Wrightbus has delivered the 500th electric bus to enter service in Greater Manchester, built at its Ballymena factory and now carrying passengers from Stagecoach’s upgraded Oldham depot, giving bus manufacturers a measure of how public-control franchising is converting into repeat fleet orders.

The vehicle crossed the Irish Sea by ferry; Greater Manchester’s electric bus fleet has grown from 35 to more than 500 since Transport for Greater Manchester began bringing services under public control three years ago, and electrification of further depots means 163 more electric buses can now enter service.

The last three orders placed this calendar year have gone to Wrightbus, including 55 vehicles worth £66m agreed in March and a further 125 in May, as the region works towards a fully electric fleet by 2030 that is expected to cut annual emissions by more than 76,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Wrightbus, founded in 1946 and rescued from administration in 2019 by Jo Bamford, builds zero-emission buses in Ballymena and employs more than 2,300 people across Northern Ireland, Germany and Malaysia, supporting a further 7,500 jobs in its supply chain.

Christian Reynolds, managing director of Wrightbus, said the company has championed a UK-based supply chain for more than 80 years, with the Ballymena build creating jobs and skills in Northern Ireland and additional employment in Greater Manchester through local suppliers. Bev Craig, mayor of Greater Manchester, said residents deserve modern, cleaner and quieter buses, and that the shift is cutting emissions, improving air quality and backing UK manufacturing.

The milestone reflects publicly controlled bus networks acting as anchor customers for domestic manufacturers, with Greater Manchester’s orders giving Ballymena a visible production pipeline alongside another UK manufacturer whose almost 500 buses also serve the network.

The supply chain effect reaches Greater Manchester itself, with a Middleton-based firm supplying blinds and screens for Wrightbus vehicles.

For the sector, repeat public-sector orders, from Greater Manchester’s 293 ordered Wrightbus vehicles by March to Transport for Wales deliveries, show zero-emission bus demand being converted into multi-year factory workload.

The wider signal for the sector is that city-region procurement policies favouring UK-built vehicles are supporting skilled manufacturing jobs far from the buyer, here carried across the Irish Sea by ferry.

Source: Love Ballymena / The News Letter / Transport for Greater Manchester