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NovaBus
Type Subsidiary
Founded 1993
Headquarters Saint-Eustache, Quebec, Canada
Industry Manufacturing
Products Public Transit Buses
Parent Volvo Group
Website Official site
Nova Bus LFS
Parent company Volvo Buses
Production 1995-present (standard)
3 demo units (articulated)
Assembly Saint-Eustache, Quebec
Plattsburgh, New York
Predecessor RTS, Classic
Class Transit bus
Engine(s) Cummins ISL
Transmission(s) Voith, Allison, or ZF
Wheelbase 244in (standard)
244in and 253in (articulated)
Length 40ft (standard)
62ft (artic)
Width 102in
Height 123in

Nova Bus is a bus manufacturing company based in Saint-Eustache, Quebec, Canada. The company is now owned by Volvo Buses.

History[]

The factory was originally a General Motors' plant for building city transit buses intended for the Canadian market. In 1987 GM divested its entire bus holdings, selling them to Motor Coach Industries (MCI), itself formed from companies formerly owned by Greyhound Lines. The plant was used to produce the Classic model for sales in Canada, while GMC's RTS product was moved to join MCI's own designs at Transportation Manufacturing Corporation in Roswell, New Mexico.

MCI decided to divest itself of its urban rapid transit models in 1993, and Nova Bus was created to take over the Classic and RTS models at the Saint-Eustache and Roswell plants. Nova Bus is thus the spiritual descendant of the original GM lines. The Classic and RTS were later dropped in order to concentrate on the Nova LFS, a low-floor city bus, which was introduced in 1995. The last Classic model was produced in 1997.

The Nova LFS proved to perform poorly compared to competitors in terms of sales, and Nova Bus closed their Roswell and Niskayuna, New York plants in 2002 to concentrate all effort on the Canadian market. The Roswell plant was later taken over by a local consortium, Millennium Transit Services, but this effort went bankrupt in 2008.

Nova Bus now tends to focus on the Canadian market. However the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), with several hundred LFS units in its active bus fleet, remains one of the larger Nova Bus operators. On [[February 2, 2008, Nova Bus announced plans for the construction of a new assembly plant in Plattsburgh, New York, signifying the company's return to the U.S. bus market. The plant opened for business on June 15, 2009.[1] Its first US order under the American production was a order from the New York City Transit Authority for 90 LFS Articulated buses, which will be delivered in 2010.

Products[]

Current[]

The current model from Nova Bus is the Low Floor Series, offered in three types: the LFS, LFS Articulated, and the LFX. The powertrain layout mounted on the left at the rear was changed to a center-mounted powertrain with ventilation from the roof on all LFS models starting in 2009. Some demonstrators and test buses in 2008 already had this layout.

All Low Floor Series buses are 2.59m wide. Currently only the LFS 12.19m version is in mass production and has been since 1995; the LFS Articulated and LFX are currently demo buses only, with production set to commence in 2009. A hybrid version of the LFS was introduced in 2006 using an Allison EP40 parallel hybrid system. A single-door suburban 12.19m version is also available.

Past[]

Model Length Width Photo Years Produced Notes
Rapid Transit Series (RTS)
  • 12.19m,
  • 10.67m,
  • 9.14m
  • 2.59m,
  • 2.44m
1995-2002
TC40102A/N 12.19m 2.59m 1995-1997
  • Developed as a redesign of the original GMC New Look) originally produced by GM (1983 - 1987), then MCI (1987-1995)
  • Air conditioning optional.
TC60102N 18.29m 2.59m 1993

References[]


External links[]

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