Northern-Irish manufacturer Wrightbus confirmed on 30 October 2025 that it has secured a contract to supply 39 Contour coaches to state-owned operator Bus Éireann. Valued at an estimated €18 million, the deal is Wrightbus’s first major coach order in more than 30 years and signals Ireland’s largest inter-city and school-bus fleet renewal since pre-pandemic times.
The bespoke 55-seat vehicles will be built at Wrightbus’s Ballymena facility and equipped with Cummins Euro VI engines, CCTV, CMS mirror-replacement cameras and full General Safety Regulation II compliance. Although powered by diesel at launch, the coaches are designed for future PSVAR accessibility retrofits and can be converted to low-carbon fuels, aligning with Ireland’s target to halve transport emissions by 2030.
Bus Éireann says the new fleet will be deployed on Expressway inter-urban corridors and on high-capacity school routes, reducing average vehicle age to 6.8 years. For employers relocating staff to regional hubs such as Galway, Limerick and Waterford, more reliable timetable performance and onboard Wi-Fi will improve commuter connectivity and may expand the feasible catchment area for talent.
The contract also carries economic-development weight: Wrightbus will add 60 skilled jobs and 15 apprenticeships, strengthening the all-island supply chain for heavy-vehicle manufacturing post-Brexit. Enterprise Ireland notes that localisation of coach assembly safeguards after-sales support and speeds up warranty work—key pain points for corporate travel managers when vehicles are off-road.
From a global-mobility perspective, the investment is another step toward Ireland’s “Connecting Ireland” rural-mobility blueprint, which aims to give 70 percent of the population access to public transport at least every hour by 2030. Organisations operating commuter shuttles may wish to review route overlaps or explore public-private partnerships with Bus Éireann once the Contour fleet enters service in early 2026.
The bespoke 55-seat vehicles will be built at Wrightbus’s Ballymena facility and equipped with Cummins Euro VI engines, CCTV, CMS mirror-replacement cameras and full General Safety Regulation II compliance. Although powered by diesel at launch, the coaches are designed for future PSVAR accessibility retrofits and can be converted to low-carbon fuels, aligning with Ireland’s target to halve transport emissions by 2030.
Bus Éireann says the new fleet will be deployed on Expressway inter-urban corridors and on high-capacity school routes, reducing average vehicle age to 6.8 years. For employers relocating staff to regional hubs such as Galway, Limerick and Waterford, more reliable timetable performance and onboard Wi-Fi will improve commuter connectivity and may expand the feasible catchment area for talent.
The contract also carries economic-development weight: Wrightbus will add 60 skilled jobs and 15 apprenticeships, strengthening the all-island supply chain for heavy-vehicle manufacturing post-Brexit. Enterprise Ireland notes that localisation of coach assembly safeguards after-sales support and speeds up warranty work—key pain points for corporate travel managers when vehicles are off-road.
From a global-mobility perspective, the investment is another step toward Ireland’s “Connecting Ireland” rural-mobility blueprint, which aims to give 70 percent of the population access to public transport at least every hour by 2030. Organisations operating commuter shuttles may wish to review route overlaps or explore public-private partnerships with Bus Éireann once the Contour fleet enters service in early 2026.
