News Releases

Liz Benison, Managing Director, Mainland Europe 

Last week, I spoke at the Global Railway Review online summit on the challenges and opportunities arising from COVID-19 and what this means for the future of rail travel in Europe.  

The pandemic will undoubtedly accelerate changes already underway in pre-COVID times, including greater home working and the rise of online shopping. This will have implications for how and when people use public transport. However, exactly how this will play out is by no means clear and we can already see passengers respond in different ways. For instance, passenger numbers have already bounced back to near-normal levels on Arriva's rail services in Denmark, whereas in the Netherlands we are at the 50% mark. 

Richard McLean, Managing Director, Grand Central Railway

On Sunday I was at York Station to greet our first customer-carrying train in almost four months. For me it was a pivotal moment - one which concluded a huge amount of planning and preparation but also opened the next chapter for us.  It seems a very long time ago that we made the tough but necessary decision to suspend our services. As an Open Access train operator, we‘re not part of a Government franchise which means we rely completely on tickets sales.

Anne Hettinga, Arriva Netherlands CEO

The reaction to Covid-19 in the Netherlands was a so-called ‘intelligent lockdown’, which strived to achieve a balance between implementing necessary measures to tackle the virus while allowing ordinary life to continue as much as possible.

Liz Benison, Managing Director, Mainland Europe 

EU leaders met in Brussels over the weekend to discuss a new long-term budget up to 2027. This is a significant opportunity for EU leaders to shape the future course of Europe’s recovery from COVID-19. Collectively, European governments have it in their hands to use the recovery period to create a more sustainable Europe and build back better and greener. The EU and its Member States should continue to play a pioneering role in the world, reducing emissions and achieving the objectives set in the Green Deal to make the bloc climate neutral by 2050.

By Adam Toone, Business Development Director for DRT, Arriva UK Bus 

This week we’ve announced a new partnership between Arriva, a leading passenger transport company in Europe, and ioki, which develops smart mobility solutions for the future. The partnership will build upon Arriva’s experience in digitalised demand responsive transport.

• The digital Demand Responsive Transport service starts in Watford this week
• Technology powered by ioki enables passengers to be picked up from their nearest ‘virtual’ bus stop
• The service is subsidised by Watford Borough Council as part of a wider plan to make the town carbon neutral by 2030

Jens Boe Jacobsen, Business Development Director at Arriva Denmark

For years, leading scientists, politicians, and organisations have voiced concerns over the consequences of climate change and the need for proper action to be taken to counter the threats. Many countries in Europe have acknowledged the risks and proposed ambitious action plans over the last few years - plans which slowly but surely have been set in motion.

• Arriva now the principal bus operator for the Pilsen Region
• 10-year contract starts this week
• 315 state of the art buses introduced

Mary Hewitt, Interim Managing Director for Chiltern Railways

The reopening of non-essential shops in the UK today marks another important step in returning to some form of normality. We know from research by the customer watchdog, Transport Focus, that many people want to go about their normal lives again, but that some have anxieties around using public transport.  

Chris Burchell, Arriva MD, UK Trains

The global health crisis has been an unwelcome disruption in our lives and affected countless people, but it has brought into sharp focus the importance of public transport in the modern world.

Manfred Rudhart, Arriva CEO 

At a recent meeting with the EU Commission Vice-President, Frans Timmermans, and public transport operators, the continued importance of modal shift was discussed as vital to achieving the EU’s climate targets. Whilst we have seen transport emissions and air pollution levels drop significantly during the pandemic, these are only short-term changes if society goes back to its old ways.

Mary Hewitt, Interim Managing Director for Chiltern Railways

Today I joined a CBI webinar panel on the topic of ‘Transport and the restart’ to discuss the big issues around how we organise and sustain mass public transport, while practically supporting the requirement to socially distance. As someone who runs a train company and would like to see our customers return, these are the very issues keeping me awake at night.