BusTalk

[DE60LF]

Well, it has been about a month since I have posted updates on ABQ RIDE. However, it has been confirmed that ABQ RIDE will be acquiring 30-40 new buses (presumably 40-footers) plus 10 Rapid Ride articulated buses.

I called the City of Albuquerque's purchasing department, and the person on the phone stated that the deadline for the bids should be by the end of this month.

I assume that for the regular buses, New Flyer, Gillig, and NABI have all made bids for the contract.

I think that it is also possible that Nova Bus has made bids as well as they use the Allison hybrid drivetrain in the LFS HEV. However, Nova's new factory in Plattsburgh probably won't open until 2009, so it would probably take a while to have them delivered if the contract is awarded to Nova. I am pretty sure that Nova would be proud to have ABQ RIDE as their U.S. relaunch customer, and their U.S. launch customer for the LFS HEV, considering the size of the planned order.

I don't think that Orion has made bids for the contract, as Orion uses a different hybrid drivetrain (BAe HybrDrive series hybrid, vs. Allison EV40/EV50 parallel hybrid).

For the artics, I assume that both New Flyer and NABI have made bids. However, NABI has yet to make any production hybrid artics, despite having a demo for a 60-BRT hybrid. Also, the reputation for suspension problems with NABI's low floor artics could also give New Flyer the edge here. Both the Chicago Transit Authority and Valley Metro of Phoenix, Arizona has both shown dissatisfaction with their NABI artics, and have both switched over to New Flyer. I personally would like to see a New Flyer DE60LFR (with frameless windows) in ABQ RIDE colors.

I will post updates by August if I receive word on who the contracts have been awarded to.