Midland Bluebird Limited Wright Streetlite WF (Wheel Forward)
An oddity…
Surprising transfers to the Midland Bluebird fleet I are some Wright Streetlite WF (Wheel Forward) such as 0481 (SN65OMD). It was one of the last new buses purchased by National Express for its Xplore Dundee fleet as its 434 but passed to McGill’s when they acquired the fleet. They’ve since moved to Midland Bluebird but retain their Xplore Dundee colours. McGill’s also have a couple of these buses in Inverclyde.
The WF version of the Streetlite was basically introduced to compete with the Optare Solo SR and probably the shortest length of the Alexander Dennis Enviro 200. It was part of Wrightbus’s journey from bodybuilder to complete vehicle builder. It was launched in 2010 and given its design, comparisons with the Solo were inevitable. However, whilst styling is purely subjective of course, I feel it doesn’t match the elegance of Optare’s model. Most of the issues for me concern the rear of the vehicle and reinforces the opinion that I have that Wrightbus struggles with the rear design of vehicles.
The Streetlite WF was basically the smallest bus Wrightbus offered, however despite an initial flurry of orders, reliability issues saw repeat orders evaporate. Indeed Anglian Buses, one of the launch customers for it, found its batch so unreliable that they returned them to Wrightbus.
Never as successful as the later door forward version of the Streetlite - success being a relative term as that bus had its own issues too - it remains available but precious few have been built recently. A version was offered for a short while through a tie up with VDL Bus on the continent, mainly as VDL Bus didn’t offer anything similar in its range.
A narrower version with more squared off frontal ldesign was also available through Wrightbus’s Nu-Track subsidiary as the Street-Vibe. It competed with the Slimline version of the Solo. A notable sale was a batch of these to the State of Guernsey for use in the narrow roads in that lovely part of the world. However the insolvency event that Wrightbus suffered killed it off.
Although still available, it’s only available as a diesel bus now. There was, however, an electric version built for Arriva in Milton Keynes. It used induction charging - basically a plate in the road that the bus stopped over, and then connected to which would charge it up for the journeys as a battery booster. Again issues with the vehicle saw it used sporadically in service and it was later replaced with a standard diesel bus.
Midland Bluebird Limited Wright Streetlite WF (Wheel Forward)
An oddity…
Surprising transfers to the Midland Bluebird fleet I are some Wright Streetlite WF (Wheel Forward) such as 0481 (SN65OMD). It was one of the last new buses purchased by National Express for its Xplore Dundee fleet as its 434 but passed to McGill’s when they acquired the fleet. They’ve since moved to Midland Bluebird but retain their Xplore Dundee colours. McGill’s also have a couple of these buses in Inverclyde.
The WF version of the Streetlite was basically introduced to compete with the Optare Solo SR and probably the shortest length of the Alexander Dennis Enviro 200. It was part of Wrightbus’s journey from bodybuilder to complete vehicle builder. It was launched in 2010 and given its design, comparisons with the Solo were inevitable. However, whilst styling is purely subjective of course, I feel it doesn’t match the elegance of Optare’s model. Most of the issues for me concern the rear of the vehicle and reinforces the opinion that I have that Wrightbus struggles with the rear design of vehicles.
The Streetlite WF was basically the smallest bus Wrightbus offered, however despite an initial flurry of orders, reliability issues saw repeat orders evaporate. Indeed Anglian Buses, one of the launch customers for it, found its batch so unreliable that they returned them to Wrightbus.
Never as successful as the later door forward version of the Streetlite - success being a relative term as that bus had its own issues too - it remains available but precious few have been built recently. A version was offered for a short while through a tie up with VDL Bus on the continent, mainly as VDL Bus didn’t offer anything similar in its range.
A narrower version with more squared off frontal ldesign was also available through Wrightbus’s Nu-Track subsidiary as the Street-Vibe. It competed with the Slimline version of the Solo. A notable sale was a batch of these to the State of Guernsey for use in the narrow roads in that lovely part of the world. However the insolvency event that Wrightbus suffered killed it off.
Although still available, it’s only available as a diesel bus now. There was, however, an electric version built for Arriva in Milton Keynes. It used induction charging - basically a plate in the road that the bus stopped over, and then connected to which would charge it up for the journeys as a battery booster. Again issues with the vehicle saw it used sporadically in service and it was later replaced with a standard diesel bus.