3:34pm Friday 19th March 2010
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.
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