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The story
Arriva North West was originally formed following the split of Ribble Motor Services in preparation for privatisation in 1986, with the operations in Merseyside, West Lancashire and Wigan trading as North Western. The name was taken from the former North Western operations, which ran between 1923 and 1976. In 1988 the North Western operations were sold to Drawlane who was later sold to British Bus, who also took over the operations of the Bee Line Buzz Company, who ran services in Greater Manchester. In 1996, British Bus was bought by the Cowie Group. In November 1997 Cowie was rebranded as Arriva, with North Western rebranded to Arriva North West in 1998.
In February 2000, Arriva North West purchased MTL Trust Holdings, which created a dominant presence in the Merseyside area and more than doubled the size of the company. To satisfy Competition Commission requirements resulting from Arriva's regional dominance, Arriva sold MTL's Gillmoss depot to a management buyout team later renamed Glenvale Transport, which took over operations from Arriva on 15 July 2001.
In 2002, Arriva North West merged with Arriva Buses Wales to form Arriva North West & Wales. Three former Arriva Midlands depots in Crewe, Macclesfield and Winsford were transferred into the North West & Wales operation, although Crewe closed in December 2005.
In July 2005, Arriva purchased Blue Bus & Coach Services for £2.9 million, almost doubling their presence in Greater Manchester with the acquisition of two depots, 86 vehicles and 218 members of staff. Arriva closed Blue Bus' depot in Eccles and moved operations there to its St Andrew's Square depot, however the Bolton depot was retained. In January 2009, the Wales operation was split from Arriva North West as Arriva Buses Wales, with the Arriva North West name resurrected for the North West England operations.
From Wikipedia’s article on Arriva North West, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4