Houston Awards New Flyer a Contract for Up to 24 BRT Buses

New Flyer of America Inc. has announced that the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County has awarded a new contract for 14 heavy-duty, sixty-foot Xcelsior clean-diesel transit buses with options for 10 additional buses.

The New Flyer Xcelsior buses have been designed for a special Bus Rapid Transit system that improves route capacity and schedule reliability as a part of the Houston Uptown Dedicated Bus Lanes Project. The contract brings the total NFI Group fleet size in Houston to just under 1,400.

“New Flyer is proud to work with Metro to bring sustainable transportation solutions for the city’s Uptown district development,” said Wayne Joseph, president, New Flyer of America. “We are proud to be the chosen manufacturer for the first BRT-type buses to operate for Houston Metro as a part of this innovative project, which adds to the existing fleet of 1,015 New Flyer transit buses, 315 MCI Commuter coaches, and 40 of ARBOC low-floor buses already in service.”

The BRT development will run along Post Oak Boulevard to deliver transit service from Westpark to the Northwest Transit Center. Elevated “Busways” have been specifically engineered for BRT bus operation. The schedule calls for service to start high-capacity in summer 2019.