69154 Wrightbus Wright Eclipse Urban

Delivered new to First Greater Manchester in 2006, 69154 was one of 256 Volvo B7RLE Wright Eclipse Urbans ordered for Manchester in a bid to renew the aging fleet with high-spec, low-floor vehicles. Featuring a wheelchair bay, double glazing, and a 6-speed ZF gearbox, it truly was a new era for public transport in Greater Manchester.

VOH was allocated to Bolton’s Weston Street depot and upon its arrival was immediately branded for route 582 – a high capacity and frequent ‘Overground Network’ service between Bolton and Leigh. In late 2008 the route branding was removed and was used on a wider range of Bolton’s routes. The vehicle was one of the first at Weston Street to receive the new ‘Olympia’ livery in 2013.

With the announcement of the sale of both Weston Street and Queens Road to Go Northwest in 2019, 69154 was leased to the new operator to support the service whilst they awaited their order of Wrightbus Streetdecks. As the new order arrived First’s buses were returned and cascaded around their operations across the business. 69154 was re-allocated to First Potteries in late 2021 and based at Adderley Green depot in Stoke-on-Trent, to aid in replacing their fleet of Transbus Enviro 300s.

In June 2022, like most Euro 3 B7RLEs across the country, the vehicle was earmarked for scrap. Since entering preservation in September 2022, 69154 has been given a new lease of life with a retrimmed interior, damaged windows replaced and returned to the original ‘Overground’ livery.