On the night of February 14, 2010, Champion Bus, Inc. of Imlay City, Michigan experienced a fire which destroyed one of their main assembly and manufacturing buildings. While the building was completely destroyed, there was no loss of life or injury as a result. The fire took out their phones, fax, and computer networks, and destroyed several buses which were in the building. Champion has been cleaning up and moving into a new building since that night, and expects to resume operations on Monday, February 15, 2010. Everyone awaiting delivery of a bus, who is affected by this fire, will receive individual notification within the next few days. Champion expects to recover quickly, and we merely ask for patience as they recover from this.

Approximately 300 people are employed by Champion Bus, and they are all eager to return to work, building the best buses for our customers in the State of Florida.  State Contract Customers please feel free to call David Morris for more details, or an update as we proceed.

With the discontinuation of the GMC/Chevy 4500/5500 chassis, a huge gap has opened up in the bus market for a comparable transportation vehicle.  Glaval Bus has stepped up to fill that slot with its brand new Entourage F-550, the perfect substitute for their C4500/5500-based Titan.

The Entourage seats 33 passengers and is built on a Ford F-550 19,500 GVWR chassis with a 6.8 liter V-10 gas or 6.4 liter V-8 diesel engine.  It features a TorqueShift transmission, full front suspension system, and a  tighter turning radius than on an E-450 with the same wheelbase.  The Entourage’s sleek, aerodynamic styling is sure to make it a favorite with operators and agencies that hasve relied on the GMC/Chevy C4500/5500 chassis or Glaval Titan in the past.

Transit Plus is a proud representative of Glaval products, and we urge you to consider their new Entourage for your transportation needs.

This week, we wanted to take the time to tell you about a really exciting and interesting client of ours, The National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia.  We recently sold them an ADA-compliant 2009 Glaval Concorde II bus for their facility tour.

The Observatory is the home of the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), which is the largest fully-steerable and most technically advanced single-dish telescope in the world.  Its 110-meter by 100-meter dish boasts more than two acres of area for collecting faint radio waves from the Universe.  Weighing 17 million pounds, the GBT is also one of the world’s largest moving structures on land.

If you are in the Green Bank, West Virginia area, we highly recommend a visit to this amazing place.  They are open to the public all year long, and can be contacted through The Science Center At Green Bank (304-456-2150).  Or, visit their website at http://www.gb.nrao.edu/.  It’s sure to be a trip your whole family will remember.  Look for more information and pictures in our next email newsletter.

Does your organization, company or facility have the need to transport more wheelchairs on one day, and more ambulatory passengers on another?  Do your needs change from day to day?  We have solutions for you!

Transit Plus specializes in flexible floor plans for vans and buses.  We can custom design a van or bus to give you options, depending on your daily needs.  With flip and fold away seating installed over existing wheelchair positions, the possibilities are endless.  In one bus, you can accomodate 12 passengers and 2 wheelchairs, 10 passengers and 3 wheelchairs, 8 passengers and 4 wheelchairs, etc.

Please ask your salesperson to show you some of the different plans that are available to you.  As always, we’ll do what it takes to build you the vehicle that best meets your needs and make the process easier than you could imagine!