New Flyer Industries Inc. announced that New York’s Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA) exercised options under an existing contract, signed August 2009, for 20 60-foot heavy-duty Xcelsior articulated clean diesel buses (40 equivalent units or “EUs”).

The original contract was for 120 buses (240 EUs), of which 84 buses (168 EUs) still remain under that contract after these options are exercised and are included in New Flyer’s backlog.

Ten of the 20 articulated buses are scheduled to begin production in the first quarter of 2013 with delivery anticipated to occur in the second quarter of 2013. The remaining 10 will begin production and be delivered in the second quarter of 2013. The buses will be completely manufactured and assembled at New Flyer of America’s St. Cloud, Minn. manufacturing facility.

RGRTA’s active heavy duty fleet size remains at 253 buses, after both the 33-bus New Flyer award, announced November 9, 2012 and the above 20 buses are built. These 20 New Flyer buses will be replacements for buses currently in RGRTA’s fleet.

Meanwhile, Daimler Buses North America Inc. (DBNA) assigned to New Flyer its contract with Seattle’s King County Metro Transit, a division of King County Department of Transportation, to build up to 381 Xcelsior heavy-duty 35- and 40-foot diesel-electric hybrid buses. King County Metro's initial order to New Flyer under the assigned contract consists of 60 heavy-duty 35-foot buses and 60 heavy-duty 40-foot diesel-electric hybrid buses.

The contract, which expires on June 30, 2014 , includes remaining base order buses consisting of a combination of 181 35-foot and 40-foot diesel-electric hybrid buses, as well as 200 option buses consisting of a combination of 35-foot and 40-foot buses. This award assignment marks the first Xcelsior buses to be built for King County Metro 's fleet.

The assignment of this contract is a result of DBNA's decision announced on April 25, 2012 to exit production of Orion heavy-duty transit buses in the U.S. and Canadian markets.

This order is additional to New Flyer's existing contract with King County Metro for 43 60-foot buses currently in production with an anticipated delivery in the second quarter of 2013. This contract assignment further extends the long-standing partnership between New Flyer and King County that has developed on the basis of the reliability of the 995 New Flyer buses delivered since May 2000.