Arriva Sapphire is a premium brand used by various Arriva bus subsidiaries in the United Kingdom.

History

In February 2013, Arriva UK Bus announced that it would launch a premium service under the Sapphire brand for its bus services in the United Kingdom. It is similar to the Stagecoach Gold brand launched by

Stagecoach Group Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses, express coaches and a tram service in the United Kingdom. History Stagecoach was born out of deregulation of the British express coach market in the early ...

in 2007. Arriva initially launched the Sapphire brand on four pilot routes: * Arriva Buses Wales' route 1 Wrexham to

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

* Arriva Midlands' route 31/31a Oadby to

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

this route now uses any vehicles *

Arriva North East Arriva North East operates both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It is a subsidiary of Arriva UK Bus, which operates bus and coach services across the United K ...

's route 7

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

to Durham *

Arriva Shires & Essex Arriva Shires & Essex is a bus operator providing services in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire, with services extending to Oxfordshire and Greater London. Until 2002 its operations included Colchester. It is a subsidiary o ...

's route 280

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wy ...

to Oxford In 2014, the brand was extended to 11 more routes with another six scheduled for conversion in late 2015. In 2017, Arriva Sapphire was rebranded with a new logo and livery, in line with the switchover to the new Arriva brand. In 2018, the Arriva Sapphire logo was updated again, to reflect the new brand. In 2019, Arriva Midlands routes 1, 2, 2E running between Walsall and Cannock/Huntington were downgraded to regular buses after six years of Sapphire. Further routes across the country have since been withdrawn or removed from the Sapphire brand. In 2022, Arriva started to phase out the Sapphire brand nationally, with the majority of buses being repainted into the standard Arriva livery or replaced with new buses.

Routes

AlexanderDennis Enviro200 MMC YX17 NPE MiltonKeynes (cropped)

As at November 2022, there were 32 Arriva Sapphire routes.

Former services

Vehicles

Buses have leather seats, free WiFi, power ports, and a modified two tone blue livery. The initial pilot routes commenced with a mix of refurbished double deck buses and new Wright Pulsar bodied VDL SB200s. Mostly since then, new buses have been purchased, primarily

Alexander Dennis Enviro400 The Alexander Dennis Enviro400 is a twin-axle low-floor bus, low-floor double-decker bus that was built by the United Kingdom, British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis between 2005 and 2018. It replaced the Alexander ALX400, Dennis Trident 2, ...

s, Wright StreetLites and Wright StreetDecks. A number of Wright Pulsar/Pulsar 2 vehicles have been refurbished to operate Sapphire routes. In 2020 a selection of Optare Versas in Yorkshire were repainted into the new Arriva Sapphire livery.

References

External links