New Flyer Industries

New Flyer Industries Inc.

Type	Public
Founded	1930 (as Western Auto and Truck Body Works Ltd)
Founder(s)	John Coval
Headquarters	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Area served	Canada, United States, Latin America, Brazil
Key people	Paul Soubry - CEO
Industry	Transit
Products	Heavy-duty transit buses
Website	www.newflyer.com

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

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 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, a role previously held by the now defunct Flxible.

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.

On December 15, 2003, New Flyer announced that Harvest Partners, Inc., a New York-based private equity firm, had entered into definitive agreements to acquire New Flyer Industries Limited, from KPS Special Situations Fun [[Lightyear Capital, 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 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.

In October 2008, New Flyer Industries Canada ULC was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's newsmagazine. Later that month, New Flyer was also named one of Manitoba's Top Employers, which was announced by the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper.

In May 2012, New Flyer and Alexander Dennis Limited announced a new joint-venture to design and manufacture medium-duty low-floor bus (or midi bus) for the North American market. New Flyer will handle production and marketing, and Alexander Dennis will handle the engineering and testing.

Bus models

Each designation is preceded by a letter before the model name, which is given below.

Model designations

Current prefixes

• C: Powered by compressed natural gas,
• D: Powered by diesel only (non-hybrid)
• DE: Hybrid-electric diesel-fueled bus
• E: Trackless trolley,
• GE Hybrid-electric gasoline-fueled bus
• H: Hydrogen fuel cell bus (40LFR model only),
• HE: Hybrid-electric hydrogen-fueled bus
• L: Powered by liquefied natural gas

Current suffixes

• A: BRT models
• R: Re-styled front end

Square-headlight units do not have a suffix.

Past prefixes

• F: Fuel cell bus (now designated H)
• H: Hybrid-electric diesel-fueled bus (now DE)

Past suffixes

• i Invero low-floor bus
• S Suburban coach
• V Viking over-the-road model

Current production

Model	Length	Photo	Introduced	Notes
30LF(R)	30 feet (9.144 meters)		1996	Not available in GE or E versions Only D version currently available as LFR, currently only as a demo
35LF(R)	35 feet (10.668 meters)		1996	Not available in E version Only D and GE version currently available as LFR
40LF(R)	40 feet (12.192 meters)		1989(LF) 2005(LFR)
40/60LFA	40 or 60 feet (12.192 or 18.288 meters)		2008	Available only in D or DE versions for 60LFA Available only in C, D, DE, or GE versions for 40LFA
41LF(R)	41 feet (12.497 meters)		2005	Available in DE version only
60LF(R)	60 feet (18.288 meters)		1997	Not available in C, L, or GE versions
Xcelsior	41 feet (12.497 meters)		2008	10% weight reduction compared to previous models Available in D and DE versions.

Discontinued models

Western Auto & Truck Body Works

Model	Introduced	Retired	Notes	Photo
Western Auto & Truck Body Works
Buda Lo-525	1937	1941?	32 seat bus first bus produced by new company; sold to Grey Goose Bus Lines
Western Flyer Coach
Western Flyer (no official model name)	1941	1941	front engine highway coach
T-28	1945	1945	28 seat highway coach
T-32	1945	1959	32 seat gas engine highway coach
T-36	1950	1955	36 seat standard highway coach
T36	1955	?	36 seat two-level 40-2L body
Canuck	1953		diesel rear engine prototype
P-37 "Canuck"	1955		37 seat gasoline rear engine
C-40	1949	1955	40 passenger intercity bus
T-40	1949	1955	40 passenger transit bus version of C-40
P-37 "Canuck"	1955	1958	37 passenger intercity coach
P-41 "Canuck"	1958	1964	41 passenger diesel rear engine intercity bus
D500 "Canuck"	1964	1967	31' 35-37 seat diesel rear engine
D600 "Canuck"	1967	1968	stretched version of D500; 38' 43-45 seat diesel rear engine
Flyer Industries
D700/D700A	1968	1974	similar to the Flxible New Look buses
E700/E700A	1968	1973	Trolleybus version of the D700/A; D700A shells sold to TTC to rebuild Canada Car and Foundry T48-T6 and T48A-T4 cars and re-classified as E700A-T8
D800/D800B	1974	1981	This model is based on the AM General Metropolitan which itself was an updated version of the D700
E800/E800A	1974	1978	Trolleybus version of the D800/B. Notable operators of the E800 were the MBTA in Boston, Massachusetts and Muni in San Francisco, California. Boston's E800s were unique in that they had an extra set of doors on the driver's side of the bus, necessary for operation in the Harvard Square bus tunnel. The E800A was delivered only to Hamilton.
D900	1978	1980
D901/D901A	1980	1986
E901A	1981	1982	This speciality trolley model was built for Vancouver
D902	1984	1984	This speciality model was built for San Francisco
E902	1982	1984	This speciality trolley model was built for Vancouver
New Flyer Industries
C40/D40/L40	1987	1999	Also known as the C40HF, D40HF and L40HF respectively.
D35	1988	1997	Also known as the D35HF.
D60/E60	1988	2004	Also known as the "Galaxy" articulated or D60HF and E60HF respectively. The E60 was only built from 1992-1994 for San Francisco.
D40S	1988	mid 1990s	A suburban version of the D40; manufactured for Canadian operators only.
D45S	1988	mid 1990s	Canada model only
F40LF	1996	1996	This model is a fuel cell (Hydrogen) test.
D45S ITV	1998	1999	This model is named as "Viking" Coach bus. 104 units made for Houston METRO and the NYC Transit Authority.
D40i/DE40i	2001	2007	Aspen.

Source: New Flyer Industries Inc.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

New Flyer buses

Facilities

Plant	Location	Year opened	Year closed	Notes
Winnipeg Manufacturing Facility	Fort Gary, Manitoba	1964		Built for Western Flyer Coach and later for Flyer Industries; NFI shell and parts manufacturing for St Cloud and Crookston plants
St. Cloud Manufacturing Facility	St. Cloud, MN	1999		Invero models - full production and finishing
Crookston Manufacturing Facility	Crookston, MN	1996		CNG and LNG finishing; final assembly for all other buses

References

• http://www.newflyer.com/index/news-app/story.47
• http://www.metrokc.gov/exec/news/2007/0516bus.aspx

External links

• New Flyer Homepage