, Winsford and Macclesfield operations of Arriva Midlands North in 2003. Blue Bus of Bolton was acquired in 2005, almost doubling our presence in Greater Manchester. The Welsh operations are trading under a separate ‘Arriva Buses Wales’ banner again from January 2009.
Today we provide services from depots in Liverpool, Speke, Bootle, Birkenhead, St Helens, Southport, Skelmersdale, Bolton, Manchester, Wythenshawe, Winsford and Runcorn.