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Post by snoggle on Feb 12, 2018 16:20:04 GMT
Looks like the economic malaise and change in London transport policies & funding are hitting Wrightbus. 100 redundancies due to be announced shortly. |
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Post by snowman on Feb 12, 2018 18:28:28 GMT
Looks like the economic malaise and change in London transport policies & funding are hitting Wrightbus. 100 redundancies due to be announced shortly. Northern Ireland news has updated the number to 95 From George Brash (Unite union) “We understand that the job losses are the result of the loss of sales to Transport for London in addition to the protracted delay in new orders coming in from Translink. In the first case, Unite has lobbied directly the Mayor of London's office making the case to support UK workers.” I suspect lobbying the mayor of London will make no difference, TfL can’t afford to buy buses, and Operators are free to buy what they choose. There is also a comment from Unite that last week they had been told about lack of parts could affect production, but weren’t expecting job losses. Putting 2+2 together (probably making 5) I wonder if the parts problem is related to the revised GoAhead order (change because can’t build what they originally ordered) www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/wrightbus-hammer-blow-to-workers-as-company-confirms-up-to-95-jobs-at-risk-36594893.html |
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Feb 12, 2018 18:35:16 GMT
Looks like the economic malaise and change in London transport policies & funding are hitting Wrightbus. 100 redundancies due to be announced shortly.
Northern Ireland news has updated the number to 95 From George Brash (Unite union) “We understand that the job losses are the result of the loss of sales to Transport for London in addition to the protracted delay in new orders coming in from Translink. In the first case, Unite has lobbied directly the Mayor of London's office making the case to support UK workers.” I suspect lobbying the mayor of London will make no difference, TfL can’t afford to buy buses, and Operators are free to buy what they choose. There is also a comment from Unite that last week they had been told about lack of parts could affect production, but weren’t expecting job losses. Putting 2+2 together (probably making 5) I wonder if the parts problem is related to the revised GoAhead order (change because can’t build what they originally ordered) www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/wrightbus-hammer-blow-to-workers-as-company-confirms-up-to-95-jobs-at-risk-36594893.htmlI wonder if this is due to a lot of the recent changes in terms of operator orders. Metroline have switched to EvoSetis for their next batch of buses instead of just ordering from Wright like they usually go. Go Ahead have also only placed the 44s order with Wright while ordering over 100 MMCs from ADL, not to mention RATP have ordered a few MMCs when for the past few years they've almost ordered exclusively Wright bodied Double Deckers. Speculation on my part but should this Smart Hybrid idea take off do Volvo have a similar product? if it really is more effective and lasts longer then I don't see why operators wouldn't order them. Alexander Dennis/BYD also seem to have monopolised the Single Decker electric bus market in London which probably isn't helping matters at Wright either. |
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Post by snoggle on Feb 12, 2018 19:15:29 GMT
Northern Ireland news has updated the number to 95 From George Brash (Unite union) “We understand that the job losses are the result of the loss of sales to Transport for London in addition to the protracted delay in new orders coming in from Translink. In the first case, Unite has lobbied directly the Mayor of London's office making the case to support UK workers.” I suspect lobbying the mayor of London will make no difference, TfL can’t afford to buy buses, and Operators are free to buy what they choose. There is also a comment from Unite that last week they had been told about lack of parts could affect production, but weren’t expecting job losses. Putting 2+2 together (probably making 5) I wonder if the parts problem is related to the revised GoAhead order (change because can’t build what they originally ordered) www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/wrightbus-hammer-blow-to-workers-as-company-confirms-up-to-95-jobs-at-risk-36594893.htmlI wonder if this is due to a lot of the recent changes in terms of operator orders. Metroline have switched to EvoSetis for their next batch of buses instead of just ordering from Wright like they usually go. Go Ahead have also only placed the 44s order with Wright while ordering over 100 MMCs from ADL, not to mention RATP have ordered a few MMCs when for the past few years they've almost ordered exclusively Wright bodied Double Deckers. Speculation on my part but should this Smart Hybrid idea take off do Volvo have a similar product? if it really is more effective and lasts longer then I don't see why operators wouldn't order them. Alexander Dennis/BYD also seem to have monopolised the Single Decker electric bus market in London which probably isn't helping matters at Wright either. I think there are probably several issues. 1. Being overly reliant on London orders won't help survival when London "catches a cold" as it has done. We all know fleet renewal is going to be low key for several years. 2. I agree that they've been outgunned on the electric single decker front. This is not the first time that Wrightbus have been caught out with new technology. Wonder if any of their vehicles have the super capacitor on hybrids? If not then that's another "miss" as you say. 3. The lack of progress on the hydrogen double decker is noteworthy. There was the old converted bus plus the new one due on trial with Tower Transit. Not a sign of either turning a wheel. I wonder how "fed up" City Hall are with the lack of a follow up photo op for the Mayor?  4. I am still wondering if the lethargic entry into service of Metroline's buses have cost Wrightbus business. What on earth was wrong with them for them to take so long? The switch to Evosetis was a real surprise and there may be a long term problem for Wrights *if* Metroline like the Evoseti once they get them into service. 5. The rest of the UK bus market is in dire straits which will be damaging Wrightbus. First Bus, a long term customer, is in poor shape in many of its operations and they are very unlikely to be buying large numbers of buses. Stagecoach have never been a big Wrightbus customer. Go Ahead seem reasonably content with Wright double deckers but there can't be many remaining opportunities for large scale purchases outside London. North East has made some judicious new purchases which have initiated a large cascade of double deckers on several routes which is shoving other single deckers around with oldest vehicles leaving. I doubt Brighton and Hove or Metrobus will be buying many buses and Go South Coast and the East Anglia buses have never been big new Wrightbus purchasers. Arriva seem to be favouring ADL for double deckers and Blazefield never make huge purchases. Not sure what's happening in Hong Kong and Singapore with new buses - I guess SG will be entirely dependent on who wins future tendering for parts of the network. |
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Post by snowman on Feb 12, 2018 19:23:16 GMT
Northern Ireland news has updated the number to 95 From George Brash (Unite union) “We understand that the job losses are the result of the loss of sales to Transport for London in addition to the protracted delay in new orders coming in from Translink. In the first case, Unite has lobbied directly the Mayor of London's office making the case to support UK workers.” I suspect lobbying the mayor of London will make no difference, TfL can’t afford to buy buses, and Operators are free to buy what they choose. There is also a comment from Unite that last week they had been told about lack of parts could affect production, but weren’t expecting job losses. Putting 2+2 together (probably making 5) I wonder if the parts problem is related to the revised GoAhead order (change because can’t build what they originally ordered) www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/wrightbus-hammer-blow-to-workers-as-company-confirms-up-to-95-jobs-at-risk-36594893.htmlI wonder if this is due to a lot of the recent changes in terms of operator orders. Metroline have switched to EvoSetis for their next batch of buses instead of just ordering from Wright like they usually go. Go Ahead have also only placed the 44s order with Wright while ordering over 100 MMCs from ADL, not to mention RATP have ordered a few MMCs when for the past few years they've almost ordered exclusively Wright bodied Double Deckers. Speculation on my part but should this Smart Hybrid idea take off do Volvo have a similar product? if it really is more effective and lasts longer then I don't see why operators wouldn't order them. Alexander Dennis/BYD also seem to have monopolised the Single Decker electric bus market in London which probably isn't helping matters at Wright either. You can add Arriva London to the list of companies that having been buying Gemini3, but have stopped The ending of the new routemaster build contract has also left a hole Wrightbus do have a contract for Lothian, but seem to be struggling to get new orders Regarding Volvo, they are on record as wanting to do complete hybrid buses, in Europe, they have only continued supplying chassis because 2-3 years ago (when they considered discontinuing chassis) there was a demand. They are looking at discontinuing the B9 euroV chassis, replacing it by B8 euroVI tri-axle, but do not want to continue a diesel 2 axle design. Volvo appear to be moving to electric (with overhead chargers) rather than micro hybrids |
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Post by busoccultation on Feb 12, 2018 19:43:10 GMT
You can add Arriva London to the list of companies that having been buying Gemini3, but have stopped But then Arriva London don't have any new double decker buses on order once the HV's for the 468 have all been delivered. However for Single Deckers they did order Streetlites for the 410 and 450, but they have gone back to ADL and ordered Enviro 200 MMC for the W4 and W6 instead. |
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Post by capitalomnibus on Feb 12, 2018 20:03:01 GMT
Looks like the economic malaise and change in London transport policies & funding are hitting Wrightbus. 100 redundancies due to be announced shortly.
Not sure how a change in LT polices (or TfL I guess you mean) is partly for this. Unless its if they were still expecting to build more New Routemasters. Also could be down to that New Routemaster body on B5LH not generating orders. |
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Post by snowman on Feb 12, 2018 20:04:44 GMT
Regarding Hong Kong and Singapore, the complete kits have been replaced by a new assembly plant in Malaysia so even if Wrightbus pick up orders it isn’t as much assembly work in Northern Ireland. Asia is also seeing competition from China
A year ago they also bought the Gallagher factory (a massive recently closed factory just down the road, that had made cigarettes), as they were planning expansion, but now they are saddled with cost of this, and now in Wrightbus own words in 2018 a quiet order book.
The UK regional business has 2 problems : bus deregulation legislation is changing (so orders are being delayed pending clarity on effect), and the after effects of the DDA deadline (which caused rush of replacements couple of years ago to get compliant buses). Both are resulting in companies not needing to make major purchases at current time.
A quick glance at the tender thread, suggests Wrightbus orders could be very thin for this Autumn and into first half of 2019 for London, perhaps a few dozen buses rather than few hundred buses. If they can’t pick up orders from elsewhere Wrightbus could be in serious financial trouble by the end of the year.
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Post by snoggle on Feb 12, 2018 20:10:33 GMT
Looks like the economic malaise and change in London transport policies & funding are hitting Wrightbus. 100 redundancies due to be announced shortly.
Not sure how a change in LT polices (or TfL I guess you mean) is partly for this. Unless its if they were still expecting to build more New Routemasters. Also could be down to that New Routemaster body on B5LH not generating orders. I really meant policies controlled by the Mayor that TfL have to follow hence why I did not capitalise "transport". The move towards zero emission buses in some places, the ending of the NB4L monopoly purchasing (largely a political move to put it in place by Boris and equally political by Sadiq to end it) and the huge budget squeeze means their biggest market has shrunk for many years hence. It may take over 5 years for the London new bus market to revive and if it proves true that average trip volumes are falling and keep falling then there will be a much smaller, less frequent bus network in the future. If people permanently switch to walking, cycling, home shopping, Uber etc then the bus industry has a poor future and one or more bus manufacturer may well go bust. Obviously all of that is for the future but we are not looking at a rosy future for at least 5 years, probably longer, even if things do "come right" eventually. |
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Post by ohdear on Feb 12, 2018 22:39:37 GMT
Wrights may be part of the UK but were financed in a very different way.
They were forever receiving EU and other subsidies on the pretext the NI economy needed support.
Perhaps these subsidies are now ending
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Post by ServerKing on Feb 12, 2018 23:28:51 GMT
Looks like the economic malaise and change in London transport policies & funding are hitting Wrightbus. 100 redundancies due to be announced shortly.
Not sure how a change in LT polices (or TfL I guess you mean) is partly for this. Unless its if they were still expecting to build more New Routemasters. Also could be down to that New Routemaster body on B5LH not generating orders. I think the money drying up with TfL, having killed off any more LT orders, the SRM being dead in the water as a B5LH in a posh frock (still NO opening windows ). No more have been made since the batch for the 183. I doubt Volvo will bother with a Routemaster styled Virtual Electric hybrid (the one that charges from a pantograph on the roof)... no more Hydrogen SB200 buses ordered (RV1 looks like it may be killed off anyway) and outside London as mentioned Arriva are now buying ADL after the disappointing StreetDeck trials on the 700 in Kent (Wrightbus put the wrong Mercedes lump in - should have been the 6 pot OM936) and I guess with bus travel dropping nationwide, against a background of financial uncertainty caused by Brexit, cuts to grants etc. The StreetLite is okay, the engine suits the single deck but I read it was a pig to replace the blindsets in the WS's that moved to the 286. The Gemini3 looks upto date, but the Streetlite hasn't changed since day one, and looks old compared to the E200 MMC. I find the blinds harder to read due to the blind assembly being set back from the sloping glass in the Streetlite (harder when a bus, like a 192 hasn't seen a bus wash for weeks  ) I guess the 44 order is a crumb of comfort, perhaps those redundancies are from staff who used to build the LT, but can't be deployed elsewhere due to reduction in orders. I heard my namesake hasn't seen service as the bus got bashed during delivery. Not as easy to deal with as a dead on arrival laptop or other item might even be an issue with lead times if Metroline are choosing buses assembled in Egypt when they can't rely on ones from across the water to be ready on time  |
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Post by snowman on Feb 13, 2018 7:42:26 GMT
beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/NI035879/filing-historyLink is Cornerstone Group (owners of Wrightbus) The 2016 accounts show discontinuing operations, turnover down, £13m cost of warranty work (note 18) The number of employees increased from 1745 (2015) to 1864 (2016), so the redundancies are a reversal of the increase
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Post by snowman on Feb 13, 2018 11:00:10 GMT
The last sentence of this is telling, link is Guernsey, but it makes it clear if buses are ordered now, will be cheaper than last batch and available quickly. In other words, Wrightbus are offering discounted prices to try and get orders in Linkoff-topic, but weren't some the bus types listed as being replaced, once in London |
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Post by snoggle on Feb 13, 2018 13:47:49 GMT
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Post by SILENCED on Feb 13, 2018 14:12:30 GMT
"Wrightbus have failed to get a suitably attractive electric single decker out to the market" I don't know to much about the Streetair, but if it is good enough to Lothian to order a batch ... that comment maybe a little unfair ... Just like the original statement |
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