Arriva North West ‘Buswalker’ Neil Atherton, who raises money for foodbanks located in the operator’s territory, has retired his trusty accompanying shopping trolley to the North West Museum of Road Transport in St Helens.
The trolley has faithfully served with Mr Atherton on over 50 miles of his walks, raising more than £3,000 and collecting over 300kg of food donations at the same time. It was made up to represent an Arriva double-decker and is understood to have passed first-user walk-round checks with flying colours each time it was called upon.
In its retirement home, the trolley will be preserved as part of North West transport history alongside a large collection of full-size buses and other vehicles. It includes a similarly zero-emission 2002 Technobus Pantheon tri-axle minibus, which as an early example of battery-electric bus technology is comfortably eclipsed in range by the trolley.
Mr Atherton notes how his ‘Buswalker’ trolley has “definitely earned a well-deserved rest” and notes how he is proud that it will take its place alongside other parts of the region’s transport heritage.
An official handover will take place at 1330hrs on Sunday 2 November. “To my knowledge, this could be the first ever trolley – let alone a bus trolley – to be displayed in a museum,” he adds.
To close his foodbank fundraising in 2025, December will see Mr Atherton complete a number of ‘Santa dashes’ across the Arriva North West operating area.
That will round off what he describes as a year of three big challenges that also saw 50 miles walked in one day between Southport and Runcorn, and a series of walks during the summer school holidays that captured various Arriva bus routes.
Mr Atherton aims to raise £7,500 across those efforts, for which a GoFundMe page has been established. As of 17 October, he was at 98% of that total, with just £218 outstanding to reach it.
