Wrightbus Back To Coach With Contour Diesel And Hydrogen Future
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Route One.
These are two introductory paragraphs.
Wrightbus has announced details of its return to the coach sector with the launch of the Contour, a new diesel-powered two-axle model built in partnership with Chinese OEM King Long.
Alongside the Contour, the company has spoken in more detail of its plans to introduce a tri-axle integral hydrogen fuel cell-electric coach, due for debut in 2026.
Specific and new product points include.
- The diesel-powered coach will be built in partnership with a Chinese OEM.
- It will be a 12.2m coach with 55 seats plus toilet.
- Left- and right-hand drive variants will be available.
- Luggage space is nine cubic metres, reducing to seven cubic metres with a passenger lift fitted.
This paragraph describes the hydrogen coach.
That vehicle will be its first fully integral coach model, developed entirely in-house. The initial variant will be a 15m overdecker capable of accommodating 69 passengers on the upper deck and up to 15 passengers and two wheelchair users on the lower deck, with 10 cubic metres of luggage space. Wrightbus has not confirmed yet whether it will carry the Contour name, nor where the body will be built.
They also say that a single-deck version is being considered for later, while the coach’s modular construction will make it suited to a number of different drivetrain options, depending on demand.
It would appear that Wrightbus have all options covered.
Wrightbus Goes Back To The Future As It Relaunches The Contour Coach
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from Wrightbus.
This is the detail of the press release.
Wrightbus is entering the coach market for the first time in more than 30 years with the launch of two new vehicles in the next 18 months.
The first vehicle to hit the market is the Contour, a low-emission 55-seater coach that was launched at a customer showcase event today (March 5).
It’s a case of back to the future for Wrightbus, which last produced a Contour coach in 1987 before retiring the vehicle.
The second vehicle, a zero-emission hydrogen coach – which is under development in Ballymena, Northern Ireland – will be added to the Wrightbus coach range within the next 18 months to help drive decarbonisation of the sector.
The low emission Contour has a lead time of just six months from order, which is considerably faster than the current one-to-two-year average wait customers have come to expect from the sector. Featuring a Cummins Euro 6 400BHP X11 engine and a ZF automatic gearbox, the modern-day Contour has been built with comfort in mind, with up to 55 reclining seats – each with its own USB port – alongside other modern safety features. Competitively priced and available with or without PSVAR compliance, there is also the option of the vehicle being ‘pre-prepared’, protecting the vehicle’s ‘second life’ and flexibility.
The coach has a range of bespoke options for customers to choose from and is designed to maximise luggage space and functionality.
It will be supported by a full Wrightbus warranty, alongside an unparalleled service and maintenance package from AllServiceOne, the Wrightbus repair and maintenance arm.
With the largest fleet of mobile technicians throughout the UK and Northern Ireland, AllServiceOne is the ultimate one-stop-shop for fleet support and service.
Wrightbus CEO, Jean-Marc Gales, said bringing the Contour to market was a pivotal move.
“The coach market has changed over the last few years and it’s the right time for a new player to come to the market.
We have long spoken about broadening our portfolio to offer customers an even greater range of Wrightbus vehicles.
Our first entry into the coach sector after an absence of more than three decades is another significant step in our expansion plans,” said Mr Gales.
“We know there are gaps in the market and the demand for coaches is growing.
This partnership allows us to bring high-quality low-emission vehicles to market almost immediately.
Throughout the process of readying the vehicle for our UK market, we have worked alongside our partner closely to ensure the Contour meets the exacting Wrightbus high quality standards that customers have come to expect.
Our AllServiceOne technicians have embarked on an extensive training programme and have a full working knowledge of the coach to ensure excellent fleet support. “At the same time as the launch of the Contour, our world-leading engineers are continuing to develop our own zero-emission hydrogen coach from our factory in Northern Ireland. We expect the hydrogen coach to be ready for launch in the next 18 months, which is a hugely exciting prospect.” The hydrogen coach concept was first revealed in 2024 as a prototype vehicle.
When launched, it will be a tri-axle hydrogen fuel cell electric coach capable of a 1,000km range, putting it on a par with traditional diesel-fuelled coaches.
These are my thoughts.
The Coach Has A Cummins Engine
Cummins will probably build the engines in their UK factory in Darlington.
Thirty years ago, I did a small data analysis consultancy for Cummins in Darlington and I was impressed by the operation and the company’s attitude.
One of their policies was that if the customer wants a special engine, then the company, is prepared to give the customer what they need.
So you can be sure, that the Cummins X11 engine to be supplied for the Contour coach, will be exactly what Wrightbus want.
The Cummins X15 Engine Is Convertible To A X15 Hydrogen Engine
Some of Cummins diesel engines are convertible to hydrogenfuel, by changing the cylinder head and the fuel system.
This can be done with a Cummins X15 engine and I wouldn’t be surprised if the X11 engine fitted to the Contour coach can be converted to hydrogen.
So an operator can buy a diesel coach and if they need, they could convert it to hydrogen.
USB Ports
This is stated in the press release.
Contour has been built with comfort in mind, with up to 55 reclining seats – each with its own USB port.
When I rode recently in a Irizar coach, there were no USB ports.
There Is A Promised Delivery Time Of Six Months
In the 1990s, I used to part-own a finance company, that leased vehicles.
One of the vehicles we used to loan money for was upmarket coaches like the Wrightbus Contour.
- They were a relatively large loan of about £50,000.
- The borrower was often very reputable with a good credit history.
- The repossession rate was very low.
The press release says, that a two-year delivery time is normal for coaches and, I can remember that we could have financed more coaches, if they had been available.
So it would appear to me, that if Wrightbus can deliver a new coach in six months, they will sell a lot of coaches and I believe from past experience, that finance will be available from trusted sources.
The Hydrogen Coach Will Be A Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Tri-Axle Coach
This is stated in the press release.
When launched, it will be a tri-axle hydrogen fuel cell electric coach capable of a 1,000km range, putting it on a par with traditional diesel-fuelled coaches.
I suspect to get the 1,000 km range of the diesel coach and to protect the hydrogen tank, means some extra weight and an extra axle.
But I wouldn’t be surprised to see a reduced range hydrogen coach without the third axle.
Wrightbus Are The Company Who Launched Ballard Hydrogen Fuel Cells In London
I wrote London’s Hydrogen Buses in July 2013 and all Wrightbus buses hydrogen buses have used hydrogen full cells from Ballard Power Systems in Canada.
But there could be a complication in that Cummins make fuel cells in Germany and we are approaching Trumpian Tariff War Territory.
On the other hand in Australian Volgren Rolls Out First Hydrogen Bus Based On Wrightbus Chassis Technology, it shows how Wrightbus are prepared to licence their technology to reputable companies.
So any country, like Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Mexico, Singapore or the United States, who can build coaches, can licence Wrightbus’s designs and fit the appropriate components to make a complete coach.
Note.
- Wrightbus is owned by the Bamford family, who own JCB.
- Wrightbus have licenced designs to Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore in the past.
- JCB have large manufacturing facilities in India.
I’m certain that the Bamfords and their advisors can work it out!
Appeasement 2.0
The low point of Russia’s war in Ukraine is that Trummkopf, has repeated Chamberlain’s mistake at Munich and presented Putin with Appeasement 2.0.
I wasn’t around in the days of Munich and Chamberlain, but my father was well-informed, as he was in Geneva doing something possibly at the League of Nations and heard a lot of the truth about what was going on in Czechoslovakia and Ukraine at first hand. He believed there was little to choose between Hitler and Stalin on the scale of evil.
In the 1970s, I worked with an Jewish Austrian engineer, who was called Samuels, at the GLC, who had escaped from Austria just before WW2 and then spent the war in the Royal Engineers in bomb disposal. After the war, he was an observer at Nuremberg.
He was one of the most amazing people, I’ve ever met and he taught me a lot about project management.
Aggregation In Artemis
One of the features of Artemis was aggregation, which enabled the project manager to total up the resources they’d need for a project.
I might have programmed the original aggregation for Mr. Samuels, but I can certainly remember discussing it with him. He needed it to check that particular sub-contractors weren’t overstreching themselves.
I lost contact with Mr. Samuels, when his wife died and he moved to CERN in Geneva. But he’s one of several people, who helped frame the design of Artemis.
Soviet War Crimes
This Wikipedia entry is entitled Soviet War Crimes.
This is the first paragraph.
From 1917 to 1991, a multitude of war crimes and crimes against humanity were carried out by the Soviet Union or any of its Soviet republics, including the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and its armed forces. They include acts which were committed by the Red Army (later called the Soviet Army) as well as acts which were committed by the country’s secret police, NKVD, including its Internal Troops. In many cases, these acts were committed upon the direct orders of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin in pursuance of the early Soviet policy of Red Terror as a means to justify executions and political repression. In other instances they were committed without orders by Soviet troops against prisoners of war or civilians of countries that had been in armed conflict with the USSR, or they were committed during partisan warfare.
As a teenager, my father used to tell me stories of atrocities by the Soviet Union and told me, he believed Stalin was on a level with Hitler.
One of the worst atrocities was the Katyn massacre in 1940, which is described in this Wikipedia entry and starts with this paragraph.
The Katyn massacre was a series of mass executions of nearly 22,000 Polish military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia prisoners of war carried out by the Soviet Union, specifically the NKVD (the Soviet secret police), at Joseph Stalin’s order in April and May 1940. Though the killings also occurred in the Kalinin and Kharkiv NKVD prisons and elsewhere, the massacre is named after the Katyn forest, where some of the mass graves were first discovered by Nazi German forces in 1943.
I haven’t found out, what my father was doing in 1940, but I am fairly sure he knew of the Katyn and other massacres, as he occasionally commented.
Note.
- The involvement of the NKVD.
- The Katyn massacre is a sub-plot in the film Enigma, which has this Wikipedia entry.
I took this picture of a memorial to Katyn in the centre of Birmingham.
I believe that we ignore the lessons of Soviet behaviour at Katyn, at our peril.
In Vladimir Putin’s Wikipedia entry, there is this paragraph about his parents.
Putin’s mother was a factory worker, and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy, serving in the submarine fleet in the early 1930s. During the early stage of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, his father served in the destruction battalion of the NKVD. Later, he was transferred to the regular army and was severely wounded in 1942. Putin’s maternal grandmother was killed by the German occupiers of Tver region in 1941, and his maternal uncles disappeared on the Eastern Front during World War II.
It appears that Putin Senior left the NKVD destruction battalion before 1942. Does that mean he could have been at Katyn?
I do suspect, that Putin Senior told some interesting stories to his son, about the correct ways to deal with your opponents and wage a war.
Conclusion
We are treading a very similar path over eighty years later.
AI Could Make New Runways Obsolete
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Jewish News.
This is the sub-heading.
As Heathrow’s controversial third runway gets the green light and Gatwick looks on track for a second one, an Israeli tech innovation could reduce the need for such costly expansions.
These paragraphs add some detail.
IntellAct is a cutting-edge AI company that helps airports maximise efficiency, cut delays and save billions of pounds. By optimising ground operations and reducing aircraft turnaround times, it could spare airports the need for new runways entirely.
“The aviation industry is bleeding from a thousand cuts,” says Udi Segall, IntellAct’s founder and CEO. “Constant delays – with an average of 15.5 minutes per flight — add up to billions in costs. We saw a financial opportunity in how airlines manage their activities, and that’s where IntellAct comes in.”
IntellAct leverages big data and machine learning to provide airlines, airports and ground handling teams with real-time visibility into service performance bottlenecks and the ability to address them in a way that can yield significant operational improvements and a dramatic reduction in flight delays.
It’s an interesting thought.
I am reminded of a story from the 1960s, from ICI.
They had a polypropylene plant, that was notoriously inefficient, so a guy called Humphrey Bowen (?) used a discrete simulation program called HOCUS to create a board game of the chemical plant. This game was then played one Sunday, with beer and sandwiches between the various teams of production workers. It became heated at one point, but they did learn a lot about the behaviour of the plant and improved its efficiency.
I think it is true to say, that in the early 1970s, I worked with a bunch of interesting people at ICI Plastics.
These days, use might be made of a digital twin.
Latest Northumberland Line station Set To Open
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Place North East.
This is the sub-heading.
Newsham Station in Blyth will be up and running on Monday, 17 March, allowing passengers to travel to Newcastle in 21 minutes.
These four paragraphs add detail.
It follows on from the reopening of the line in December, when Ashington and Seaton Delaval were brought back into action.
The line has been closed to passengers for almost 60 years, although freight still ran along the tracks.
Morgan Sindall Infrastructure-Rail is the main contractor on the almost £300m project.
Figures released by Northern, which operates the services, show around 50,000 passenger journeys were made on the line in the first month, a figure that has now surpassed 110,000.
Those passenger numbers seem very good and I suspect we’ll see London Overground Syndrome arriving.
It’s already starting to look like the project has been £300 million well spent and we should be looking for more similar projects.
Details At Hayes And Harlington Station
Yesterday, on my way to Reading, I changed trains at Hayes and Harlington station and took a few pictures.
An Ideally-Placed Waiting Room
These pictures show a waiting room on the Westbound platform of the Elizabeth Line.
The Elizabeth Line has these Western destinations.
- Heathrow Terminal 4
- Heathrow Terminal 5
- Maidenhead
- Paddington
- Reading.
Note.
- If you are travelling to any of the Heathrow destinations and you are riding on a Maidenhead or Reading train, then Hayes and Harlington station is the last station you can change for the Airport.
- If you are travelling to any of the destinations on the Reading branch and you are riding on a Heathrow train, then Hayes and Harlington station is the last station you can change for the Airport.
- If you are travelling from any of the Heathrow destinations to any of the destinations on the Reading branch, then Hayes and Harlington station is the first station you can change for the Reading branch.
- If you are travelling from any of the Reading branch destinations to any of the Heathrow destinations, then Hayes and Harlington station is the first station you can change for the Heathrow destinations.
- To aid the change of platform in the third and fourth changes, there is a step-free footbridge at Hayes and Harlington station.
The waiting room at Hayes and Harlington station, which is complete with heating could be a welcome refuge whilst changing trains at Hayes and Harlington station.
The golden rule seems to be, that if you’re on the wrong train on the Elizabeth Line, then change for your desired destination at Hayes and Harlington station.
Track Warnings
These pictures show the bilingual track warnings at Hayes and Harlington station.
I hope Network Rail are analysing, if the warnings work.
The Main Step-Free Route Across The Tracks
These pictures show the main step-free route at Hayes and Harlington station.
Note.
- The route with lifts, is rather tucked in at the Western end of the station.
- There are toilets under the bridge on the Eastbound platform.
- The steps are rather steep, so if you have any issues, I would use the lifts.
The golden rule is if you are going between the Reading and Heathrow branches with a change of direction from Eastbound to Westbound at Hayes and Harlington station, then make sure, you start your journey in the back of the train.
The Secondary Route Across The Tracks
These pictures show the secondary route at Hayes and Harlington station.
Note.
- I believe this bridge is better placed for some travellers, who need to reverse direction at Hayes and Harlington station.
- It is also convenient for the waiting room.
In Heathrow Rail Link Withdrawn, But MP Vows To Carry On, I asked this question.
Could Hayes And Harlington Station Become A Transport Hub For Heathrow?
I said this.
This Google Map shows Hayes and Harlington station.
Note.
- It has platforms on all four tracks of the Great Western Main Line.
- There is a London-facing bay platform to terminate Elizabeth Line trains, if needed.
- The land to the North of the station has been developed.
- There is land to the South of the station that could be developed.
Could the space above the tracks, with some of the land to the South of the station be developed into a transport hub for Heathrow?
I took these pictures to answer my question.
I don’t think there would be enough space to put a combined bus and coach station at Hayes and Harlington station.
Riding Rail Air Between Reading Station And Heathrow Terminal 5
Today, I rode on a Rail Air coach between Reading station And Heathrow Terminal 5.
I took these pictures as I walked through Reading station and from the coach.
These are my thoughts on various topics.
Catching The Coach At Reading
Consider.
- The route to Rail Air from the trains at Reading station is well signed.
- The entrance to the Rail Air terminal at Reading station is behind the M & S Simply Food store.
- I estimate that the time between arriving at Reading station and the coach leaving was only a few minutes.
- Rail Air coaches run every twenty minutes.
- My coach had about ten passengers.
- My single fare was £17.30 with my Senior Railcard.
It was all a rather painless process.
On The Coach
Consider.
- The coach was more-or-less what you would expect on a quality route.
- The view was good.
- I had a table, with four seats.
- The table had contactless charging and drink holders.
- There was no charging for my phone and camera, which use USB or 13 amp plugs.
- The seat was reasonably comfortable.
- There was a toilet.
- There was typical storage for heavy luggage underneath the seats.
I would have thought if Wrightbus fit USB ports on their buses, that they are needed.
The Route
This Google Map shows Reading and Heathrow
Note.
- Reading is at the Western end of the map.
- Heathrow is at the Eastern end of the map.
- The red arrow indicates Winniersh Triangle station on the Eastern side of Reading.
- The coaches stop at Reading Cemetery and Winnersh Triangle station.
- Most of the route between Winnersh Triangle and Heathrow Airport is on the M4 Motorway or dual-carriageway roads.
- The distance appears to be just under 27 miles and is scheduled to take forty minutes.
- Click the map to show to a larger scale.
It looks to me that it is an ideal route for a coach.
On The Journey
Consider.
- Once clear of Reading and past the stop at Winnersh Triangle, the coach held a good speed all the way to Heathrow, as the motoway was not busy.
- In the UK coaches under twelve metres long, can run at 70 mph and I estimated that this coach was probably at 60 mph.
- The stops were called out like stations on a train.
- Strangely, the roadholding was not as good as that of the Wrightbus hydrogen bus, that I took to Gatwick, a couple of weeks ago.
- The big problem though was the noise of the diesel engine, which was very loud compared to the noise of the fuel cell and electric transmission of the Wrightbus hydrogen bus.
I suspect that transforming the hydrogen bus into a coach, could result in a very high quality coach, with the performance and range of a diesel coach, without the noise, pollution, vibration and carbon emissions.
Gatwick Airport South Terminal Bus Station
These pictures show the bus station at Gatwick Airport’s South Terminal
Note.
- It is in two separate sections (Northbound and Southbound) on either side of a fairly busy dual carriageway.
- This is the bus station in the South Terminal for Metrobus local services.
- Most of these pictures were taken on the Southbound side, with the last four looking down from the terminal.
- The information displays were clear and easy to understand.
- Access to the terminal and the train station was via lifts and a pair of travelators.
- About 80 % of the buses I saw were hydrogen-powered.
It did look as if it had been designed by an architect, who was more used to designing rudimentory rural tram stops or train stations.
This page on the London Gatwick web site gives more details of Coaches and Buses at Gatwick Airport.
Yes! We Have No Bananas
This was the scene that greeted me in Marks and Spencer on Moorgate this afternoon, at the banana display or should that be banana non-display.
I can’t ever remember going into one of their major stores and not finding any of my favourite fruit.
At least they had some strawberries.
Heathrow Rail Link Project Could Be ‘Reopened’
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the sub-heading.
Network Rail has said plans for a rail link between the Great Western mainline and Heathrow Airport could still move forward if funding is found in the future.
These three paragraphs give the current status of the scheme.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service recently reported that the project had been put on hold.
It began in 2012 and involved proposals for a 4 mile (6.5km) rail link to allow train services from Reading and Slough in Berkshire to reach Heathrow using a tunnel.
The £900m scheme would allow people living to the west of Heathrow to travel direct to the airport, instead of having to go into London.
These are some other facts and my thoughts.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) For The Western Rail Link To Heathrow
According to the BBC article, this has now been established and this is said.
Labour MP for Slough, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, held a debate in parliament on the western rail link in April and established the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Western Rail Link to Heathrow, to make sure it “remains on the government’s agenda”.
He said the project had been “beset by delays and funding challenges” but still had “wide cross-party and local support”.
Parliamentary backing is surely a good thing.
The Current Scheme
The BBC article shows this map with a rail link connecting the Great Western Main Line to Terminal 5 railway station.
Note.
- The rail link starts from East of Langley station.
- Terminal 5 station can take full-length Elizabeth Line trains.
- Main line trains from Bristol, Cardiff and Wales and the West should be able to access Heathrow.
But I suspect, that there would be extensive changes to Heathrow’s railways to access the other terminals. This would explain the near billion pound cost of the link.
I also suspect that it would take about eight to ten years to build and from what I havc heard, the rail link is urgently needed.
RailAir
RailAir is the current way of travelling between Reading station and Heathrow Airport.
This is the first paragraph of RailAir’s Wikipedia entry.
RailAir describes a number of airport bus and coach services designed to connect the National Rail network to airports in the United Kingdom. Services are currently concentrated on Heathrow Airport, with one other from Luton Airport. RailAir services are operated as public transport services by or on behalf of train operators, where the whole journey is paid for as a through-ticket which combines the railway and bus journey, although journeys can be made using the bus only. As such, many are operated where the train and bus operator are owned by the same company.
Could RailAir be updated to be a more frequent and integrated service?
CoacH2
This page on the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK web site is entitled CoacH2 – Next Generation Hydrogen Fuel-Cell Coach Powertrain Demonstrator.
This is the sub-heading.
Accelerating the development of zero-emission hydrogen fuel-cell electric coaches, with a full on-vehicle technology demonstrator.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Coaches are an integral part of the public transport network, with over 30,000 diesel coaches operating across the UK and Ireland. Due to the specific demands of coach operation (motorway driving, long-range, high passenger and luggage loading capacity) decarbonisation options for this sector are extremely limited with hydrogen fuel-cell technology considered the most viable choice. This project will tackle this difficult to decarbonise sector by developing, testing and validating an innovative hydrogen fuel-cell powertrain suitable for coach applications.
Delivered by a Northern Irish consortium spanning OEM, coach operator and academia, CoacH2 will accelerate the development of zero-emission, fuel-cell electric coaches, with a full on-vehicle technology demonstrator to be manufactured and showcased at Cenex Expo 2024.
As I indicated in British Buses For British Bottoms, Wrightbus build a good well-built, smooth-riding and comfortable bus, so now they can add hydrogen-powered coaches to the product range.
This press release on the Wrightbus web site is entitled Wrightbus Coach Demonstrator Unveiled At Cenex Expo, gives more information on CoacH2.
- The demonstrator has a power of 300 Kw.
- It has a range of 1,000 km. on one refueling.
- An internet search reveals a launch date of 2026 for the hydrogen-powered coach.
I wonder, if RailAir changed their coaches to these new Wrightbus hydrogen-powered coaches, they would transform travel to airports all over the UK.
If the hydrogen-powered coaches are of the same quality of their hydrogen-powered siblings, they will be a quality product with good road-holding, sufficient performance and superb passenger comfort.
RailAir could be the ideal, initial application.
Conclusion
A proper rail link to Heathrow from Reading is needed, but it will take at least ten years to build and cost a billion pounds.
However the RailAir links to Heathrow from Reading and Woking can be improved by using high-performance Wrightbus hydrogen-powered coaches.
The Anonymous Widower 