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Orion announces new orders (including Suffolk Transit)

 
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:10 pm    Post subject: Orion announces new orders (including Suffolk Transit) Reply with quote

Press release on the Daimler Buses North America website -

Daimler Buses North America Receives Major Orders for Hybrid and Diesel Buses

Greensboro, N.C. (August 7, 2009) – Daimler Buses North America is excited to announce the initial order of up to 500 diesel-electric hybrid buses, with options for up to 200 buses, from King County Metro in Seattle, WA. The base, first year order is for 93 hybrid units. This order comes as Daimler Buses – a full-line manufacturer of transit buses, motorcoaches and shuttle buses – also announces orders totaling 225 Orion VII transit buses, 30 Setra S 417 motorcoaches and 15 Sprinter shuttle buses.

“We are pleased seeing repeat orders and also seeing new customers joining the Daimler family in our latest wave of bus orders,” said Patrick Scully, chief commercial officer for Daimler Buses North America. “We provide a unique advantage for customers by providing a diverse full-line product portfolio that allows customers to work with one, solid company.”

The order of Orion VII diesel-electric hybrids from King County of Seattle represents a city dedicated to cleaner public transit solutions. The first year order of hybrid buses will be delivered to Seattle beginning in mid-2010. Other hybrid orders this month includes an order for 80 hybrid buses to OC Transpo, the urban transit service for the City of Ottawa, Canada. This will bring Ottawa’s hybrid fleet to 177 Orion buses, making them the third largest hybrid fleet in Canada. Roosevelt Island, N.Y. has ordered one additional hybrid bus as well.

Daimler Buses North America is the world’s leading producer of diesel-electric hybrid transit buses. With these latest orders, Daimler Buses will have a total of more than 2,900 units in revenue service or on order for various transit authorities throughout the U.S. and Canada – making it the largest hybrid provider worldwide.

“Daimler remains committed to promoting clean drive technologies which will shape future transportation,” said Andreas Strecker, President and CEO of Daimler Buses North America. “These additional orders for the Orion VII diesel-electric hybrid bus further maintain Daimler’s position as the world’s hybrid bus leader – a position that we intend to retain through product excellence and continued innovative firsts.”

Additional orders for the Orion VII transit bus were also received as follows. 75 Orion VII clean-diesel buses were ordered by Veolia Transportation for its service for the New Orleans Transit Authority (RTA). Veolia and RTA’s fleet is currently 70-percent Orion or Sprinter shuttles,another product of Daimler Buses. In San Francisco, CA, Veolia Transportation has ordered 30 Setra S 417 motorcoaches and 15 Sprinter shuttle buses.

Suffolk County of New York has ordered 55 Orion VII clean-diesel buses in varying lengths and requested an additional 28 transit buses pending ARRA funding. These buses will be delivered in 2010.

The University of Oklahoma’s Transportation Services, CART (Cleveland Area Rapid Transit) has ordered five Orion VII Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses. The Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation of North Carolina (PART) has ordered an additional five Orion VII clean-diesel buses as well. Saint John Transit Commission in Canada has ordered three Orion VII clean-diesel transit buses and Sault Ste. Marie, Canada has ordered an additional Orion VII clean-diesel bus to its existing order.

Daimler Buses continues to operate with a full order board for 2009. These buses will be produced in 2010 and beyond.

© 2003-2009 Daimler. All rights reserved.
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ctrabs74




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PostPosted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 11:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow... Seattle going with Orion after the long relationship they've had with New Flyer?

Once the Orion VII NGs get on the property, Seattle should be a very interesting fleet to cover...
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 7:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Winning the Seattle order is huge for Orion. I've predicted in the past on several transit enthusiast boards that once Daimler/Orion resolved the startup issues with the O7 and the hybrid powertrain, they would become much more aggressive in bidding for orders, and I think we're starting to see that now.

Keep in mind, also, that Orion and NovaBus are the only major North American bus builders who are backed by international conglomerates (Daimler and Volvo, respectively). New Flyer, Gillig and NABI are all controlled by investment firms. I wouldn't be surprised to see Orion and Nova use those deep pockets to get very aggressive on orders. There is probably too much bus-building capacity now with five major builders, and we may find out in the next few years who the weakest player is. My guess is that it may be NABI, but that's just a guess.
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thehartfordboy



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PostPosted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 8:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

RailBus63 wrote:
Winning the Seattle order is huge for Orion. I've predicted in the past on several transit enthusiast boards that once Daimler/Orion resolved the startup issues with the O7 and the hybrid powertrain, they would become much more aggressive in bidding for orders, and I think we're starting to see that now.

Keep in mind, also, that Orion and NovaBus are the only major North American bus builders who are backed by international conglomerates (Daimler and Volvo, respectively). New Flyer, Gillig and NABI are all controlled by investment firms. I wouldn't be surprised to see Orion and Nova use those deep pockets to get very aggressive on orders. There is probably too much bus-building capacity now with five major builders, and we may find out in the next few years who the weakest player is. My guess is that it may be NABI, but that's just a guess.


In a way, not really. I think Gilllig for their limited products. Also, they don't have 60 footers at all. At least I feel better with the rumors of Orion X.

Dan
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RailBus63
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 12:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

thehartfordboy wrote:
In a way, not really. I think Gillig for their limited products. Also, they don't have 60 footers at all. At least I feel better with the rumors of Orion X.


But Gillig has always done very well selling orders of any size to small and medium-sized properties. Cliff (Timecruncher) has noted that their customer support is excellent. I also believe their low-floor model is still probably the lowest-cost bus among the major builders. NABI seems much more tied to a few larger orders to big customers and I question how well suited they will be if competition gets tougher.

As far as 'limited products', the only size bus they don't build is an articulated, which is still a niche product. Both Gillig and Orion have done well over the years without a 60-foot bus in their catalogs (the Orion III was available for such a short time that it barely counts). Even with the growing popularity of artics, it still has a long way to go to approach the number of 40-foot buses sold every year.
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thehartfordboy



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PostPosted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 2:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

RailBus63 wrote:
thehartfordboy wrote:
In a way, not really. I think Gillig for their limited products. Also, they don't have 60 footers at all. At least I feel better with the rumors of Orion X.


But Gillig has always done very well selling orders of any size to small and medium-sized properties. Cliff (Timecruncher) has noted that their customer support is excellent. I also believe their low-floor model is still probably the lowest-cost bus among the major builders. NABI seems much more tied to a few larger orders to big customers and I question how well suited they will be if competition gets tougher.

As far as 'limited products', the only size bus they don't build is an articulated, which is still a niche product. Both Gillig and Orion have done well over the years without a 60-foot bus in their catalogs (the Orion III was available for such a short time that it barely counts). Even with the growing popularity of artics, it still has a long way to go to approach the number of 40-foot buses sold every year.


That might be true for Gillig, but as the need for transportation increase, Gillig will be left in the dust because every other main manufacturer(including Van Hool, ElDorado, and Novabus) are thinking larger. Either Gillig do one of the options, build up, build longer, or give up.
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