The New Flyer High Floor was a line of conventional (

high-floor High-floor describes the interior flooring of commuter vehicles primarily used in public transport such as trains, light rail cars and other rail vehicles, along with buses and trolleybuses. Interior floor height is generally measured above the ...

)

transit bus Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1979 film), a 1979 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countries in the world * ''Transit'' (2006 film), a 2006 ...

es available in 35' rigid, 40' rigid, and 60' articulated lengths manufactured by

New Flyer Industries New Flyer is a Canadian multinational bus manufacturer, specializing in the production of transit buses. New Flyer is owned by the NFI Group, a holding company for several bus manufacturers. New Flyer has several manufacturing facilities in Cana ...

between 1987 and 1996. The buses were powered by conventional diesel or natural gas engines using either V-drive or T-drive transmission couplings, with the exception of an articulated electric

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

variant manufactured for a single customer, the

San Francisco Municipal Railway The San Francisco Municipal Railway (SF Muni or Muni), is the public transit system for the City and County of San Francisco. It operates a system of bus routes (including trolleybuses), the Muni Metro light rail system, three historic cable ...

. The

New Flyer Low Floor The New Flyer Low Floor was a line of low-floor transit buses available in 30' rigid, 35' rigid, 40' rigid, and 60' articulated lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries between 1991 and 2014. In addition to the different available lengths, t ...

, a

low-floor Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i.e ...

bus with a similar external appearance, was introduced in 1991 and proved to be more popular than the High Floor, which was discontinued in 1996 in diesel form. CNG high-floor buses continued to be built until 1999, and the articulated version was manufactured until early 2006.

Design

For example, a New Flyer D40HF is a 40' (nominal) rigid high-floor bus with conventional diesel power. The "HF" suffix was added starting in the early 1990s to distinguish the earlier High Floor buses from the Low Floor buses, which were introduced in 1991. Prior to that time, the equivalent designation would simply be D40. The articulated D60/D60HF was nicknamed ''Galaxy''. The trolleybus was only made in a 60-foot articulated version (E60HF) for a single agency, Muni. The New Flyer High Floor uses a tubular side construction clad with either aluminum or fiberglass panels; wheel housings are made of stainless steel, and stepwells have the option of either stainless steel or fiberglass. To reduce weight, the roof, front, and rear panels are made from fiberglass. All buses are equipped with rear-mounted engines using either V- or T-drive couplings to the transmission driving the rear axle; since the D60 articulated buses use the "pusher" configuration, the articulation joint is equipped with an anti-

jackknifing Jackknifing is the folding of an articulated vehicle so that it resembles the acute angle of a folding pocket knife. If a vehicle towing a trailer skids, the trailer can push the towing vehicle from behind until it spins the vehicle around and ...

feature.

Deployment

The first New Flyer High Floor buses were model D40, delivered to the

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...

and

Winnipeg Transit Winnipeg Transit is the public transit agency, and the bus-service provider, of the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Established years ago, it is owned by the city government and currently employs nearly 1,600 people—including approximately 1,1 ...

in 1987.

AC Transit AC Transit (Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District) is an Oakland-based public transit agency serving the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. AC Transit also operates "Transbay" ro ...

was the first customer for the D35 (1988, along with

Santa Cruz METRO Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (SCMTD), or simply Santa Cruz METRO, provides bus service throughout Santa Cruz County, California. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . Santa Cruz METRO also operates the Hig ...

) and the D60 articulated model (1989). The first deliveries of natural gas-powered variants occurred in 1995:

BC Transit BC Transit is a provincial crown corporation responsible for coordinating the delivery of public transportation within British Columbia, Canada, outside Greater Vancouver. BC Transit is headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia. In , the syst ...

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), commonly branded as Metro, LA Metro, and L.A. Metro, is the state agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the transportation system in Los Angele ...

, and

San Diego Metropolitan Transit System The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (''SDMTS'' or often simply ''MTS'') is a public transit service provider for Central, South, Northeast and Southeast San Diego County. The agency directly operates a large transit system that includes t ...

for the C40HF; Sun Metro (El Paso) for the L40HF. The only E60 trolleybus variants built were a fleet of 60 sold to San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) in 1993, that agency's first use of articulated trolleybuses. The last of the E60s were retired in 2015.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 320 (March–April 2015), pp. 62–63. The last E60 (Muni #7031) was briefly put up for auction in 2019 before Muni withdrew the auction at the request of interested preservation groups.

Competition

Rapid Transit Series The Rapid Transit Series (RTS) city bus is a long-running series of transit buses that was originally manufactured by GMC Truck and Coach Division during 1977, in Pontiac, Michigan. First produced in 1977, the RTS was GMC's offering of an Adv ...

Classic (transit bus) The Classic was a single-deck bus developed by General Motors Diesel from its previous-generation New Look design. The "Classic" was nearly identical to the New Look from the belt rail up, but sported a new front which allowed for a wider fron ...

Flxible Metro The Flxible Metro is a transit bus that was assembled and manufactured by the Flxible Corporation from 1983 until 1995. From 1978 until early-1983, when Flxible was owned by Grumman, the model was known as the Grumman 870, with a Grumman namepl ...

Gillig Phantom The Gillig Phantom is a series of buses that was produced by an American manufacturer Gillig Corporation in Hayward, California. The successor to the long-running Gillig Transit Coach model line, the Phantom marked the transition of Gillig from ...

NABI 416 The NABI SFW was a line of standard (high)-floor transit buses available in 40' rigid (NABI 416) and 60' articulated (NABI 436) nominal lengths, manufactured by the Ikarus USA joint venture, then by American Ikarus and North American Bus Indus ...

Neoplan AN440 The Neoplan Transliner was a series of related public transport single-decker bus models introduced by Neoplan USA in 1981 and produced until the company declared bankruptcy in 2006. It was available in various lengths ranging from to articu ...

Orion V The Orion V was a line of rigid high-floor transit buses available in 32', 35', and 40' lengths manufactured by Ontario Bus Industries (renamed Orion Bus Industries in 1995) between 1989 and 2009. The conventionally powered buses, either with lon ...

References

External links

* * * * * * {{cite web , url=https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/New_Flyer_Industries_E60 , title=New Flyer Industries E60 , publisher=Canadian Public Transit Discussion Board wiki , date= , accessdate=December 11, 2018 Buses of Canada Buses of the United States High Floor Vehicles introduced in 1987 Articulated buses