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January 14, 2010

Nova Bus announces $60M contract

By DAN HEATH

PLATTSBURGH — Nova Bus has a contract with Connecticut Transit for 35 LFS articulated buses and an option for 35 more during a four-year period.

The company said the order is valued at about $60 million.

“We are proud to partner with CT Transit in delivering their first articulated vehicles for their fleet,” Nova Bus Marketing Director Nadine Bernard said in a news release. “We are deeply committed to supplying them with the vehicles that meet their expectations.”

The buses will be built at the assembly plant that opened in the Town of Plattsburgh in 2009.

CT Transit serves seven metropolitan areas in the state of Connecticut, including Hartford, New Haven and Stamford. It ordered a mix of clean-diesel and hybrid drive buses, with deliveries scheduled to start in late 2010.

U.S. Rep. William Owens said the announcement “is another example of how our relationship with Canadian companies can be successful for upstate New York, as well as our neighbors to the north. I am encouraged that this local employer is continuing to grow its business, and it is my hope that we see more job-creation activity in the coming months.”

Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of Commerce President Garry Douglas also welcomed the news.

“From the opening of their Plattsburgh plant less than a year ago, Nova is clearly establishing itself as a contender for contracts around the country. Each new order strengthens the job picture here and also reinforces Nova’s competitiveness for other future contract opportunities,” he said by e-mail.

“Securing orders for our transportation-equipment companies, particularly Nova Bus and Bombardier, is a key economic-development priority, and this award is a great way to start the year.”

Town of Plattsburgh Supervisor Bernie Bassett said it is good news, not only for the workers at Nova Bus and its suppliers, but the community at large.

“It is exciting that Connecticut is looking to New York and Nova Bus and Plattsburgh to meet their needs.”

The visits by Connecticut officials to the area will also bring the region to the attention of that state’s business leaders and investors, Bassett said. And it helps increase the North Country’s development as a mass-transit manufacturing center.

“We are pleased and excited, but not surprised,” he said. “We expect this to be an ongoing type of announcement.”

The Development Corp. President Adoré Flynn Kurtz said that as head of an economic-development organization, she was delighted to hear about the contract.

“It’s going to keep a lot of the people there busy for a long time,” she said.

Kurtz added that Nova Bus has been a wonderful company and good corporate citizen since it arrived in Plattsburgh. The company has also brought a group of important vendors who have helped with their success.

Plattsburgh and the North Country were able to provide the companies with an excellent workforce, she said.

The Plattsburgh plant is working on the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s New York City Transit order of 90 LFS articulated buses.

The buses are 62 feet in length, with a flexible, turntable-equipped section in the middle that helps make the bus more maneuverable. They are capable of seating up to 62 passengers.

Nova Bus is part of the Volvo Bus Corp., the second-largest motor coach and transit bus manufacturer in the world.

The $25 million Plattsburgh plant was built in part to help the company compete for contracts with municipal transit authorities, which usually include U.S. content provisions.



E-mail Dan Heath at:

dheath@pressrepublican.com

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