Irizar UK confirmed two major orders for DAF-engined integral coaches at Euro Bus Expo, with Prospect Coaches to receive nine units in 2025 as part of a multi-year deal and West Coast Motors to take eight more i6S Efficient examples.
The agreement with Prospect Coaches leaves those nine initial arrivals as part of a longer-term commitment over five years that will see up to 15 vehicles per annum delivered to the Stourbridge operator.
2025 will be opened by an i8 integral to convey the West Bromwich Albion FC team. At 14.1m it will seat 38 and be converted to the required specification by AD Coach Systems after arrival in the UK.
The i8 integral will be followed by eight i6S Efficient integrals at varying lengths from 12.2m to 14.1m. They will be used on contact and private hire work, and on the recently announced FlixBus duties that Prospect Coaches will take up.
Those scheduled services on behalf of FlixBus are key to the long-term agreement between Irizar UK and Prospect Coaches and they will facilitate significant growth by the operator.
Speaking about the collaboration, Prospect Coaches Managing Director Nathan Hadley (pictured, fourth from left) says: “Our relationship with Irizar started over a decade ago and led to the first i6 integral joining our fleet in 2015.
“We now have 17 Irizar vehicles in the fleet (15 of which were new to Prospect and 14 supplied new directly by Irizar UK). The availability of vehicle build slots forced out-of-the-box thinking, and I pitched an idea to the team at Irizar.
“This has further strengthened out partnership, initially for five vehicles per year for the Prospect fleet. Very quickly that changed with the FlixBus partnership and following some hard work, the current agreement will be north of 50 vehicles over the five years – half of which will be on FlixBus.”
Mr Hadley adds that Prospect is excited to begin work with FlixBus and that selection of Irizar integral coaches to deliver those services “was the natural choice.” Prospect has already received two integral coaches from Irizar UK in 2024. Another has been supplied via Mistral Bus and Coach, while two more via Dawsongroup are due soon.
Meanwhile, the West Coast Motors order is made up of 14.1m 57-seat i6S Efficient integrals for use on Scottish Citylink duties between Glasgow and Edinburgh Airport.
At 3.7m, the batch will be the first super-high examples received by West Coast Motors. They will bring the operator’s Irizar integral coach fleet to 22 and are expected into service in May 2025.
Seven i6S Efficient integrals were recently delivered to West Coast Motors, six as 14.1m tri-axles and the seventh as a 12.9m two-axle example. They are working on the west coast of Scotland and carry dual West Coast Motors and Scottish Citylink branding. Among that batch was the 700th Irizar integral coach to be registered in the UK.
