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20-569: The Wright Liberator was a low-floor single-deck bus body built on Volvo B10L chassis by Wrightbus between 1996 and 1999. The Wright Liberator was announced in October 1995 by Wrightbus, joining its range of bodies on Volvo chassis such as the Pathfinder and Crusader . The bus was constructed with an Alusuisse bolted aluminium frame and took advantage of the B10L chassis to create a step-free floor up to

40-630: A bid for monies from the Transport Innovation Fund . Within the bid were proposals to introduce Congestion charging in Greater Manchester . They claimed the Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund would have significantly improve public transport in the area funded by charging motorists entering the city at peak times. A consultation document was sent out to residents during July 2008. In December 2008,

60-540: A local referendum voted no to the proposals. In February 2011, the Daily Telegraph reported that David Leather, chief executive of the Passenger Transport Executive, was being paid £45,000 a month, and Bob Morris, interim chief operating officer, was getting a six-figure salary. Because they were seconded staff, rather than being employees, they were supposedly not covered by the government demand that

80-421: Is being gradually replaced on the former across Greater Manchester by rebranded bus stop flags displaying the new Transport for Greater Manchester logo. To add to printed material and logos etched in glass on the side of bus shelters, GMPTE began a programme of adding their 'double M' logo to 101 railway station nameboards, train rolling stock livery, bus sides and some 'totem' pole signs outside rail stations in

100-553: The SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive was formed. SELNEC stood for South East Lancashire North East Cheshire , a joint authority of the various local councils. From 1 November 1969, the PTE took over the bus fleets of 11 municipalities, and operationally, the organisation was split into three divisional areas, Northern, Central, and Southern: SELNEC branded its fleet with its corporate orange and white livery and

120-458: The step-entrance B10B , examples of which were already owned by many of its customers. The largest operators of Volvo B10L buses in the United Kingdom were Travel West Midlands and Travel Dundee , who ordered over 100 conventional diesel-powered chassis with Wright Liberator bodywork in 1996. Travel West Midlands also ordered 14 CNG -powered buses with Alexander Ultra bodies in 1997;

140-478: The 'S' logo. The 'S' logo was coloured differently in each division: magenta for Northern, blue for Central and green for Southern. For corporate operations, the parcel operations (inherited from Manchester), and the coaching fleet, the 'S' logo was in orange In the early 1970s, SELNEC began to promote a project to construct an underground railway beneath central Manchester, the Picc-Vic tunnel . The scheme aimed to link

160-962: The CNG Ultras were later converted to run on conventional diesel. The second largest operator of B10Ls Translink , who purchased sixty B10Ls with Alexander Ultra bodies in 1995. Fifty of these were allocated to Citybus , while ten were allocated to Ulsterbus services in Derry . Two ex-demonstrator Ultras were also acquired. The FirstGroup were a notable operator of the Volvo B10L. First Glasgow ordered ten B10Ls with Wright Liberator bodywork, while five similar B10Ls were ordered by GM Buses North in 1995 for operation on Superbus routes between Wigan and Leigh . These were delivered in 1996, by which time GM Buses North had become First Greater Manchester . First Northampton , meanwhile, ordered nine B10Ls with Alexander Ultra bodies. Six of these were CNG -fuelled, while

180-651: The PTE, and had to compete in the deregulated market. In preparation for privatisation, the company was split into GM Buses North and GM Buses South on 31 December 1993. Both companies were sold to their managements on 31 March 1994, and sold on to major groups in 1996: GM Buses South to Stagecoach in February, GM Buses North to FirstBus in March. GMPTE and the GMPTA worked with the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities to produce

200-693: The United Kingdom, the articulated B10LA was bodied exclusively by Wrightbus for FirstGroup subsidiaries in Manchester (15), Leeds (15) and Glasgow (10). The Wright body for the B10LA is named Fusion . The B10L enjoyed limited success in Britain. In 1997 the Volvo B10BLE was introduced to the British market, and this chassis rapidly became more popular. The B10BLE was cheaper than the B10L, and shared more in common with

220-546: The abolition of the Greater Manchester County Council in 1986, a new Passenger Transport Authority was created to administer the GMPTE, made up of councillors from the Greater Manchester district councils. In the same year, in order to prepare for bus deregulation , the PTE's bus operations passed to Greater Manchester Buses Limited (trading as GM Buses ) in October 1986. The company was owned at "arm's length" by

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240-533: The acquisition of Warburton's Coaches in November 1975 and Lancashire United Transport and Godfrey Abbot in January 1976. The public branding applied to buses and signage used the shorter name Greater Manchester Transport , displayed in upper and lower case Helvetica next to a distinctive orange double 'M' logo. The logo, first seen around 1974, is still in use today on bus stops and transport information literature, but

260-452: The area during the 1990s. This idea was later extended to a full re-design of the bus stop flag in 2000, (used first on primary bus routes, now extended to the entire GMPTE area) resulting in a unified corporate appearance containing the 'double M' logo on bus, train and tram stops. The PTE sponsored several new railway stations on existing lines in the 1970s and 1980s including Flowery Field , Godley , Hag Fold and Ryder Brow . Following

280-1421: The demonstrator. Eleven Wright Liberator -bodied B10Ls are operated by Bus Éireann in Cork , and sister CIÉ company Dublin Bus purchased five Alexander Ultra -bodied B10Ls for use in Dublin . A sixth, experimental LPG-powered, Ultra was leased and later returned. Helsingin Bussiliikenne purchased 41 Volvo B10L buses with Carrus City U  [ fi ] bodies between 1995 and 1999; 21 of these are gas-powered. Pohjolan Liikenne bought four Volvo B10L buses with Lahden Autokori  [ fi ] 402 bodies in 1999. Tampereen kaupunkiliikenne purchased eight articulated Volvo B10LA buses with Carrus City U bodies between 1996–1998 and in 2008. Jyväskylän Liikenne purchased 29 Volvo B10L buses with Carrus City U bodies built between 1997 and 1998. Some of these buses were bought from Kuopion Liikenne. Koiviston Auto has five Volvo B10L buses with Carrus City U bodies bought in 1997 and 1998. Transport for Brisbane purchased 54 Volvo B10L buses with Austral-Pacific Orana body as well as six with Volgren CR222L body, all were withdrawn between 2012 and 2015. Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive

300-540: The name "Cheshire". (Most of the NWRCC operations bought by SELNEC were in the old county of Cheshire ). When the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester was created on 1 April 1974 the executive was replaced by GMPTE, with the Greater Manchester County Council replacing the joint transport authority. The PTE also acquired the bus operations of Wigan Corporation with 130 vehicles. Further expansion saw

320-858: The rear axle. The Liberator was succeeded in 1999 by the Renown on the Volvo B10BLE chassis. The Liberator's launch customer was First Greater Manchester , who after ordering the buses as GM Buses North , took delivery of five of the type branded for 'Superbus' low-floor services between Wigan and Leigh in June 1996. The National Express Group were the Liberator's overall largest customer, with over 100 purchased by their Travel Dundee and Travel West Midlands subsidiaries. Eleven were also purchased by Bus Éireann in Ireland. [REDACTED] Media related to Wright Liberator at Wikimedia Commons Volvo B10L The B10L

340-439: The remaining three were powered by conventional diesel. Other customers included CMT Buses , who purchased 10 Wrights, and Timeline of Wigan, who purchased 6 Ultras with grant funding from Greater Manchester PTE . Four Alexander Ultra-bodied B10L demonstrators were produced, with the first Ultra-bodied B10L produced being delivered to Mainline Buses in 1994. Mainline did not order any further examples and quickly disposed of

360-475: The two main railway stations, Piccadilly and Victoria with a tunnel. The project was eventually cancelled on grounds of cost. On 1 January 1972, SELNEC PTE acquired most of National Bus Company 's North Western Road Car subsidiary with buses, services and depots in Altrincham , Glossop , Oldham , Stockport and Urmston . The corporate orange and white livery was applied, with the 'S' logo in brown and

380-515: Was available in the United Kingdom and Ireland between 1994 and 1999, with a choice of two types of bodywork, the Alexander Ultra and the Wright Liberator . The Alexander Ultra body was marketed by Volvo and based on a design produced by Volvo subsidiary Säffle, who built the body on the first B10L imported to the United Kingdom. The bodywork by Wrightbus proved slightly more popular. In

400-494: Was the public body responsible for public transport in Greater Manchester between 1974 and 2011, when it became part of Transport for Greater Manchester . Until 1969, the conurbation surrounding Manchester was divided between the two administrative counties of Lancashire and Cheshire and a number of county boroughs , such as Manchester, Salford, Stockport or Bolton. To comply with the Transport Act 1968 , on 1 April 1969,

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