Arriva launches new £4.5 million fleet of buses for Liverpool

Arriva, Merseyside's largest bus operator, is set to unveil afleet of brand new vehicles as part of its continuing investment inthe region.

Thirty brand new double deck buses – all low-floor easy-accessand featuring CCTV cameras – will roll into action this week. It isalso the first time that this type of modern bus has been used onregular services in the Liverpool area.

The investment forms part of Arriva's pledge to spend £45million on creating a complete network of easy access buses inMerseyside by 2011. The new buses will feature on the 82 service(Liverpool to Garston/Speke) and the 86A/86N (Liverpool to Garstonand Liverpool John Lennon Airport ), recently re-launched as thecity's first 24-hour route.

Bob Hind, managing director of Arriva North West and Wales,said:

Two years ago, we launched the Le bus network,promising high frequency services on high quality, easy accessbuses. The work we have achieved so far, improving and adding tothe network, will continue – and these new vehicles form a majorstep in this process. Our goal is to continue investing and workingin partnership to achieve further significant and measurableimprovements to public transport on Merseyside.

Volvo Bus Ltd was also delighted to be able to supply thevehicles to Arriva for this significant development. Commercialdirector Steve Dewhurst said;

Last year, Arriva took delivery of more than 100 newVolvo buses across England. I am very pleased to start 2006 wherewe left off with this important delivery to a key customer. Volvois committed to ensuring that these buses deliver the high qualityservice that everyone is looking for.

Notes to editors

• Arriva North West and Wales also recently invested just over£4 million on a brand new fleet of buses for its Runcorn andWidnes network. A total of 39 new vehicles were introduced on 9January
• Arriva plc is one of the largest transport servicesorganisations in Europe, providing more than one billion passengerjourneys every year
• Arriva is one of the UK's largest bus operators, with over6,000 vehicles serving customers in the North West, North East andSouth East of England, Yorkshire, the Midlands, Scotland andWales