Pittsburgh Regional Transit will pay $4.13 million more for 30 new buses after the original supplier wasn’t able to meet all the contract requirements.
The authority’s Performance Oversight Committee Thursday recommended the agency switch the contract for 40-foot diesel buses from low bidder Gillig to the next lowest bidder, New Flyer of America Inc. The full board will vote on the change next Friday.
In July 2022, Gillig submitted the low bid of $17.78 million for the buses plus training, special equipment and spare parts. Jerimaine Ward, the agency’s contract manager, told the committee that Gillig couldn’t meet the contract requirements because of supply-chain issues.
As a result, she recommended the agency go with the next lowest bidder, New Flyer. That company had bid $21.91 million.
The cost for individual buses will increase from $553,775 to $660,820.
Don Rivetti, the authority’s chief operating officer for maintenance, said the buses should be delivered by the end of 2024. That’s a few months later than expected, but it shouldn’t cause any problems for the authority.
This purchase is part of a contract approved last July to buy 137 buses over two years for $117.9 million, but that price now increases to $122 million.
New Flyer also has the rest of the contract for 60-foot articulated buses at a cost of $100.1 million. That will include 92 diesel buses and 15 electric buses that will be used on the Bus Rapid Transit system between Oakland and Downtown Pittsburgh.
The original contract also allows the authority to buy an additional 50 articulated buses and 270 smaller buses at the same prices over five years. If it does that, it would change about half of its fleet of 720 buses.
Under Federal Transit Administration rules, buses bought with federal funds must be replaced within 12 years or 500,000 miles, whichever comes first.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.