Neoplan USA was a major transit bus manufacturing company based in Denver, Colorado. It started as a subsidiary of the German corporation Neoplan in 1981 with its main factory and headquarters in Lamar, Colorado. In 1998, Neoplan USA was acquired by Willis Stein & Partners and became an independent licensee of designs from the German company Neoplan. The company declared bankruptcy in 2006.
The headquarters were moved to Denver in 2004. Neoplan USA also had production facilities in Honey Brook, Pennsylvania (1986), and Brownsville, Texas (2001–02); the Honey Brook site was retained as a parts distribution center.
History
Prior to opening its own factory, Neoplan broke into the United States transit market by licensing a long bus design to Gillig, who assembled and sold it as the Gillig-Neoplan from 1976 to 1978. At the time Neoplan was better known for its intercity coaches rather than its transit buses. The company participated in the development of the VöV-Standard-Bus in the late 1970s and built transit buses for Saudi Arabia in 1979 and 1980. In February 1980, company officials announced they would open a plant in either Lamar or Clearfield, Pennsylvania, ultimately selecting Lamar for its mild winters and sunny weather. After announcing its intentions to build its factory, Neoplan USA began soliciting bids for transit buses.
Origin and expansion
Neoplan USA opened its first American manufacturing facility in May 1981. It was Neoplan's fifth factory worldwide, a plant on an site; construction took just four months. The city of Lamar, a farming town of 8,000 that faced tough economic times, pushed to have the plant built in the town in the hope of diversifying their economic base. It donated land and roads for the manufacturing site. The street that went to the plant was renamed Drive for the founder of Neoplan. Company officials reportedly sought a rural site "because of their conviction, based on experience in Europe, that rural workers have a better work ethic and are more reliable and productive employees". An additional incentive was the hot water supplied from the city's neighboring power plant to heat the factory. Neoplan started a program at the local community college to train workers, and trainee foremen were sent to West Germany for eight weeks; at the end of the overseas program, the foremen had to build a bus that would take them to the airport.
Neoplan USA manufactured standard-floor buses, low-floor buses, and articulated buses, with each bus taking 14 days to build. After each bus was completed, the workers were given a ride to their homes in the bus to critique their work. When Neoplan USA opened in 1981, company officials said the plant would employ up to 500 people, and manufacture as many as 500 vehicles a year on two assembly lines. Their first contracts included 50 transit buses for Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) and 40 for the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS). Contracts for another 500 were being bid on. The buses built for Atlanta and Milwaukee were conventional "New Look"-type buses designated "Atlantis" or N-416, and were the only "New Look" buses assembled by Neoplan USA, which also was offering the "Transliner" or N412, an "Advanced Design" bus to compete with the GM Rapid Transit Series and Flxible Metro.
Later in 1981, its first year of operation, Neoplan USA sold 46 articulated buses to MARTA. This was also a year when articulated buses, buses that bent in the middle, were gaining interest with transit departments. As the federal government was phasing out subsidies for mass transit, these buses got attention because they were cost effective. They carried more passengers and saved on labor costs, as they required only one driver. Another significant early contract was awarded for 1,000 "Transliner" buses as a pooled purchase coordinated by PennDOT in 1982 for 16 transit agencies in the state of Pennsylvania, primarily to PA Transit (410) and SEPTA (450), which led to Neoplan exploring locations for a second factory in that state. It was the largest single bus contract in the U.S. to date. The first buses, nicknamed "Pennliners", were delivered to Pennsylvania in October 1982, and were assembled in Colorado.