On Wednesday 5 October 2011, Norman Baker MP travelled to Thurmaston on an Arriva Midlands bus from the NEC where he had officially opened the Bus & Coach Live event; he was met by Bob Hind, Arriva Midlands regional managing director on arrival at Thurmaston.

Arriva Midlands has moved to a 3.3 acre site in Norman Road, and has invested more than £5 million in the new bespoke building that houses its head office staff along with its operations and engineering teams – a total of 311 employees and 98 buses.

The new site boasts modern motion and light-sensitive energy efficient lighting to control and reduce energy consumption. A rainwater harvesting system collects water from the roof and stores it in an 8,000 litre underground storage tank. Water collected is used in the two new bus washes and each bus wash has a full water recycling system which recycles around 90 per cent of water used in vehicle washing.

The business has invested in an intelligent heat recovery ventilation system throughout the building, using a low energy heat exchanger to replace stale damp air with fresh, filtered and depending on outside temperatures, warmed air resulting in improved distribution of clean air and climate control.

In addition Arriva has fitted double glazed solar glass to external windows to reduce the amount of heat entering the building – absorbing light and reducing glare helping to reduce the need for air-conditioning and blinds.

The six metre high acoustic barrier fencing helps to lessen and reflect any noise which may otherwise travel to neighbouring properties.

By the end of 2011 a new Authorised Testing Facility (ATF) centre will be up and running at the location to provide third party vehicle testing, steam cleaning and vehicle washing.

Bob Hind, regional managing director of Arriva Midlands, said: “The bespoke design of the new building satisfies operational needs, reduces carbon footprint and provides greater cost efficiency to accommodate the business in the 21st century. The new site gives us the opportunity to grow the business by developing our core commercial services, competitive tendering, acquisitions, and diversity. This is a great time for us to be moving up a gear.”

City.Mobi

Also in Europe today, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to London.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

London.mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.