Wright Endurance

The Wright Endurance is a step-entrance, single-deck bus body built by Wrightbus between 1993 and 1997.

History
The large majority of Endurances were built on Volvo B10B chassis, including quite large fleets for the privatised former PTE companies - in particular Merseyside based MTL North who took 120, West Midlands Travel who took 67 and Greater Manchester-based GM Buses North who took 55. The Endurance was also built on sixteen Scania N113 chassis for Midland Bluebird, and similar bodywork with alternative names was built on two different Mercedes-Benz chassis types (see below).

Merseyside's examples were operated by MTL and were delivered between 1994 and 1996 for the Merseybus (87), Lancashire Travel (13), MTL Fareway (10), Southport and District (8) and MTL Manchester (2) operations. Merseyside's examples continued to see active service with successor Arriva North West until October 2011 - however as of April 2012 seven remain in use as training vehicles with the company. A small number of the Merseyside Endurances remained in service for slightly longer - albeit with Arriva Scotland West - until the company was sold to McGill's.

Bus Éireann took nine for use in Cork (seven) and Limerick (two), these being the only examples built to dual-door layout.

The Endurance was superseded by low-floor bodies, the Liberator on Volvo B10L chassis and the Renown on Volvo B10BLE chassis.

Related designs
Endurance-style bodywork was also built on Mercedes-Benz chassis, in which forms it was given different names.

UrbanRanger
The UrbanRanger, built on Mercedes-Benz OH1416 chassis, was the more obviously similar to the Endurance, being of almost identical appearance. Only sixteen were built, the first, a demonstrator for Mercedes-Benz, being registered in July 1994. It was later sold to Midland Choice of Willenhall, who also purchased three others new.

The final four examples were not sold until 1998, when they went to Chambers of Moneymore in Northern Ireland.

Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service purchased an UrbanRanger-bodied Mercedes for use as a mobile command unit, and the Irish Army purchased one for troop transportation.

CityRanger
The CityRanger was based on the Mercedes-Benz O405 chassis, and though structurally similar to the Endurance, it differed visually by having Mercedes' own front end design, as well as shallower side windows. Only twenty-two were built, twenty of which were for FirstGroup's Grampian and Midland Bluebird subsidiaries in Scotland. The Grampian batch of fourteen, which featured bonded glazing, were later transferred to First Manchester.

The O405 chassis was later offered in the UK with Optare Prisma bodywork (which carried the same Mercedes-design front end as the CityRanger, but differed in the side and rear aspects), and these were somewhat more numerous than the Wright product.