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Company: Buses Entirely U.S .-Built
[March 17, 2009]

Company: Buses Entirely U.S .-Built


(Albuquerque Journal (NM) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Mar. 17--About 20 new buses being purchased for ABQ Ride with federal stimulus funds will be built entirely within the United States, a spokesman for bus manufacturer New Flyer said Monday. The buses, which use an electric-hybrid engine, have in the past been partially built in Canada, said Paul Smith, New Flyer executive vice president for sales and marketing.



The buses are being purchased with the bulk of an $11.3 million allocation of federal stimulus money to Albuquerque.

City Transit Director Greg Payne said Monday that the city would prefer to buy the buses in-state, but he said New Flyer is the only company that produces the hybrid-electric buses and has treated the city well.


"This has been a good company for us to work with," Payne said, adding that it is being "sensitive" to the spirit of the stimulus package.

Smith said that, until stimulus money became involved, the company had used its Canadian plant to manufacture about 40 percent of each bus and a plant in Minnesota to manufacture the other 60 percent.

He said that ratio would have complied with federal stimulus regulations, but the company chose to use the Minnesota plant to build each bus "bumper to bumper" in order to stay in line with the spirit of the stimulus effort.

Lawrence Rael, Mid-Region Council of Governments executive director, said last week that stimulus spending rules require that jobs be created in the United States, but not that they be created in the same region where the money is allocated.

ABQ Ride has been upgrading its bus fleet, adding nearly 40 new buses, about 20 of them with stimulus funds.

To see more of the Albuquerque Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.abqjournal.com.

Copyright (c) 2009, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.

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