Arriva Colchester

[DasLunatic]

Does anyone happen to know why Arriva's Colchester operations were transferred to Arriva Medway, instead of the nearer Arriva Essex? And if so, why do our "new" buses have arriva.co.uk/southend emblazoned on the side?

 

[Mr Manager]

As a former Colchester resident i asked this question to Arriva Management in March last year. The reply i got was down to O Licences held by Essex E;g Harlow where it used to be registered. Personally i think its down to going back to the days when Arriva where literally driven out of town by passengers voting with their feet and ruining the old CBT. A get rid of any association type exercise to fool the public.

 

[90sWereBetter]

It's a shame what's happened to the Colchester operations since Arriva took over TGM a few years ago. TGM invested in the fleet and attempted to grow the operations. Nowadays, the fleet is unbelievably tatty, the four Scania/Olympus deckers bought new have long since disappeared from the town, replaced by a rag-tag bunch of Darts and some knackered ex-London Volvo deckers. With First Essex putting a load of new Streetlites in service recently and investing in a new depot, Arriva are distinctly the poorer operator in town, and I wonder how long they'll last before Arriva pulls the plug again.

 

[Lynford1976]

Just to clarify, Arriva's operations in Colchester are part of Arriva Southern Counties, which is based in Maidstone. ASC has three separate O-licences, as follows:

- Arriva Kent & Surrey, which operates out of Gillingham, Guildford, Maidstone, Sheerness, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.

- Arriva Kent Thameside (in the SE & Metropolitan Traffic Area), operating out of Dartford and Northfleet.

- Arriva Kent Thameside (in the Eastern Traffic Area), operating out of Colchester, Grays, Harlow and Southend.

 

[TAS]

The Essex operations of Arriva have had a chequered management history.

From RN Collins & GR Mills' history of CBT:

• 1996: Cowie acquires British Bus; Cowie's County Bus & Coach (HQ: Harlow, other depots in Ware & Grays) takes control of British Bus's Southend and Colchester operations
• 1998: Cowie rebrands as Arriva; Arriva The Shires (HQ: Luton) takes over control of all the above operations
• 2001: control of Grays, Southend & Colchester passes to Arriva Southern Counties (HQ: Maidstone); Harlow (and Ware) remains under Arriva The Shires

At this point there are three different operators' licences (Arriva Colchester Ltd; Arriva Southend Ltd - including Grays from 2002; Arriva East Herts & Essex Ltd - Grays (until 2002), Harlow & Ware)

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Then, from memory/checking VOSA:

• 2004: TGM acquires Colchester from Arriva (placed on Burtons Coaches Ltd licence)
• 2007: Arriva acquires TGM
• 2008: Arriva TGM acquires Excel Passenger Logistics Ltd (Stansted)
• 2010: Harlow transfers to TGM control; Harlow, Stansted & Colchester operations move onto TGM Group Ltd licence (Ware to Arriva The Shires Ltd licence)
• 2014: Grays & Southend operations transfer onto Arriva Kent Thameside Ltd licence; Arriva Southern Counties takes control of TGM's operations; Stansted depot closes
• 2015: Colchester & Harlow operations transfer onto Arriva Kent Thameside Ltd licence

I believe that there's also been an announcement that Arriva's TfL depots will all be placed under Arriva London control in the near future, which would affect the Grays depot.