I know I haven't been posting for a month, but I have to break this sad news.
Wrightbus, who notably manufactured 1,000 of the three door, two staircase hybrid New Routemaster buses, 6 Volvo B5LH with SRM bodywork and 2 Volvo B5LHC with SRM bodywork has gone in to administration due to cash flow problems which has affected thousands of jobs.
According to one source, Wrightbus tried to sell their company to new investors to save the company and protect jobs for thousands of workers, but unfortunately they have failed.
Despite my criticisms and suggestions to improve their double deck designs such as the SRM and Gemini 3, I've been expecting Wrightbus to sell the SRM in various drivelines; unfortunately none of the bus operators have shown interest in the bodywork due to the controversial ties with the predecessor New Routemaster bus. TfL stated in the Freedom of Information request that they don’t restrict London Bus operators purchasing or leasing the SRM. Wrightbus also suffered a drop in sales with their conventional bus products such as the Streetdeck and Streetlite.
As for the double deck Hydrogen which Transport for London (TfL) and Aberdeen (jointly funded by Aberdeen City Council, European Union (FCH JU) and Scottish Government) - I'm not sure if they are going to finish manufacturing and delivering the remaining buses to London and Aberdeen once Wrightbus' assets are sold.
So far, Britain now has two bus manufacturers left which are Alexander Dennis and Optare.
Starting off with Optare, so far they have been building double deck EVs for London, Reading and Yorkshire from their manufacturing plant in Leeds. A small number of the double deck EV’s are operating on London Buses route 134. Optare is a subsidiary company of Ashok Leyland from India.
Our first trip to
@Optaregroup
to see our new Metrodeckers in build. Not much to see yet but the
detail is already going in - they say an engine has reliability in the
bottom half and performance in the top, so this is the solid foundation
of a bus structure. pic.twitter.com/fWKBp6A5tt
—
John Bickerton (@johnbickerton) September
24, 2019
Alexander Dennis has been gaining ground with new orders from various bus operators from around the world. Most notably the 'New Routemaster' spin-off, the Enviro400 City (in various drivelines,) which launched in September 2015 as the London-spec Enviro400H City. It has become the most successful double deck variant of their product range.
The Enviro400 City was praised by Thomas Heatherwick, the designer of the New Routemaster as a "back-to-front” compliment.
In May 2019, Alexander Dennis was purchased by the North America's largest coach and bus manufacturing company named New Flyer Industries (NFI) group.
During July 2019, Alexander Dennis and BYD jointly produced a double deck EV bus with City bodywork which entered service on London Buses route 43.
It's a shame to see Wrightbus going in to administration as this has affected thousands of workers as well as the economy for Ballymena in Northern Ireland. You can view the history of Wrightbus on their website which is saved on Archive Wayback Machine.
My thoughts go to the workers of Wrightbus, travel agent Thomas Cook (and their customers) and any other businesses that have gone in to administration during these hard times.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter by searching for @CLondoner92
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