New Flyer opens new Calif. facility

New Flyer Industries opened a new facility in Ontario, Calif. on Wednesday.

The Grand Opening ceremony featured Paul Smith, New Flyer’s executive VP, sales and marketing along with several other executives and dignitaries, including New Flyer’s Wayne Joseph, executive VP, bus business; Alan D. Wapner, mayor pro tem for the City of Ontario and Brian Peck, deputy director, international affairs and business development, for the California Governor’s office of business & economic development.

The facility will accommodate work for both New Flyer and NABI Bus products, with its major business at this time being the final assembly of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (Metro) New Flyer Xcelsior buses, as well as orders from other California agencies.

New Flyer has more than 41,000 buses in service around the nation, with 6,400 in service in California alone, according to Smith.

In February 2013, Metro and New Flyer singed a contract for up to 900 Xcelsior 40-foot, heavy duty compressed natural gas buses.

The five-year contract contains a firm order for 550 buses and options for up to an additional 350 buses. Between 1998 and 2001, New Flyer manufactured 466 CNG buses for Metro. This build will be the first time New Flyer has built for Metro in more than 10 years and the first time the New Flyer Xcelsior model will be introduced into Metro’s active transit fleet of over 2,200 buses.

All 550 buses part of the expected to be delivered by the latter half of the first quarter of 2015.