Press releases

• Arriva pledges to invest up to £45 million in local bus services, representing £85 million over ten years
• Arriva's vision: a high quality bus network at the heart of local transport on Merseyside

Arriva North West and Wales has set out its vision for the future success of buses on Merseyside, representing a potential investment by the company of up to £45 million, which would then bring its total investment over ten years to some £85 million.

One of the top five employers on Merseyside, Arriva would commit up to £20 million to provide easy access, low floor bus buses on all main routes serving Liverpool by 2008, and would invest a further £25 million to provide low floor buses on the whole of its network across Merseyside by 2011.

Released today, Arriva's proposals – 'Buses on Merseyside: The next five years' - call for stronger partnerships and joint commitments – including investment of some £75 million - from Merseytravel and other local authority partners.

In the document, Arriva points out that only by working together will its vision work, and has urged potential partners to ensure that the real benefits of its investment are realised and that maximum benefit is delivered for bus users. To achieve better bus priorities to improve service punctuality, it calls for closer links between Merseytravel and the highway authorities – even proposing a transfer to Merseytravel of these powers.

Arriva's further investment is set to continue the revolutionary changes in bus service quality that the company has pioneered in the five years since it purchased the ailing Merseybus business. Since 2000, Arriva has invested £40 million in new vehicles, improvements to depots and garages, and employee development.

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

When we took over Merseybus, we set out our commitments to the people of Merseyside – and we have delivered on our promises.

We bought 250 new buses, delivered higher frequency services with a vastly improved range of tickets and improved accessibility to information. A recent independent NOP survey showed that over 92 per cent of our customers were satisfied with our services, but we're not complacent – only the best is good enough for Merseyside.

He said:

We are now sharing our vision of how bus services could and should operate on Merseyside. Our proposals are an unprecedented commitment to working in partnership to deliver this success whilst maintaining an effective and sustainable network.

Our network in Merseyside offers one of the highest levels of integration in the country and we want to work towards ever-closer links between transport modes.

Arriva has outlined how the quality of school bus services must be improved, calling for stringent quality controls for operators that are selected through the local authority tendering process.

It also includes a new approach to the long-term funding of the Merseytravel concessionary travel scheme and a revised and revitalised multi-operator and multi-modal travel ticket.

The success of Arriva's ground-breaking Le bus network, now with 147 buses, has shown that customers welcome better quality services running at high frequency. And Arriva's vision is to continue to develop existing services to the Le bus standard.

Bob Hind added:

Buses are good for the environment, are better for road use, the economy and for social inclusion. We're ready to commit to further investment, however for our vision to be achieved, we need the commitment of our partners – only together can we make a difference for the people of Merseyside.

More information about Arriva bus services on Merseyside is available from the website – www.arrivabus.co.uk - or via the dedicated customer comment helpline 07004 277 482 (07004 ARRIVA).