Transit Consortium Awards New Flyer Contract for up to 159 CNG Buses

New Flyer announced that the Greater Lafayette Public Transit Corporation of Lafayette, Indiana, in conjunction with other transit authorities awarded a contract to New Flyer for up to 159 urban transit buses to be purchased over the next five years. The other transit authorities include Rock Island Metro, Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, South Bend Public Transportation and Santa Rosa Transit.

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

Greater Lafayette Public Transportation Corporation acting as the lead agency operates 24 routes serving a ridership of approximately 5.2 million passengers annually. Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District of Champaign, Illinois, operates exclusively a New Flyer bus fleet providing over 12 million rides per year.  Rock Island Quad Cities MetroLINK of Illinois 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 of California 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.”