Calgary Transit awarded New Flyer Industries Inc. a contract for 150 Xcelsior 40-foot heavy-duty clean diesel powered transit buses.

Over the past 20 years, New Flyer has built and delivered 653 buses to the agency; nearly all of them are still in active service today. Calgary Transit operates an active fleet of 945 heavy duty transit buses.

Calgary Transit's most recent New Flyer purchase of ten 60-foot diesel buses, made earlier in the year, was its first introduction to the Xcelsior next generation transit bus platform. New Flyer also recently delivered two 40-foot compressed natural gas (CNG) powered Xcelsior buses to Calgary Transit for testing and evaluation.

"With Calgary Transit ridership steadily increasing year over year, there is a great need for us to increase our accessibility, while continuing to provide our customers with safe and courteous public transportation services," said Doug Morgan, director, Calgary Transit. "These new buses will help fill that need and we're excited to have the Xcelsior buses start servicing routes around our city."

"We are honored to have the confidence of Calgary Transit and to continue manufacturing buses for them," said Paul Soubry, president and CEO of New Flyer Industries. "New Flyer continues to strive at providing world-class buses with the latest in technology, industry leading customer service, and the most comprehensive portfolio of aftermarket support for the life of its buses."

New Flyer expects to begin production in the fourth quarter of 2013 and deliver all buses by the end of 2014.