Wrightbus
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Wrightbus is the UK's largest independent coachbuilder and pioneer of the low floor bus in the United Kingdom. Based in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, it was established in 1946 by Robert Wright and currently run by his son William Wright.
Originally called Robert Wright & Son Coachbuilders. In the early years they gained a reputation for re-bodying lorries. In 1978, the company released its first aluminium-structured bus bodywork.
Wrights breakthrough into the mainstream came with the advent of the Handybus, built in large quantity on the Dennis Dart chassis for use by London Buses. Many can still be seen operating around the UK outside London.
However Wright's biggest breakthrough was the advent of low floor buses, when the Pathfinder low floor single-deck body was unveiled in 1993, although not strictly the first low floor buses in the UK, that title belongs to German builder Neoplan. The Pathfinder was followed by the high floor Endurance and the low floor Liberator on a Volvo B10L chassis and the Axcess series on Scania L113 chassis, the former ordered en-masse by the National Express Group for its operations in Birmingham and Dundee.
Next came the Renown body built on the Volvo B10BLE which went onto become the standard bus of the Blazefield Group. However Renown production was stopped when Volvo pulled the plug on the B10BLE, replaced by the Volvo B7L on the new Wright Eclipse (now Wright Eclipse Metro), which due to its vertical rear engine wasn't popular with many operators. However Wright didn't lose custom and many operators including the likes of Ulsterbus simply switched to the incline-engined Scania L94UB, on a similar Wright Solar body. Another bodywork, which is to resemble the current Solar/Eclipse range is the Meridian, which is to be bodied on the new MAN A22 full low-floor single-deck chassis. It was announced on 5 April 2006.
Perhaps the most distinctive product of Wright is its Gemini double decker first built on the Volvo B7TL chassis in 2001, as the Wright Eclipse Gemini. The bus with similar styling entered service with Arriva London in August 2001 and latterly built on the VDL (ex-DAF) DB250 as Wright Pulsar Gemini. Large operators of Gemini-bodied buses include the National Express Group, Arriva and the First Group with an overseas variant, originally dubbed the Explorer, entering service in 2003 with Hong Kong operator, Kowloon Motor Bus.
Wrightbus has enjoyed considerable expansion in recent years, with a workforce that is expected to expand to over 1,000 in the near future. Questions have been asked, however, about Wrighbus's employment practices; discrimination has been alleged as the result of the fact that only 6% of their employees are Catholics, in a local council area (Ballymena) where Catholics make up 20% of the local population.
[edit] Products
- Handybus (for Dennis Dart)
- Pathfinder (for Dennis Lance SLF, Scania N113CRL)
- Axcess-Ultralow (for Scania L113CRL)
- Crusader (for Dennis Dart SLF, Volvo B6LE)
- Crusader 2 (for Volvo B6BLE)
- Liberator (for Volvo B10L)
- Fusion (for Volvo B10LA)
- Renown (for Volvo B10BLE)
- Axcess-Floline (for Scania L94)
- Solar/Solar Fusion (for Scania L94)
- Cadet/Merit (for DAF/VDL SB120)
- Commander (for DAF/VDL SB200)
- Eclipse (later Eclipse Metro)/Eclipse Fusion (for Volvo B7L/B7LA)
- Eclipse Gemini (for Volvo B7TL, 2-axle Volvo B9TL)
- Explorer (the name was later dropped, for Volvo B10TL, Volvo B9TL)
- Pulsar Gemini (for DAF/VDL DB250)
- Pulsar - Replacement of Cadet/Comander
- Eclipse Urban (for Volvo B7RLE)
- StreetCar (based on Volvo B7LA)
- Electrocity (hybrid-powered single-decker bus based on DAF/VDL SB120)
- Pulsar HEV ("HEV" stands for "hybrid electric vechicle", as this is the double decker hybrid)
- Meridian (for MAN A22) - from early 2007
