founded 1938 headquarters sunderland england key people dr manfred rudhart ceo products bus coach ferry train & trolleybus services revenue 4.84 billion december 2015 operating income 525 million december 2015 owner deutsche bahn number of employees 55 000 december 2015 website www.arriva.co.uk arriva is a multinational public transport company headquartered in sunderland england . 1 it was established in 1938 as t cowie 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 at december 2015 it employed 55 000 people and operated 2.2 billion passenger journeys annually . 2 it operates as three divisions uk bus uk rail and mainland europe . 3 contents 1 history 2 current operations 2.1 croatia 2.1.1 bus 2.2 czech republic 2.2.1 bus & coach 2.2.2 train 2.3 denmark 2.3.1 bus 2.3.2 train 2.3.3 waterbus 2.4 hungary 2.4.1 bus 2.5 italy 2.5.1 bus & coach 2.6 netherlands 2.6.1 bus & coach 2.6.1.1 contracts 2.6.2 train 2.6.2.1 contracts 2.6.3 bus and train combination 2.7 poland 2.7.1 bus 2.7.2 train 2.8 portugal 2.8.1 bus & coach 2.9 serbia 2.9.1 bus 2.10 slovakia 2.10.1 bus 2.11 slovenia 2.11.1 bus 2.12 spain 2.12.1 bus 2.13 sweden 2.13.1 bus 2.13.2 train 2.14 united kingdom 2.14.1 bus and coach 2.14.2 patient transport 2.14.3 train 3 former operations 3.1 germany 3.1.1 bus 3.1.2 train 3.2 malta 3.2.1 bus 3.3 united kingdom 3.3.1 bus 3.3.2 train 4 controversy 5 branding 5.1 sapphire premium services 6 references 7 external links history edit arriva north west wright eclipse gemini bodied volvo b7tl in liverpool in march 2013 in the interurban livery arriva north west & wales wright cadet bodied vdl sb120 in september 2007 in the livery introduced when the arriva brand was launched in 1997 the company was founded by tsk cowie in sunderland in 1938 as a second hand motorcycle dealer trading as t cowie limited . 4 in 1948 the business was re launched by tom cowie the founder s son still selling motorcycles . 5 t cowie plc was floated in december 1964 and in 1965 it bought out the first of many car dealerships . 6 in 1972 it formed cowie contract hire which became the largest contract hire business in the uk . 5 in 1980 t cowie made its first foray into bus operations buying the grey green operation in london from the george ewer group . 4 7 in 1984 t cowie plc acquired the hanger group which included interleasing a large vehicle leasing business . 5 8 further leasing companies acquired were marley leasing 9 royscot drive 10 and ringway leasing . 7 following the retirement of tom cowie the company was renamed cowie group plc in april 1994 . 1 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 . 11 cowie plc bought united automobile services and british bus in july and august 1996 both of which had acquired a number of privatised bus companies . 4 12 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 . 13 in november 1997 the company was rebranded as arriva plc. 4 in that year it also bought unibus in denmark its first venture outside the united kingdom . 4 in june 1999 arriva sold its vehicle hire business to general motors . 8 14 in february 2000 arriva purchased mtl holdings which included its first uk rail franchises merseyrail electrics and northern spirit . 4 15 16 in 2002 03 arriva sold its motor retailing businesses 17 and in february 2006 it sold its vehicle rental business to northgate . 18 in april 2008 the lnwr train maintenance business in england was acquired . 19 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 . 20 21 sncf subsidiary keolis and arriva entered discussions regarding a merger 22 but in april 2010 deutsche bahn made a takeover offer for arriva at 775 pence a share 1.585 billion . 23 24 the takeover was approved by the european commission in august 2010 conditional on deutsche bahn disposing of some arriva services in germany . 25 the takeover took effect on 27 august 2010 26 27 and arriva was delisted from the london stock exchange on 31 august 2010 . 28 in late 2011 arriva acquired grand central railway 29 30 and sold its arriva scotland west bus operation . 31 32 in may 2013 arriva purchased veolia transport s central european business with 3 400 vehicles . 33 34 35 current operations edit croatia edit bus edit in may 2013 arriva entered the croatian bus market with the purchase of veolia transport panturist veolia osijek central europe with 120 buses . 34 36 czech republic edit alexander alx200 bodied dennis dart in mlad boleslav . arriva group bought three medium sized bus transport companies transcentrum bus s.r.o. bos k 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 esk republika s.r.o. which is owned by the dutch company arriva co peratie w.a. majority of 99 9 % since 2008 . since july 2013 the current veolia transport esk republika a.s. with its four subsidiary companies fell under arriva group as arriva transport esk republika a.s. the daughter companies were simultaneously renamed and rebranded to arriva praha s.r.o. arriva teplice s.r.o. arriva v chodn echy a.s. and arriva morava a.s. they operates primarily buses it is the biggest bus transport operator in the czech republic but also trolleybuses in teplice arriva teplice and desn railway arriva morava . arriva transport esk republika a.s. is owned by the german company arriva europe gmbh . 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 & coach edit in december 2006 arriva purchased transcentrum bus a leading company operating bus services in mlad boleslav district of central bohemian region north east of prague . in january 2007 arriva acquired bos k bus which operates to the south west of prague and the p bram district of central bohemian region strengthening its position in the czech republic bus market . in november 2007 arriva acquired osnado which operates bus and coach services in the north of hradec kr lov region in east bohemia in the foothills of krkono e mountains . the three bus companies retain their original names but with the arriva corporate logo and livery . they are owned by holding company esk republika and operate 250 buses . 37 at the turn of 2014 2015 bos k bus s.r.o. was merged to transcentrum bus s.r.o. and transcentrum bus s.r.o. renamed to arriva st edn echy s.r.o. in july 2013 veolia transport esk republika a.s. was purchased with its four subsidiary companies which were renamed arriva morava arriva praha arriva teplice and arriva v chodn echy . these four companies are owned by holding company arriva transport esk republika . it is the largest bus operator in the czech republic with a fleet of 1 600 buses . 33 34 it also operates trolleybuses in teplice arriva teplice and trains in desn railway arriva morava . 38 in december 2013 abellio s probo bus and pt real operations were purchased with 110 buses . 39 40 train edit german rail transport company vogtlandbahn owned by arriva since 2004 operated several train routes in the czech republic as a subcontractor of esk dr hy fasttrain line alex nord m nchen regensburg hof plze praha line vb2 zwickau plauen bad brambach franti kovy l zn cheb mari nsk l zn 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 rybni t 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 . since september 2013 to december 2013 arriva vlaky tried operating a commercial service from praha masarykovo n dra to kralupy nad vltavou in competition with subsidised lines of esk dr hy . 41 the company did not succeed with their efforts to accapt this line to the system of subsidised public transport . four trains on the local desn railway operated by connex morava lately veolia transport morava since 2002 were taken over by arriva morava in july 2013 . denmark edit alstom coradia lint train in denmark in september 2007 waterbus in copenhagen in august 2012 bus edit in september 1997 arriva purchased unibus . 42 in march 1999 arriva denmark expanded with the acquisition of bus danmark 42 in april 2001 arriva acquired denmark s largest bus operator combus with 1 200 vehicles . 42 43 in august 2004 arriva purchased wulff which operated buses in jutland and copenhagen . 44 in 2007 arriva acquired veolia denmark then denmark s second largest bus operator with 640 buses . 42 45 arriva operates 50 % of bus services in copenhagen and 40 % throughout denmark . 42 train edit in mid 2002 arriva began to operate services on the varde to n rre nebel line . 46 in march 2012 arriva was awarded a new franchise until june 2018 . 47 48 in 2003 arriva began operating an eight year contract to operate services in mid jutland . in march 2009 arriva was awarded a new franchise until december 2018 . 49 arriva operates 17 % of the danish rail network . 42 waterbus edit in 2000 arriva began operating waterbuses in copenhagen s harbour . hungary edit vt transman mercedes benz o530g citaro in budapest in june 2013 bus edit in april 2008 arriva purchased an 80 % shareholding in eurobus invest hungary s largest private bus operator which operates services in hungary and slovakia . 50 in 2009 arriva purchased the remaining 20 % . 51 arriva is in a joint venture with videoton holding operating as vt transman . in may 2013 vt transman began operating two bus contracts in budapest for eight years . 52 53 this will see 150 mercedes benz citaros added to the 225 bus fleet . the joint venture now operates under the vt arriva brand . italy edit bus & coach edit in july 2002 arriva purchased sab autoservizi and saf societ autoservizi friuli venezia giulia operating in lombardy liguria and friuli venezia giulia regions of northern italy . 54 in may 2004 arriva expanded into the udine area of the friuli venezia giulia region buying 49 % of 500 bus saf 55 exercising an option in december 2005 to increase its stake to 60 % . 56 in october 2005 arriva began operating in the piemonte and valle d aosta regions of northern italy with an 80 % shareholding in sadem increased to 100 % in 2008 . in 2006 arriva purchased a 35 % share in trieste trasporti increased in 2007 to 40 % . 54 in june 2007 arriva entered a joint venture with ferrovie nord milano to purchase 49 % of 317 bus spt linea which was then renamed asf autolinee . 54 57 58 in 2008 it took control of brescia based saia transporti