Wright Streetdeck

40714

SL16YPH was a Wrighbus demonstrator that was new in June 2016 and was initially on long team loan to Arriva at their Kent & Surrey subsidiary at their Guildford Depot. In January 2020 Diamond North West acquired SL16YPH and it took the fleet number 40714. They also acquired sister demonstrator vehicles SK17 HHC and SK18 TKX which took the fleet numbers 40700 (now with Go Greater Manchester) and 40715 and is now with Preston Bus. These acquisitions for part of a total order for 143 Wrights double deck vehicles mainly for the Diamond North West Bolton Depot but a number were also allocated to the Preston Bus and Diamond South East operations. With the introduction in September 2023 of the first tranche of TfGM bus franchises many of the Wrights double deckers were sold to Go Ahead for use on the franchise services they operate in the Bolton area. Several of the double deckers moved to West Midlands including 40714 which joined the Tividale fleet in the West Midlands on 15th March 2024 having stayed he North West to cover the transition period after the introduction of the first franchises. 40716 differs from the Diamond production examples as it has a low bridge body and gasket mounted windows as opposed to bonded glazing.

40725/6

Back in August 2019 Rotala purchased the Bolton bus depot from First Group for £5.3M. Unusually, it did not purchase most of the vehicles instead agreeing short term leasing agreements for the buses. For the double deckers this was for just over 12 months. The Rotala plan was to replace all of these vehicles with brand new Streetdeck vehicles manufactured by Wrights bus. Since then the company has taken delivery of 143 new vehicles plus a nearly new demonstrator vehicle. The vast majority of the vehicles have been allocated to the Bolton depot but the opportunity has also been taken to upgrade vehicles at the Preston depot. In late April 2022 it was announced that Rotala would be purchasing the bus operations of Johnson’s of Henley in Arden. Some of the services they acquired needed double deck vehicles and so 2 Streetdecks were transferred from the Bolton depot over the weekend of the 30th April/1st May 2022 initially going to the Tividale depot where they were used on a rail replacement service and the 002. Within days the vehicles had moved to Redditch ready to be used on former Johnson services.   When the Midland Classic operations were purchased and with reduction in vehicles requirements at Redditch following loss of much of the Johnson's bus operation to Stagecoach the two Streetdecks were transferred to Burton on Trent so that double deck vehicles that meet the Euro VI requirement could be used on their Boots contract. which runs from Birmingham City Centre. Within days 40725 was moved back to Redditch as the X11 Boots contract is in the main currently run from Redditch. During November 2024 40725 was taken out of service and sent to the Wrights Bus subsidiary Repower at Bicester that has been set up to convert diesel powered buses to electic.

40818-20/4-43

With the loss of the the majority of the Bolton operation with the award of the franchise to the Go Ahead Group Diamond Bus started to reduce their operations from April 2023.  Co-incidentally with a operator commitment for all bus services from May 1st 2023 in the West Midlands to be operated by Euro VI standard vehicles Diamond Bus have been able to move 15 Street decks from Bolton to the West Midlands where they will see services on the 002, 16A and 50 services. Over the weekend of the 29th and 30th April 2023 a further 3 Street Decks joined the Diamond West Midlands fleet from the North West in the form of 40819/27/41. Over the weekend of the 5th and 6th May 40833 moved to the West Midlands operation. The vehicle has sustained major accident damage in the North West on the 29th April 2024 and had been rebuilt by Wrightbus .