page_title: MK Metro
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: MK Metro / History
caption_attribution_description: English: An MK Metro bus outside Milton Keynes Central railway station on route 8. It is an Optare Solo M920 midibus, registration mark YN03 NDF, Arriva fleet number 2446. Its purple livery and Westcroft-Bletchley branding are for this route. It should have a big "8" on the lower panels but it is missing on this side. Arriva acquired MK Metro in 2006. Early 2010 in Arriva rebranded the MK Metro fleet as Arriva. By October 2010, this bus was in service with Arriva Guildford &amp; West Surrey, with fleet number 1508.
context_page_description: MK Metro was a bus company operating in Milton Keynes from 1997 until 2010.
context_section_description: In 1997, Stagecoach was ordered by the Office of Fair Trading to divest of its operations in Milton Keynes and Huntingdon. This followed an investigation in 1996 into its acquisition of Cambus Holdings which was deemed to have led to an unacceptable monopoly of bus operations in Cambridgeshire, Corby, East Northamptonshire, Kettering, Wellingborough, Bedford and Mid Bedfordshire.
  The assets of Milton Keynes Citybus were purchased on 2 May 1997 by bus entrepreneur Julian Peddle, using a new company Premier Buses Limited both to operate in Huntingdon (under the Premier Buses brand name) and also as a holding company with which to purchase MK Metro. The operation was rebranded as MK Metro with a bright yellow and blue livery introduced.
  In February 2006, the business was purchased by Arriva and integrated into its Arriva Shires & Essex subsidiary. The MK Metro brand was retained with a new logo introduced in 2007.
  On 25 April 2010, the Arriva brand and livery were introduced. Milton Keynes services began to operate under the sub brand of MK Star, and the change of name coincided with a number of controversial service changes.
caption: Optare Solo on high-frequency route 8 at Milton Keynes station in early 2009
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