Chiltern Railways' parent makes bid for rival (From The Oxford Times)

Chiltern Railways' parent makes bid for rival

6:31pm Friday 19th March 2010 in

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German state railway firm Deutsche Bahn, the parent company of Chiltern Railways that serves Bicester and Banbury, has made a bid of about £1.2bn for rival bus and trains firm Arriva.

Arriva, which operates CrossCountry trains serving Oxford and Banbury and buses linking Oxford with Wheatley, Thame and Aylesbury, ended talks over a possible merger with France’s state Rail operator SNCF two weeks ago.

Deutsche Bahn has about 240,000 employees, of whom about three-quarters are based in Germany, and operates in 150 countries.

As well as owning Chiltern Railways and a 50 per cent stake in Wrexham & Shropshire Trains, which serves Banbury, DB’s Schenker division is Britain’s biggest rail freight operator.

Arriva operates in several European countries.