Лестерширдегі Arriva Midlands East автобус компаниясының тарихы

British bus company operating in Leicestershire

Arriva Midlands East is a bus company operating services in Leicestershire, England. It is a trading division of Arriva Midlands which is a subsidiary of Arriva plc which is itself owned by the government of Germany through Deutsche Bahn.

In September 1981 Midland Red East was formed with 181 buses operating from five depots in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire as part of the breakup of the Midland Red bus company, and in January 1984 was renamed Midland Fox. In 1987 it was privatised in a management buyout. Several smaller operators including Loughborough Bus & Coach Company were purchased and in 1989 it was sold to the Drawlane Group. In November 1992 it was sold to British Bus which in August 1996 was sold to the Cowie Group. In September 1996 the Sandacre Street, Leicester depot was closed. Arriva operated services around the Hinckley area until August 2008 when the operations were sold to Centrebus Holdings, a joint venture between Centrebus and Arriva. Arriva regained the Hinckley operations during 2013 when Centrebus ended their involvement in Centrebus Holdings and Arriva rebranded the Hinckley operation as Hinckley Bus, During late 2018 Arriva merged the Hinckley Bus services into their Leicestershire operations with the Hinckley Bus name ceasing to exist.

Arriva operate most of their services around Leicester from either Haymarket or St Margaret's Bus Stations with a number of services operating from on street stops within the city centre. Services around the Coalville area are operated from on street stops around Marlborough Square and Memorial Square, while local services in Hinckley are operated from Hinckley Bus station located on Waterloo Road.

Arriva operate from three depots across Leicestershire in Barwell, Coalville, and Thurmaston which is the headquarters for Arriva Midlands. Until October 2021 there was a fourth depot located in South Wigston but this closed after being open since 1957 with most services being transferred to Thurmaston depot. Until their cessation in July 2022, ArrivaClick services around Leicester were based at the Barwell depot.

As of June 2022 the fleet consists of 205+ vehicles. Arriva repainted one of their DAF DB250 Wright Pulsar Gemini's into the Midland Fox livery as a nod to Leicester's heritage during 2019; this bus was scrapped in 2022 due to engine failure. During 2021 Leicester City Council successfully applied for £11 million of funding from the Government's ZEBRA scheme, which was used for Arriva Midlands to order 22 Wright StreetDeck Electroliner battery electric buses, which are scheduled to be delivered for use on services across Leicester in April 2024. They are to be Arriva's first electric double deck buses delivered outside London. From January 2023, a brand new fleet of 8 Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 MMCs and 28 Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 MMCs entered service in Leicester, helping to replace older buses in the fleet.