Arriva Bus UK had its beginnings within the Cowie Group, a multi-facited car/bus and coach fleet management/dealership/operator.

Gradually the group divested the car related businesses with bus operations becoming the core business and in 2010 was was acquired by Deutsche Bahn (German railways).

Please note that my Arriva albums do not reflect the Group's own structure which has three divisions: North (covering North West & Wales; North East; Yorkshire), South (covering Midlands; The Shires; Southern Counties), and London. Within the three divisions there are sub-divisions each with separately registered Limited company subsidiaries.

Not only that but from time to time a subsidiary has been known to be re-assigned to a different division which over a period of time makes album classification rather complex! (For example part of Arriva the Shires was re-assigned to Arriva Southern Counties some time ago).