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| Nova Bus launches new interior styling on the LFS bus (1138124) | |||
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Nova Bus launches new interior styling on the LFS bus |
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Posted by Gold_12TH on Wed Feb 8 22:49:37 2012 The new Nova Bus interior styling is now available so please feel free to contact us for more information. --- Nova Bus Nova Bus: Get ready for brighter, airier buses---New ones will be on the road for fall of 2013, STM says MONTREAL - The bigger windows are the first thing you notice when you walk into the bus. Only they’re not actually bigger. It’s an illusion created by a change in the design of advertising panels along the ceiling on one side of the bus. In addition, frames around windows are white instead of black, adding to the illusion. Nova Bus has completely redesigned the interior of the bus that it has for years supplied to the Société de transport de Montréal and other Quebec transit agencies. Designers flattened the normally curved advertising panels along the ceiling. That gives the bus a brighter, airier feel and more headroom on one side, said Jean-Yves Vallée, director of product planning at Nova Bus. It also gives transit agencies 15 per cent more space to sell to advertisers. Vallée was showing off the new bus interior at the Nova Bus plant in St. Eustache. “We wanted to have a more aesthetically pleasing interior,” he said – a design that also makes buses roomier for passengers and is easier to clean. By year-end, the new design will be used on all buses Nova Bus manufactures. The company is bidding to supply hundreds of buses for nine Quebec transit agencies, including the STM. Only the interior is changing. The length and width remain the same. The capacity is also unchanged: the bus can accommodate up to 39 seats, depending on the configuration chosen by a transit agency, and a grand total, including people standing, of up to 85 people. Nova Bus has been working on the new look for two years, Vallée said. Here’s are some of the new elements: Up to two LCD screens can be installed on the bus. What’s shown on the screens is up to the transit agency, Vallée said. “It can be anything from advertising to corporate messages to bus schedules to real-time information about where the bus is.” The STM says it expects to start displaying real-time information on buses in 2014. To add more interior light, emergency exits in the ceiling can be transparent. They are currently white. In the old design, a small light is illuminated when passengers can open the back door to exit. In the new look, a large panel next to the door lights up, alerting passengers that they can disembark. Most crevices have been eliminated and bolts and screws have been covered to reduce grime buildup. “We eliminated places where dirt can accumulate,” Vallée said. “Seats are cantilevered so it’s very easy to sweep under them. We used to have visible bolts at every seat, now they’re capped.” LED lighting is used. That makes maintenance easier and allows lights to be dimmed, Vallée said. Instead of just being along the side of the bus near the ceiling, lighting is now also featured across the ceiling. The divider behind the driver is thinner, giving the driver an extra inch to pull the seat back. The passenger behind the driver also gets more shoulder room. Rear windows are now optional, as some transit agencies want to post advertising there, Vallée said. Traditional, diesel fuelled 40-foot buses sell for $400,000 to $500,000 each. Articulated buses (60-feet-long) sell for between $600,000 and $1 million, said Nadine Bernard, director of marketing at Nova Bus. Hybrid diesel-electric buses cost about $225,000 more than diesel versions. Via public tender, Quebec transit agencies are about to order hundreds of new buses, all diesel-electric hybrids. Bernard said they will buy at least 475 buses, but the contract will stipulate that the total could jump to almost 1,700 by 2018. STM spokesperson Marianne Rouette could not say how many buses the STM will purchase. The order – expected to be given in June – is being done collectively and the number of buses the STM gets will depend on ridership growth, among other things. The STM should start getting the new buses starting in the fall of 2013, with deliveries continuing for at least four years, Rouette said. The STM ordered 755 buses from Nova Bus in 2002. The remaining 32 buses from that contract are to be delivered this year, Rouette said. The STM currently owns about 1,700 buses. It hopes to have about 2,100 by 2020. Nova Bus, a subsidiary of Volvo Bus Corp., employs about 1,000 people at its three plants. Apart from St. Eustache, it has plants in St. François du Lac (near Sorel) and Plattsburgh, N.Y. It manufactures about 1,000 buses per year. ***($1 Canadian dollar = $1.0025 US Dollar)*** --- Montreal Gazette --- photo's on the bottom of the page |
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