NEW FLYER INDUSTRIES

'New Flyer Industries' () is a leading bus manufacturer in North America, headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It also has factories in Crookston and St. Cloud, Minnesota,USA.

Contents

History

Bus models

Historical

Current

See also

References

Notes

External links

History

New Flyer was founded by John Coval in 1930 as the 'Western Auto and Truck Body Works Ltd'. Reflecting an increased focus on bus manufacturing, it changed its name in 1948 to 'Western Flyer Coach'. In the 1960s the company further focused on the urban transit bus market. Once again it changed its name to 'Flyer Industries Limited' in 1971.
On July 15, 1986, Jan den Oudsten, a descendant of the family who created the Dutch company Den Oudsten Bussen BV, purchased Flyer Industries, changing its name to New Flyer Industries Limited. Den Oudsten Bussen B.V was a leading and innovative bus manufacturer in its native country, the Netherlands. New Flyer subsequently introduced North America's first low-floor bus, delivering the D40LF to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1991. In 2001, the delivery of 6300 low-floor buses represented close to half of the North American fleet, confirming New Flyer as the dominant player in the transit bus manufacturing industry in North America.
In March 2002, New Flyer was acquired by KPS Special Situations Fund in New York. Also in the same year, Mr. den Oudsten retired as CEO of New Flyer Industries Ltd. and has recently been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the American Public Transportation Association for his achievements and contributions at New Flyer.
On December 15, 2003, New Flyer announced that Harvest Partners, Inc., a New York-based leading private equity firm specializing in middle market investments, had entered into definitive agreements to acquire New Flyer Industries Limited, from KPS Special Situations Fund. Lightyear Capital, LLC, a New York-based private equity firm joined Harvest as a co-investor in the transaction. John Marinucci, CEO of New Flyer, said, "This is exciting news for New Flyer" And he went on to say that KPS specializes in turning around struggling businesses and that they typically do not hold assets after the turnaround has been accomplished. And that ever since the KPS purchase, New Flyer had achieved excellent operational and financial performance. He especially praised the employees.
In 2007, New Flyer was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, as published in Maclean's magazine, the only heavy transportation manufacturing company to receive this honour.^[1]
In 2004, New Flyer received an order of low-floor trolleybuses from the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority; the order consists of 188 E40LFR units and 40 E60LFR units. The first E40LFR was delivered in July 2005, and the rest of the units will be delivered beginning August 2006.
2005 also saw the introduction of optional redesigned front and rear endcaps for their buses. The new endcaps are an attempt to modernize and streamline the look of their fleet, which is more or less a box on wheels. Also, a new "R" suffix (not an official designation) was applied on all units produced with the new endcaps. The redesigned endcaps made their debut with the 2005 E40LFR order from the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority.
On May 16, 2007 New Flyer of America Inc has been awarded a procurement for up to a total of 715 60-foot articulated buses from King County Metro (KCM) in Seattle, WA. This order includes a firm order for 22 hybrids with options for up to 493 diesel or hybrid buses for KCM and 200 assignable options for a total value of up to US $514 million, which was included in the order backlog reported in New Flyer’s 2007 First Quarter Financial Report.
In 2003, KCM awarded what was then the largest ever order of hybrid buses (213) to New Flyer. The success of that program and those buses helped position New Flyer as the leader in hybrid bus manufacturing in the US and Canada. Should KCM execute all options as hybrids, this order will establish KCM as having one of the largest hybrid bus fleets in the world.

Bus models

New Flyer buses are represented by a 'prefix-number-suffix' code, which describe the basic details about the model.

★ 'Prefix', indicates propulsion type:
:'C' - CNG, 'D' - Diesel
★ , 'E' - Electric (electric trolley bus), 'F' - Fuel cell, 'G' - gasoline
★ , 'H' - Hydrogen Fuel Cell
★ , 'L' - LNG.
:'
★ ' Also available as a fuel in a hybrid electric propulsion setup, signified as 'DE', 'HE', or 'GE'.

★ 'Number', indicates the length of the bus in feet. Currently, New Flyer offers buses in '30', '35', '40', and '60' feet lengths.

★ 'Suffix', indicates the bus configuration:
:'LF' - Low Floor units with the conventional front and rear ends, 'HF' - High Floor
:'S' and 'V' - Viking (suburban transit coach) discontinued around 2000. The remaining models see good usage in Houston, Texas and small usage (only 3 buses) in New York City.
:'LFR' - Low Floor units with restyled front and rear ends.
:'LFBRT' - BRT styling
Frameless passenger windows are also an option, but is not represented in the name of the bus.

Historical

★ C-40

★ T-40

★ P-37 "Canuck"

★ P-41 "Canuck"

★ D500 Canuck

★ D600 Canuck

★ D700/D700A (1968-1974)

★ E700/E700A (trolley, 1968-1973)

★ D800/D800B (1974-1981, based on the AM General Metropolitan which itself was a updated version of the D700)^[2]

★ E800/E800B (trolley, 1974-1978)

★ D900 (1978-1980)

★ D901/D901A (1980-1986)

★ D902 (1984, for San Francisco)

★ E901A (trolley; 1981, for Vancouver)

★ E902 (trolley; 1982-1984, for Vancouver)

★ C40HF/D40HF/L40HF (1987-1999)

★ D35HF (1988-1997)

★ D60HF (1988-2004)

★ D40S (late 1980s-mid 1990s, Canada-only)

★ D45S (late 1980s-mid 1990s, Canada-only)

★ F40LF Fuel Cell (Hydrogen) Test Buses (1996)

★ D45V "Viking" Coach bus (1998-1999, only purchased by Houston METRO and MTA New York City Transit)

★ D40i/DE40i (Invero; 2001-2007)

Current

★ C/D/DE/E/GE/L40LF (1989-present, not all propulsion types originally available)

★ C/D/DE/L30LF (1996-present, not all propulsion types originally available)

★ C/D/DE/L35LF (1996-present, not all propulsion types originally available)

★ D60LF (1997-present)

★ DE/E60LF (2002-present, DE60LF launched 2002 with King County metro as Coach 2599 Originally delivered with Cummins ISL engine and lengthened and converted to a Cat C9 in 2004.)

★ DE40LF BRT/DE60LF BRT (Bus Rapid Transit; 2005-present)

★ HE40LF (2005-present)

★ D/DE40LFR (2005-present)

★ D/DE41LFR (2005-present, DE41LFR is a special order for Houston Metro, Houston, Texas, and for Citizens Area Transit, Las Vegas, Nevada)

★ C/E40LFR (2006-present, C40LFR launched April 1, 2006 at Valley Metro, Phoenix, Arizona)

★ D/DE/E60LFR (2007-present, DE60LFR launched April 18, 2007 at Hamilton Street Railway in Hamilton, Ontario)

See also

★ Gillig (US)

★ Motor Coach Industries

★ NovaBus (Canada)

★ North American Bus Industries (US)

★ Orion Bus Industries

★ Prevost Car

References

★ http://www.newflyer.com/index/news-app/story.47

★ http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/news/2007/0516bus.aspx

Notes

1. Reasons for Selection, 2007 Canada's Top 100 Employers
2. The Ohio Museum of Transportation - AM General, ''omot.org'', retrieved on 2007-02-01

External links

★ New Flyer Homepage

★ busexplorer.com New Flyer Page