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Buses bound for Puerto Rico
- Purchase of New Flyer buses makes history -

Crookston Daily Times
Written By: Mike Christopherson, City Editor

October 28, 2005 - A contingent of government and transportation officials from Puerto Rico left Crookston happy this morning, one day after getting a firsthand look at four buses built for the capital city, San Juan.

New Flyer of America's Crookston bus assembly plant recently finished assembling four, low-floor, diesel-electric hybrid transit buses for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Metropolitan Bus Authority. They'll be delivered next week, said Phil Sprague, manager of the Crookston plant.

But before all that, the people who placed the order wanted to see the buses for themselves. They visited New Flyer's Winnipeg plant Wednesday before traveling to Crookston's plant Thursday, where they were greeted by Sprague, New Flyer employees, Crookston Mayor Don Osborne and State Rep. Bernie Lieder.

Transit buses currently in operation in San Juan are traditional diesel fuel buses. With fuel costs rising dramatically, the purchase of the diesel-electric hybrid New Flyer buses is part of a San Juan initiative to save money on diesel fuel, explained Puerto Rico Sen. Juan Hernandez.

"We're paying $750,000 a month for diesel fuel now," he said. "These buses will help to decrease that."

The four buses will also be the first "low-floor" buses - which New Flyer is known for - in San Juan.

The purchase is big news in Puerto Rico, said Adaline Torres-Santiago. Influential newspapers and television stations have endorsed the initiative, which she said is critical.

"It's been green-lighted and that's very important," she said. "For a government project, this is a very good start for us. This has been a very productive and a very encouraging trip for us."

The purchase is the first of its kind in all of Latin America, Torres-Santiago said. Known as a "demonstration project," the buses' performance will be monitored during a six-month evaluation period. They'll run along several new routes, one of which stops at the new San Juan Convention Center, which Hernandez said is the biggest of its kind in the entire Caribbean Sea. They'll also run on new routes that include San Juan hospital.

The buses might get the most attention when they're utilized on routes to and from San Juan's renovated airport and popular tourist attractions.

"We want the tourists to get a first look at these buses," Torres-Santiago said.