Arriva North West bus driver trainer Neil Atherton (pictured) – known as the Bus Walker – will start his fundraising efforts for 2025 by walking around 50 miles in one day between six of the operator’s depots in the Liverpool City Region.
The trip is to highlight food poverty and Mr Atherton aims to raise £3,000 for foodbanks. He will push a supermarket trolley made up like an Arriva double-decker to highlight that some people are unable to fill a trolley without help.
At the time of writing, Mr Atherton’s GoFundMe page had around £1,000 in pledges. That total is growing rapidly, but he is keen to add more to it ahead of the big day.
The February voyage represents what Mr Atherton says is the first of three individual charity challenges throughout 2025. It will begin at Southport depot before first heading to Bootle. He will then progress to Green Lane in Liverpool before continuing to St Helens. From there, Speke will be the next port of call before finishing at Runcorn garage.
Mr Atherton has completed multiple previous charity walking challenges, including a 125-mile jaunt over seven days in 2023 where he raised £6.607 by covering various Arriva bus routes.
In June 2025, he will undertake a similar challenge by walking seven bus routes operated by Arriva radiating from Runcorn within seven days. That will cover 150 miles and extend to Liverpool on three occasions, Warrington twice, and Chester. The effort will be completed by the walking of local services within Runcorn.
To complete the year in December 2025, Mr Atherton will undertake a collection of ‘Santa dashes’ around the Liverpool City Region and Cheshire. Once the year’s three challenges are complete, funds raised will be split between foodbanks that he passes in the course of those walks.
“I am to shine a light on the pressure of hunger in our society by taking on three individual challenges throughout 2025,” says the Arriva Bus Walker.
