New Flyer Wins Massive Order for 222 Xcelsior Electric Hybrid Buses
Source: NGT News
New Flyer of America Inc., a subsidiary of New Flyer Industries Inc., the largest transit bus and motor coach manufacturer and parts distributor in North America, says that it has won a massive order from Seattle’s King County Department of Transportation (King County DOT) for 222 60-foot articulated New Flyer Xcelsior diesel-electric hybrid buses (or 444 equivalent units).
King County DOT, officially the King County Department of Transportation Metro Transit Division, or Metro for short, is the public transit authority of King County, Wash. The agency began operations on Jan. 1, 1973, but traces its roots to Seattle Transit, founded in 1939, and Overlake Transit Service, founded in 1927.
Metro is the eighth-largest transit bus agency in the U.S., carrying an average of 395,000 passengers each weekday on some 215 routes.
According to New Flyer, the contract with King County DOT is valued at approximately $202 million and includes both two- and three-door, 60-foot bus configurations that will add to the county’s diesel-electric hybrid or trolley fleet. Notably, the buses will also replace some Seattle transit buses that have reached the end of their useful life.