Ottawa to buy 226 new buses for $155M

In what seems like a deal that's almost too good to be true, the City of Ottawa decided to approve a purchase of 226 new diesel-powered articulated buses from New Flyer last week. The deal, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, represents a 19 percent discount from standard costs, and comes after Chicago delayed an order of their own due to funding problems.

Ottawa city council voted 18 in favour of the deal, three against. Although there weren't funds budgeted for a bus purchase of this size, city staff explained how it would work (from the Ottawa Citizen):

Staff say $142 million of the $155.7-million cost would be financed by borrowing the money, and the cost “will be more than offset by savings created by replacing the aging fleet of 2001-2004 models with new, fuel-efficient models.”

The deal comes at an opportune time, less than a month after the Province of Ontario released a budget which outlined a stoppage to their subsidized bus-replacement program.

Read more...

• Ottawa Citizen, "Company offers OC Transpo discount articulated buses"
• CTV.ca "City council approves $155M bus deal"
• Trading Markets, "New Flyer Announces Bus Purchase by The City of Ottawa for OC Transpo"
• San Francisco Chronicle, "Ottawa Buys 226 New Flyer Buses After Chicago Cuts Funding"