Consortium Awards New Flyer Options For Up To 159 Buses

New Flyer of America Inc. announced Dec. 1, that the Greater Lafayette Public Transit Corp. (CityBus) in conjunction with Rock Island Metro, Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD), South Bend Public Transportation (Transpo) and Santa Rosa Transit, awarded a contract to New Flyer of America Inc. for up to 159 urban transit buses to be purchased over the next 5 years. 

The Xcelsior bus will include options for 35-foot, 40-foot or 60-foot models powered by ultra clean diesel, diesel-electric hybrid buses and compressed natural gas, while the MiDi bus will include options 30-foot ultra clean diesel and CNG configurations.

CityBus, acting as the lead agency operates 24 routes serving a ridership of approximately 5.2 million passengers annually. MTD operates exclusively a New Flyer bus fleet providing over 12 million rides per year.  Rock Island Quad Cities MetroLink has 55 routes with an annual ridership of 3.5 million passengers. South Bend Transpo of Indiana serves 20 routes providing 2.5 million rides annually. Santa Rosa CityBus has 55 routes and provides 2.8 million trips per year.

"This contract reflects a developing trend of transit bus procurements where a number of agencies work cooperatively through a joint procurement to acquire buses" said Paul Soubry, New Flyer's president and chief executive officer. "For the agencies, it utilizes a federally funded framework that provides an effective and a flexible vehicle to renew their bus fleet over time. For New Flyer it provides us with an opportunity to support our customers across a variety of platforms and propulsion systems. As we grow with our customers, New Flyer's mandate remains unequivocally to provide high quality products, services and support throughout the life of their bus fleet."