Type | Public (TSX: NFI.UN) |
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Industry | Transit |
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 |
Products | Heavy-duty transit buses |
Website | www.newflyer.com |
New Flyer Industries Inc. (TSX: NFI.UN) is a bus manufacturer in North America, headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It also has factories in Crookston and St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA.
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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. In 1971, the then-financially struggling Western Flyer was sold to the Manitoba Development Corporation, an agency of the Manitoba government, and renamed Flyer Industries Limited.[1]
On July 15, 1986, Jan den Oudsten, a descendant of the family who created the Dutch company Den Oudsten Bussen BV, purchased Flyer Industries from the Manitoba government, 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 6,300 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.
In 2003, King County Metro of Seattle, WA placed an order for 213 hybrid buses, the largest ever for hybrid buses up to that time.[2] On December 15 of the same year, 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 Fund. 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.
2005 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 was applied on all units produced with the new endcaps. The redesigned endcaps made their debut with the 2005 E40LFR built for the Vancouver trolleybus system.
Between 2005 and the end of 2009, New Flyer supplied a total of 262 low-floor trolleybuses to the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (now known as TransLink), of which 74 were articulated (model E60LFR). The original order, placed in late 2003, was for 188 E40LFR units and 40 E60LFR units.[3] The first E40LFR was delivered in July 2005,[4] and the rest of the 40-foot (12 m) units were delivered between August 2006[5] and September 2007.[6] The first articulated, E60LFR trolleybus arrived in Vancouver in January 2007.[7] TransLink decided to order an additional 34 articulated units, making the total 74, and delivery of the 73 production-series E60LFR units took place between October 2007 and autumn 2009.
Another purchaser of trolleybuses from New Flyer was SEPTA, operator of the Philadelphia trolleybus system. That agency placed an order with New Flyer in February 2006 for 38 E40LFR[8] "trackless trolleys", as trolleybuses are known there. The first vehicle was delivered in June 2007, and the remaining 37 were received by SEPTA during 2008.[9]
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.[10]
Each designation is preceded by a letter before the model name, which is given below.
Current Flyer model numbers are composed of a core that indicates the power source and the length (in feet), and a prefix or suffix which designates the model. Note that not all possible combinations have been offered.
Model | Power | Length | Model |
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omitted for LFR | E = electric trolleybus GE = gasoline-electric hybrid H = hydrogen fuel cell (40LFR only)[11] HE = hydrogen hybrid-electric L = liquefied natural gas |
30 = 30 feet (9.1 m) 35 = 35 feet (11 m) 40 = 40 feet (12 m) 41 = 41 feet (12.5 m) 60 = 60 feet (18 m) articulated |
LFR = low floor, restyled front |
X = Xcelsior | C = compressed natural gas • replaced by N for Xcelsior model D = diesel DE = diesel-electric hybrid |
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N = natural gas (CNG or LNG) | omitted for Xcelsior |
Model | Length | Photo | Introduced | Notes | |
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30LFR | 30 feet (9.1 m) | 2005 |
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35LFR | 35 feet (11 m) | 2005 |
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40LFR |
40 feet (12 m) | DE40LFR |
E40LFR |
2005 |
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60LFR | 60 feet (18 m) | DE60LFR |
DE60LFR |
2005 |
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Xcelsior[12] | 35 feet (11 m) 40 feet (12 m) 60 feet (18 m) |
XDE40 |
XDE40 |
2008 |
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Model | Introduced | Discontinued | Maximum Seats |
Notes | Photo | ||||||||||
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New Flyer Industries
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C30LF D30LF DE30LF |
1996 | 2009 | DE version was never built. | ||||||||||||
LFA | 2005 | 2010 | 35LFA available only in DE, 40LFA available only in C, D, DE or GE, 60LFA available only in D or DE versions. | ||||||||||||
D35 | 1988 | 1997 | Also known as D35HF. | ||||||||||||
C35LF D35LF DE35LF L35LF |
1996 | 2009 | |||||||||||||
C40 D40 L40 |
1987 | 1999 | Also known as the C40HF, D40HF and L40HF respectively. | ||||||||||||
C40LF D40LF DE40LF GE40LF L40LF |
1989 | 2009 (see notes) |
Interior and exterior revisions and different engines were added to these models. Various outstanding orders filled into 2010, and order negiotiated with New York MTA for delivery from 2011 to 2012.[13] | ||||||||||||
D40i DE40i Invero |
2001 | 2007 | One of the largest customers was OC Transpo in Ottawa, Ontario. This model is also used by Burlington Transit and London Transit. Ten units operated by Winnipeg Transit. Only a small number of DE40i (hybrid diesel/electric) versions were produced. They were ordered by the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority in Aspen, Colorado. |
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D40S | 1988 | 1994 | A suburban version of the D40; manufactured for GO Transit only. | ||||||||||||
F40LF | 1996 | 1996 | Hydrogen fuel cell prototype. | ||||||||||||
HE40LF | 2006 | 2006 | Hydrogen-electric hybrid demo for SunLine. | ||||||||||||
DE41LF | 2007 | 2009 | 5 units built for HSR and 220 units built for SEPTA. | ||||||||||||
D45S ITV Viking |
1998 | 1999 | 104 units built for Houston METRO and the NYC Transit Authority. | ||||||||||||
D60 E60 Galaxy |
1988 | 2004 | Articulated, also known as the D60HF and E60HF respectively. The E60 was only built from 1992-1994 for Muni. | ||||||||||||
D60LF DE60LF |
1997 | 2009 (see notes) |
Articulated. Outstanding orders filled in 2010. | ||||||||||||
Flyer Industries Limited |
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A and B suffixes denoted update versions. | |||||||||||||||
D700 D700A |
1968 | 1974 | 53 | Similar to the Flxible New Look. | |||||||||||
E700 E700A |
1968 | 1973 | 53 | Trolleybus version of the D700/D700A; D700A shells sold to TTC to reuse components from Canadian Car & Foundry-Brill T48 and T48A trolleybuses.[14] | |||||||||||
D800 D800B |
1974 | 1981 | 53 | This model is based on the AM General Metropolitan, which itself was an updated version of the D700.[1] Offered in -9635 (96 inches (2.4 m) × 35 feet (11 m)) and -10240 (102 inches (2.6 m) × 40 feet (12 m)) versions. | |||||||||||
E800 E800A |
1974 | 1978 | 53 | Trolleybus version of the D800/D800B. Notable operators of the E800 were the MBTA (Boston, Massachusetts) and Muni (San Francisco, California). The E800A was delivered only to the Hamilton Street Railway (Hamilton, Ontario). | |||||||||||
D900 | 1978 | 1980 | 53 | ||||||||||||
D901 D901A |
1980 | 1986 | 53 | Revised front with rounded corners. | |||||||||||
E901A | 1981 | 1982 | 53 | This trolleybus model was only built for BC Transit. Production continued with the E902 model, which may be identical (no differences between the E901A and E902 have ever been identified).[15] | |||||||||||
D902 | 1984 | 1984 | 53 | This model was only built for Muni. | |||||||||||
E902 | 1982 | 1984 | 53 | This trolleybus model was only built for BC Transit and may be simply a redesignation of the E901A model, as no differences between the E901A and E902 models have ever been identified.[15] | |||||||||||
Western Flyer Coach |
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Western Flyer | 1941 | 1941 | Front engine highway coach; no official model name. | ||||||||||||
T-28 | 1945 | 1945 | 28 | highway coach | |||||||||||
T-32 | 1945 | 1959 | 32 | gasoline engine highway coach | |||||||||||
T-36 | 1950 | 1955 | 36 | standard highway coach | |||||||||||
T36-2L | 1955 | 1955 | 36 | split-level 40-2L body | |||||||||||
Canuck | 1953 | diesel rear engine prototype | |||||||||||||
P-37 Canuck | 1955 | 37 | gasoline rear engine | ||||||||||||
C-40 | 1949 | 1955 | 40 | intercity coach | |||||||||||
T-40 | 1949 | 1955 | 40 | transit version of the C-40 | |||||||||||
P-37 Canuck | 1955 | 1958 | 37 | intercity coach | |||||||||||
P-41 Canuck | 1958 | 1964 | 41 | diesel rear engine intercity coach | |||||||||||
D500 Canuck | 1964 | 1967 | 37 | 31 feet (9.4 m) diesel rear engine | |||||||||||
D600 Canuck | 1967 | 1968 | 45 | 38 feet (12 m) lengthened version of D500 | |||||||||||
Western Auto & Truck Body Works |
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Buda Lo-525 | 1937 | 1941? | 32 | First bus produced by company; sold to Grey Goose Bus Lines. |
Source: New Flyer Industries Inc.
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