Step forward the Arriva bus driver idol 2004

Following a search across the UK, the first ever Arriva BusDriver Idol has finally been chosen.

Keith Henderson has been selected from over 200 votes fromappreciative passengers who called the Bus Driver Idol hotlineearlier this month. Keith, who is based at the Ashington depot, wasvoted for many reasons, including his 'helpful and generous manner,for being 'pleasant and polite' and for always having a smile togreet passengers. There were also a considerable number ofnominations for many other bus drivers across the North East.

Bus Driver Idol was commissioned following the results fromrecent independent research undertaken by NOP. From a survey ofover 15,000 respondents, 91 per cent of those questioned rated thebus driver highly when scoring the various factors affecting theenjoyment of their journey.

Steve Noble, managing director of Arriva North East/Northumbriasaid:

Bus drivers are obviously an integral part of ourbusiness, and our search for the Bus Driver Idol is spurred on bythe results from the NOP survey. Looking at the number of voteswe've received on our dedicated hotline, Bus Driver Idol has beenextremely successful, and proves just how popular our drivers arewith our customers.

We'd like to congratulate Keith on winning thisnational contest and also to thank our customers who voted for allof our drivers across the North East.

To help people make more of their local bus services, includingfinding their own Bus Driver Idol, timetable information anddiscount vouchers are being delivered to households throughout theregion. These door drops form part of Arriva's 'Going your way'campaign. They will provide specific information about local busroutes, including times of first and last buses, how often they runthrough the day, how to get to key destinations and details ofbargain, multi-journey tickets.

Note to editors

Arriva's award-winning 'Going your way' campaign aims toencourage people to review the journeys they make, consideringwhether more could be better made by bus.