The New Flyer D40LF is a 40-foot rigid low-floor transit bus and the best-known member of New Flyer’s Low Floor family. It was the first low-floor bus sold in the United States and Canada, and its success set the pattern for North American city buses for the next two decades.
New Flyer D40LF at a glance
| Maker | New Flyer Industries |
|---|---|
| Class | low-floor transit bus |
| Family | New Flyer Low Floor, 1991–2014 |
| Variant code | D diesel, 40 feet, LF low floor |
| Length | 40 feet nominal, rigid |
| Body style | original Low Floor |
| Assembly | Grand Forks, North Dakota |
| Series production | from 1991 |
| First delivery | 1992, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey |
| Distinction | first low-floor bus sold in the US and Canada |
| Position | the most common of 38 Low Floor variants |
The D40LF is described within the English Wikipedia article on the Low Floor series, so this page is based on one source.
History of the New Flyer D40LF
A Dutch design for North America
The Low Floor was not designed from a blank sheet. Its layout came from the B85 and B86, European-market buses built from 1984 to 1988 by Den Oudsten, the Dutch manufacturer that owned New Flyer from 1986 to 2002. A B85 was sent to the United States for testing in 1988 and served as the basis for the new range. Production began in 1991 at New Flyer’s plant in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
1992: the first low-floor bus in North America
The first Low Floor built was a D40LF, and it was delivered to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1992. That made the D40LF the first low-floor bus sold in the United States and Canada, a claim New Flyer still attaches to the model. Transit agencies had until then bought high-floor buses with steps at the doors; the low floor removed the steps and speeded up boarding, which mattered most on busy city routes.
The most common Low Floor
The Low Floor series grew into 38 variants, named by powertrain, length and body style. The D40LF remained the most common of them: diesel power, a 40-foot rigid body and the original styling. Two further body styles arrived in 2005, the Restyled (LFR) and the Advanced (LFA) for bus rapid transit, and all three were eventually replaced by the Xcelsior series introduced in 2008. The original Low Floor style went out of production in 2013, and the whole Low Floor line ended in 2014.
Design and features
- Low floor: a flat entrance without steps, which made boarding faster for passengers with luggage, pushchairs or wheelchairs.
- 40-foot rigid body: the standard North American city-bus length, the middle of the four Low Floor lengths from 30 to 60 feet.
- Diesel powertrain: the D prefix marks the conventional diesel version; the same body was also sold with compressed natural gas and hybrid electric power.
- Original styling: the first Low Floor body, produced alongside the later Restyled and Advanced styles until 2013.
New Flyer D40LF versions
- D40LF: diesel, 40-foot rigid, original styling, the most common variant.
- C40LF and L40LF: compressed natural gas versions of the 40-foot bus, the first CNG buses in the family in 1994.
- GE40LF: the gasoline-electric hybrid version of the 40-foot body, first bought in quantity by Long Beach Transit.
- Low Floor Restyled (LFR): the 2005 body style, produced alongside the original until 2014.
- Low Floor Advanced (LFA): the bus-rapid-transit body of 2005, built until 2010.
The articulated member of the same family is the D60LF, and the short 30-foot version is the D30LF. The high-floor generation that came before is described with the D40HF, and the rest of the range is in the New Flyer collection.
Video: Northwest Bus Sales Used New Flyer D40LF Low Floor Transit Bus T17947
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- New Flyer Low Floor, English Wikipedia: production dates, first delivery, variants, body styles, market position
