Arriva’s £40m fleet upgrade

Arriva UK Bus has announced a £40m investment in a major upgrade of its core fleet during 2014. Arriva has placed orders with Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) and Wrightbus for 231 single deck, double deck and midis for delivery during the next year. To be introduced across Arriva’s UK operations are: 94 ADL Enviro400s, 40 ADL Enviro200s, 70 StreetLite Micro Hybrid single decks, 27 StreetLite Micro Hybrid midis and five Optare Versas for the Yorkshire Tiger service. All of the new buses will be fitted with free wi-fi and CCTV systems. 104 of the new vehicles will form part of the operator’s premium ‘Sapphire’ fleet.

Operations and Commercial Director for Arriva UK Bus, Mark Yexley, said, ‘This announcement takes our investment in fleet renewal in the UK to more than £430m since 2008. This investment in cleaner, greener vehicles allows us to deliver even more environmentally friendly journeys to communities across England and Wales. The introduction of these new buses more than doubles the number of new low carbon vehicles distributed throughout our UK regional businesses since the start of 2013 and clearly highlights our commitment to tackling the environmental challenges we face as a transport provider in the 21st century.’

Chief Executive of ADL, Colin Robertson, said, ‘Arriva has again demonstrated its commitment to next-generation, greener and cleaner buses and we are delighted to be supporting them with our market-leading midi bus and double deck products. Winning the lion’s share of these new orders represents a further endorsement of our pace-setting, low emission vehicles. In addition, multi-million investment of this nature provides a huge boost to the UK bus manufacturing sector in general, supporting production programmes and jobs across the country, as well as in our extensive supplier network.’

Wrights Group MD, Mark Nodder, said, ‘Once again we are delighted to be favoured with this important order from Arriva, a leading European transport operator with whom we have a long standing and fruitful partnership. Arriva’s endorsement of the many Wrightbus vehicles operating in its fleet, together with a positive evaluation of our new pace-setting StreetLite Micro Hybrid bus, has culminated in this substantial new business which will benefit our Ballymena workforce as well as our network of suppliers.’

 

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