Arriva Trains Wales DVT at Cardiff Central by Jeremy Segrott.jpg

Arriva plc is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England.Companies House extract company no 347103
It was established in 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. and through a number of mergers and acquisitions was rebranded Arriva in 1997 and became a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn in 2010. Arriva operates bus, coach, train, tram and waterbus services in 14 countries across Europe. As of September 2018, it employed 61,845 people and operated 2.4 billion passenger journeys annually. It operates as three divisions: UK Bus, UK Rail and Mainland Europe. Deutsche Bahn announced in 2019 they wished to sell Arriva, but the sale was placed on hold as of November in that year.

History

The company was founded by T. S. K. Cowie in Sunderland in 1938 as a second-hand motorcycle dealer trading as T. Cowie Limited.History and growth
Arriva In 1948 the business was re-launched by Tom Cowie, the founder's son, still selling motorcycles.Background
Sir Tom Cowie T Cowie plc was floated in December 1964, and in 1965 it bought out the first of many car dealerships.

In 1972, it formed Cowie Contract Hire, which became the largest contract hire business in the UK. In 1980 T. Cowie made its first foray into bus operations, buying the Grey-Green operation in London from the George Ewer Group."How Arriva arrived in the Capital"
''Focus Transport'' February 2012

In 1984, T. Cowie p.l.c. acquired the Hanger Group, which included Interleasing, a large vehicle leasing business.History
Masterlease Further leasing companies acquired were Marley Leasing, RoyScot Drive and Ringway Leasing. Following the retirement of Tom Cowie, the company was renamed Cowie Group plc in April 1994.

As part of the privatisation of London bus services, Cowie Group acquired the Leaside Buses and South London Transport business units in September 1994 and January 1995.

Cowie p.l.c. bought United Automobile Services and British Bus in July and August 1996, both of which had acquired a number of privatised bus companies. As a result of these transactions, in October 1996 Cowie Group was reclassified on the stock exchange from a motor dealer to a transport group.

In November 1997, the company was rebranded as Arriva p.lc. In that year it also bought Unibus in Denmark, its first venture outside the United Kingdom.

In June 1999, Arriva sold its vehicle-hire business to General Motors. In February 2000 Arriva purchased MTL Holdings, which included its first UK rail franchises, Merseyrail Electrics and Northern Spirit. In 2002/03 Arriva sold its motor-retailing businesses and in February 2006 it sold its vehicle-rental business to Northgate. In April 2008 the LNWR train maintenance business in England was acquired.

In 2010, it was reported that the government-owned railway companies of France (SNCF) and Germany (Deutsche Bahn) were considering making takeover bids for the business. SNCF subsidiary Keolis and Arriva entered discussions regarding a merger, but in April 2010 Deutsche Bahn made a takeover offer for Arriva at £7.75 a share (£1.585 billion). The takeover was approved by the European Commission in August 2010, conditional on Deutsche Bahn disposing of some Arriva services in Germany.DB/Arriva
European Commission 11 August 2010 The takeover took effect on 27 August 2010, and Arriva was delisted from the London Stock Exchange on 31 August 2010.

In late 2011, Arriva acquired Grand Central"Arriva in Grand Central Railway takeover"
. ''BBC News''. 4 November 2011. and sold its Arriva Scotland West bus operation."Arriva exits Scotland with Sale to McGill's"
''Bus & Coach Professional'' 14 December 2011 In May 2013 Arriva purchased Veolia Transport's Central European business with 3,400 vehicles."DB acquires Central European business operations from Veolia"
. Deutsche Bahn. 16 May 2013."Arriva takes Veolia business"
''Bus & Coach Professional'' 20 May 2013"Arriva takes the lead in central and east Europe"
. ''Passenger transport''. 22 May 2013.

Arriva changed its logo in January 2018.

In March 2019, DB announced that it would be selling Arriva through either a sale or possible public flotation and invited companies interested in acquiring it to register expressions of interest by 3 May, but by mid-November the sale was placed on hold.

Current operations

Croatia

Bus

In May 2013, Arriva entered the Croatian bus market with the purchase of Panturist Veolia Osijek ( Veolia Transport Central Europe) with 120 buses. In August 2017 Arriva took a 78.34% share in Autotrans Group (ATG), thus becoming the number one private bus operator in Croatia

Czech Republic

Arriva group bought three medium-sized bus transport companies (Transcentrum Bus s.r.o., Bosák Bus s.r.o. and Osnado s.r.o.) in 2006 and 2007 end established its own rail transport company Arriva vlaky s.r.o. in 2009. These four companies are owned through Arriva holding Česká republika s.r.o. which is owned by the Dutch company Arriva Coöperatie W.A. (majority of 99.9% since 2008).

In July 2013, the current Veolia Transport Česká republika a.s. with its four subsidiary companies fell under Arriva group as Arriva Transport Česká republika a.s. The daughter companies were simultaneously renamed and rebranded as Arriva Praha s.r.o., Arriva Teplice s.r.o., Arriva Vychodni Cechy a.s. and Arriva Morava a.s. They operate primarily buses (it is the biggest bus transport operator in the Czech Republic) but also trolleybuses in Teplice (Arriva Teplice) and Desná Railway (Arriva Morava).

The two Arriva holdings in the Czech Republic have not any direct interconnection yet. Moreover, the Arriva group operated in the Czech Republic also through the German rail transport company Vogtlandbahn GmbH.

Former Abellio's companies Probo Bus and PT Real, purchased in December 2013, are owned by DB Czech Holding s.r.o. which is owned by German DB Mobility Logistics AG.

Bus and coach

In December 2006, Arriva purchased Transcentrum Bus, operating services in Mladá Boleslav District of the Central Bohemian Region, north east of Prague. In January 2007 Arriva acquired Bosák Bus, which operates to the south west of Prague and the Příbram District of the Central Bohemian Region. In November 2007 Arriva acquired Osnado, which operates bus and coach services in the north of Hradec Králové Region in East Bohemia, in the foothills of Krkonoše mountains. The three bus companies retain their original names but with the Arriva corporate logo and livery. At the turn of 2014/2015, Bosák Bus s.r.o. was merged with Transcentrum Bus s.r.o. and Transcentrum Bus s.r.o. renamed to Arriva Střední Čechy s.r.o.

In July 2013, eolia TransportČeská republika a.s. was purchased with its four subsidiary companies which were renamed Arriva Morava, Arriva Praha, Arriva Teplice and Arriva Východní Čechy. These four companies are owned by holding company Arriva Transport Česká republika. It also operates trolleybuses in Teplice (Arriva Teplice) and trains in Desná Railway (Arriva Morava).

In December 2013, Abellio's Probo Bus and PT Real operations were purchased with 110 buses. As at November 2016, Arriva operated 1,960 buses in the Czech Republic.Arriva Czech Republic
Arriva

Train

German rail transport company Vogtlandbahn, owned by Arriva since 2004, operated several train routes in the Czech Republic as a subcontractor of České dráhy (München – Regensburg – Hof – Plzeň – Praha, line VB2 Zwickau – Plauen – Bad Brambach – Františkovy Lázně – Cheb – Mariánské Lázně, line VB8 Marktredwitz – Schirnding – Cheb) and GW Train Regio, formerly Viamont (line VB1 Zwickau – Klingenthal – Kraslice – Sokolov). Since December 2010, Vogtlandbahn operates under its own name the line Trilex (Liberec – Zittau – Varnsdorf – Rybniště/Seifhennersdorf). After Arriva was bought by Deutsche Bahn in 2010, Vogtlandbahn was resold to the Italian state railways Ferrovie dello Stato together with Luxembourg infrastructure fund Cube.

Between September 2013 and December 2013, Arriva vlaky tried operating a commercial service from Praha Masarykovo nádraží to Kralupy nad Vltavou in competition with subsidised lines of České dráhy. The company did not succeed with its effort to gain a subsidy for it to continue.

Four trains on the local Desná Railway, operated by Connex Morava (lately Veolia Transport Morava) since 2002, were taken over by Arriva Morava in July 2013. In March 2016, Arriva introduced a weekly service from Praha to Trenčín in Slovakia and daily service from Praha to Benešov. It has applied to increase this to twice daily from December 2016.

Denmark

Bus

In September 1997, Arriva purchased ''Unibus''. In March 1999, Arriva Denmark expanded with the acquisition of ''Bus Danmark'' In April 2001 Arriva acquired Denmark's largest bus operator, ''Combus'' with 1,200 vehicles. In August 2004, Arriva purchased ''Wulff'', which operated buses in Jutland and Copenhagen. In 2007, Arriva acquired ''Veolia Denmark'', then Denmark's second largest bus operator with 640 buses. Arriva operates 50% of bus services in Copenhagen and 40% throughout Denmark.

Train

In mid-2002, Arriva began to operate services on the Varde to Nørre Nebel