New Flyer Industries Inc. (New Flyer), manufacturer of heavy-duty transit buses in the United States and Canada, has been contracted by Sun Metro, of El Paso, Texas, to deliver up to 202 Xcelsior™ compressed natural gas (CNG) heavy-duty buses. The five-year contract contains a firm order for 13 CNG 60-foot buses and nine CNG 40-foot buses.
Additionally, the contract includes four, one-year options for up to 108 60-foot CNG buses and up to 72 40-foot CNG buses.
Sun Metro’s commitment to the environment is evident as this order will increase the number of CNG buses in their fleet of 232 transit buses that are nearly all CNG technology. New Flyer has previously built and delivered 60 buses for El Paso’s fleet, in both liquid (LNG) and compressed natural gas propulsion. Additional benefits include a 20-year certified CNG tank and a fire-suppression system that comes as a standard feature on all New Flyer natural gas buses.
“Our vision is to improve our community by moving people from their cars to the bus by providing quality passenger experiences and be a model for other systems around the nation,” said Jay Banasiak, Director of Sun Metro, managed by First Transit. “Providing a friendly, reliable service is our objective and our new order of New Flyer Xcelsior buses will help us move forward to obtain it.”
“We feel privileged to partner once again with El Paso as their bus manufacturer,” said Paul Soubry, President and CEO of New Flyer. “This will be El Paso’s first experience with our ‘best in class’ Xcelsior platform.”
The 22, 40-foot and 60-foot buses are anticipated to begin production in the third quarter of 2013 with an expected delivery in the first quarter of 2014.
(Source: New Flyer)
