In December 2009, ‘Transport for London’ (TfL) announced that Wrightbus had been chosen to design and build the ‘New Bus for London’. Wrightbus based in Ballymena was originally called ‘Robert Wright & Son Coachbuilders’ before eventually morphing into Wrightbus. Established in 1946, the company had a long history of working with lorries and buses and in the 1980s, broke into the bus body building sector. The company later came under the leadership of Robert’s son William Wright.
In 2010, Wrightbus announced a collaboration with Heatherwick Studio for the design of the new bus. Wrightbus had previously worked with the studio. Under the lead of Thomas Heatherwick along with Project Leader Stuart Wood and Studio Team Mark Burrows, Hayley Henry, Neil Hubbard, Pikyan Luk, Tim Miller, Matthew Pratt, Julian Saul and Tan Sohanpall, the studio was tasked with a reimagining of a global icon.
Despite being announced in 2009, the first ‘New Routemaster Buses’ didn’t make their first appearance until three years later in February 2012, six of which were in operation in time for the London Olympics of 2012. Production ran for another five years until 2017, in which time one thousand buses were manufactured.
The introduction of the New Routemaster Bus was not without its critics and there were many problems including battery failure. Despite a press release promising the latest hybrid technology with the buses being 40% more fuel efficiency than ordinary diesel engines and 15% more efficient than existing hybrid buses, many of the buses failed. At least eighty of the buses had to be switched to diesel only because of problems with the batteries. Further problems were identified when a study conducted by ‘The Standard’ suggested that ‘Faulty New Routemasters Emit 74% More Harmful Particles than Old Buses’’
In 2019, Wrightbus announced that it had called in the receivers and that 1200 workers had been made redundant.
“Global changes from diesel to electric in bus technology have caused a sharp decline in demand for buses in the UK”
statement given by the Wright family following administration
£60 million pound in debt, the company eventually found a buyer in Jo Bamford, son of Anthony Bamford, chairman of the famous JCB company. With extensive negotiations, the Bamford Bus Company eventually took control of Wrightbus in late October 2019. Wrightbus still exists as brand a mark with the Bamford Bus Company acting as a holding company.
The Wrightbus Factory in Ballymena Ireland
Although discontinuing production of the New Routemaster bus in 2017, Wrightbus continues to produce buses in Ballymena and as of 2023 had 13,00 employees. The company continues to diversify its portfolio with the acquisition of the English bus refurbishment company ‘RGI’. Wrightbus CEO Jean-Marc Gales has state that “We are already selling buses across the UK and into Germany and Asia, and we want to ensure that we have services to maintain the entire life cycle of the bus.”