operator . wrightbus type private industry automotive founded 1946 headquarters ballymena northern ireland products bus and coach manufacturer number of employees 1 800 2014 website www.wrightbus.com wrightbus 1 is a northern irish coachbuilder and pioneer of the low floor bus based in northern ireland ; it was established in 1946 by robert wright and currently run by his son william wright . contents 1 history 1.1 low floor 1.2 present 2 exports 3 products 3.1 current 3.2 former 3.2.1 single deck 3.2.2 double deck 4 references 5 external links history edit gha coaches wright handybus bodied dennis dart in wrexham in march 2009 wright cityranger bodied mercedes benz o405 at shudehill interchange in july 2007 first somerset & avon wright renown bodied volvo b10ble in bristol in june 2011 nottingham city transport scania l94ua in nottingham in january 2003 buses of somerset wright eclipse urban bodied volvo b7rle in minehead in august 2014 lothian buses wright eclipse gemini bodied volvo b7tl in edinburgh in april 2010 metroline new routemaster at notting hill on route 390 in december 2013 yellow buses wright streetlite in august 2014 arriva north west wright eclipse gemini 3 bodied volvo b5lh in new brighton in march 2013 the wrightbus streetcar used on the las vegas strip and downtown express sdx route wrightbus was founded in 1946 as robert wright & son coachbuilders . 2 in its early years it rebodied lorries . in 1978 the company released its first aluminium structured bus bodywork . wright s breakthrough into the mainstream bus bodybuilding sector came in the early 1990s . 3 the handybus was a midibus body offered on a variety of chassis but was most successful on the emerging dennis dart attracting reasonably sized orders from a variety of operators including london buses go ahead northern ulsterbus and citybus belfast . 4 this was followed by a move into the full size single deck market with the endeavour which was fitted to dennis javelin leyland tiger and scania k93 chassis and enabled wright to develop its highly successful endurance body which competed with the alexander strider and northern counties paladin for orders on volvo b10b and scania n113crb chassis . 5 6 other wright products introduced in this period included two mercedes benz based products the o405 based cityranger and the oh1416 based urbanranger . this was launched around the time bus operators in the uk began switching to low floor chassis . as a consequence the urbanranger only attracted a handful of orders . however wright had become well established in the bus bodybuilding sector by then and was more than able to exploit the opportunities the low floor revolution would offer it from mid 1990s onwards . low floor edit in 1993 the pathfinder on low floor dennis lance slf and scania n113crl chassis was unveiled . the axcess ultralow was introduced in 1995 and offered on the scania l113 chassis . at this time it was selling in reasonable numbers to uk bus operators but unlike other bodybuilders who could only offer the l113 with step entrance bodies wright modified it by removing the middle section of the chassis and thus offered uk bus operators one of the first mainstream low floor body chassis combinations . a major customer for the axcess ultralow was firstgroup taking approximately 240 . next up was the volvo b10l based liberator introduced at the end of 1995 . notable came from the national express group who ordered 120 in 1997 . next came the renown body built on the volvo b10ble which went on to become the standard bus of the blazefield group . however renown production was stopped when the b10ble was 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 resembles the current solar eclipse range is the meridian which was bodied on the man a22 full low floor single deck chassis . present edit the most distinctive product of wright is the new routemaster london bus introduced on 27 february 2012 as an update of the aec routemaster . 7 by the end of 2016 1 000 will be in service . 8 the first wright eclipse gemini double decker was first built on the volvo b7tl chassis in 2001 . a similarly styled bus entered service with arriva london in august 2001 as the wright pulsar gemini on the vdl db250 chassis . large operators of gemini bodied buses include arriva firstgroup go ahead group lothian buses and national express . in 2016 the wright srm was introduced on the volvo b5lh . 9 since may 2013 wrightbus has also built its own chassis the streetlite single decker and streetdeck double decker . 10 11 12 exports edit in 1997 an order for 25 wright crusader bodied dennis darts were delivered to australian operator action . between 2003 and 2006 kowloon motor bus received a total of 164 wrightbus three axle double deckers 100 of them were on volvo super olympian and 64 of them were on volvo b9tl chassis . in 2009 kowloon motor bus had order a total 291 buses which including one demonstrator with 2 axle and all buses were in service in 2012 . in 2010 the first of 450 wright eclipse gemini 2 bodied volvo b9tls was delivered to sbs transit singapore till end 2012 . 13 in 2011 wrightbus international was established . a contract was awarded by sbs transit for 565 wright eclipse gemini 2 bodied volvo b9tls and delivered since january 2013 till june 2015 . 14 15 in november 2012 a contract for 50 wright eclipse gemini 2 bodied volvos was awarded by kowloon motor bus . these are being sent in ckd form from ireland and assembled in china and followed by another 85 including two 12.8 metre long demonstrators . 16 17 in september 2013 wrightbus entered into a partnership with daimler buses to manufacture buses in chennai india . 18 19 in march 2014 orders were secured from citybus and new world first bus for 51 volvo b9tls . these are being sent in ckd form from ireland and assembled in malaysia . 20 21 22 in july 2014 sbs transit ordered a further 415 eclipse gemini 2 bodied volvo b9tls which will be deliver from august 2015 till 2017 increasing the total to 1 430 by 2017 . 13 23 products edit current edit wright make 2 classes of bus the eclipse series & the street series name chassis decks notes eclipse 3 volvo b8rle 1 eclipse gemini 2 volvo b9tl & b5lh 2 production for two axle version ceased in 2013 2014 . three axle version is still being built . gemini 3 volvo b5tl & b5lh 2 streetdeck integral 2 streetlite integral 1 midibus can be df door forward door is in part of the bus extending in front of front wheels or wf wheel forward wheels are right at the front & door is behind them . streetlite max integral 1 11.5 metre door forward version of streetlite new routemaster integral 2 commission bus made for transport for london & designed by heatherwick studio . srm volvo b5lh 2 a more basic spin off of the new routemaster with fewer distinctive features . streetair integral 1 fully electric powered midibus can be df door forward chassis based on streetdeck or wf wheel forward based on streetlite . former edit single deck edit axcess floline for scania l94ub axcess ultralow for scania l113crl cadet for daf vdl sb120 cityranger for mercedes benz o405 commander for daf vdl sb200 consort on leyland 9 13r roadrunner possibly others contour coach body on bedford y series and others crusader for dennis dart slf volvo b6le crusader 2 for volvo b6ble eclipse metro eclipse fusion for volvo b7l b7la eclipse urban eclipse 2 for volvo b7rle eclipse commuter high floor low entry semi coach body for volvo b7rle eclipse schoolrun school bus bodywork for volvo b7r endeavour for leyland tiger scania k93 electrocity hybrid powered single decker bus based on daf vdl sb120 endurance for volvo b10b scania n113crb fusion for volvo b10la handybus for dennis dart leyland swift liberator for volvo b10l meridian for man a22 nimbus for mercedes benz t2 and renault s75 van derived chassis pathfinder for dennis lance slf scania n113crl pulsar pulsar 2 for vdl sb200 wright pulsar 2 hev renown for volvo b10ble royale unique on leyland leopard chassis solar for scania l94ub scania k ub single decker solar fusion tt mainly on bedford chassis streetcar rtv for volvo b7la and hess articulated chassis urbanranger variant of endurance for mercedes benz oh1416 double deck edit name chassis notes eclipse gemini volvo b7tl two axle b9tl & b5lh explorer volvo super olympian gemini 2 integral with vdl modules comes in the dl & hev variants pulsar gemini daf vdl db250 pulsar gemini hev daf vdl db250 hybrid references edit companies house extract company no ni006119 wrightbus limited formerly robert wright & son coachworks limited wright on course commercial motor 7 november 1991 robert wright is to diversify commercial motor 1 august 1991 wright midi boosts jobs commercial motor 1 november 1990 wright choice for yt commercial motor 16 april 1992 wright launches intercity coach commercial motor 28 may 1992 new routemaster bus starts running on london roads bbc news february 2012 london routemaster buses wrightbus set to get order worth 60m bbc news 3 february 2016 london launch for new wrightbus srm on volvo b5lh bus & coach professional 18 march 2016 more jobs at wrightbus as orders flow in bus & coach professional innovation win for wrightbus ballymena times 19 june 2007 streetdeck the complete double deck bus from wrightbus wrightbus 24 october 2014 a b sbs transit orders 415 more geminis buses issue 714 september 2014 page 19 sbs transit to add 1 000 more buses sbs transit 9 july 2012 doing the wright thing in asia wrightbus 21 november 2012 wrighbus wins hong kong bus order bbc news 12 november 2012 wrighbus celebrates its first chinese order belfast telegraph 13 november 2012 wrightbus move into india can increase jobs at home irish news 9 july 2013 daimler and wrighbus indian partnership bus & coach professional 4 september 2013 ballymena s wrightbus to build flat pack buses for hong kong belfast telegraph 6 march 2014 wrightbus to assemble in malaysia bus & coach professional 6 march 2014 double first for wrightbus international in asia pacific wrighbus 4 march 2014 sbs transit to add 665 more buses sbs transit 1 july 2014 external links edit media related to wrightbus at wikimedia commons company website v t e wrightbus current eclipse 3 gemini 3 new routemaster srm streetair streetcar streetdeck streetlite streetvibe former axcess ultralow axcess floline cadet commander cityranger consort contour crusader crusader 2 eclipse eclipse 2 eclipse commuter eclipse fusion eclipse gemini eclipse gemini 2 eclipse metro eclipse schoolrun eclipse urban electrocity endeavour endurance explorer fusion gemini 2 handybus liberator meridian merit nimbus pathfinder pulsar pulsar 2 pulsar gemini pulsar gemini hev renown royale solar solar fusion solar rural tt urbanranger v t e bus and coach transport in the united kingdom general articulated buses buses in london bus services coach services history guided buses and bus rapid transit open top buses park and ride preservation routemaster by country england scotland wales northern ireland private operators major groups arriva comfortdelgro firstgroup go ahead group national express ratp stagecoach transdev veolia by country england east england east midlands greater london north east north west south east south west west midlands yorkshire scotland wales public operators municipal bus companies translink northern ireland wightbus public authorities passenger transport executives london buses manufacturers alexander dennis plaxton optare wrightbus