23 Facts About Neoplan USA

Neoplan USA was a major transit bus manufacturing company based in Denver, Colorado.

Neoplan USA had production facilities in Honey Brook, Pennsylvania, and Brownsville, Texas ; the Honey Brook site was retained as a parts distribution center.

At the time Neoplan USA was better known for its intercity coaches rather than its transit buses.

Neoplan USA participated in the development of the VoV-Standard-Bus in the late 1970s and built transit buses for Saudi Arabia in 1979 and 1980.

Neoplan USA opened its first American manufacturing facility in May 1981.

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Neoplan USA 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.

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.

Neoplan USA stated it "has never, nor does it now, consider these cracks safety-related" in its written response.

In March 1985, Neoplan USA followed the recommendations of the NHTSA and recalled all 2,000 buses then in service nationwide.

In June 1983 76 Transliner buses from Neoplan USA were purchased by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority of Washington, DC for $12.

Neoplan USA won the bid for Metro because they had underbid General Motors, a competing bus manufacturer, by $275,000.

Neoplan USA president Robert Lee pledged to repair the buses at the company's expense, saying it was a minor repair that did not create safety problems.

In May 1985 an agreement was reached for Neoplan USA to pay for repairs to Metro buses, costing about $1 million.

Neoplan USA was criticized for failing to meet deadlines agreed to with the authority.

Since the early 1980s Neoplan USA assembled buses for Southern California Rapid Transit District, which later became the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Three inspectors took jobs with Neoplan USA after leaving the LACMTA, with one of them working with Neoplan USA one month after their resignation.

PA Transit later bought 159 low floor buses from Neoplan USA that entered service in 1999, at a total cost of $47.

Neoplan USA agreed to pay for repairs for buses under warranty, and compensated the Port Authority for additional costs associated with the defects on the buses.

Neoplan USA discontinued its entire luxury motorcoach line in 2002, concentrating on its transit buses.

Neoplan USA moved into office spaces previously occupied by Frontier Airlines.

Neoplan USA was the sole bidder; because of the small size and specialized manufacturing needed for the order, MBTA was granted a waiver to Buy America requirements, as the buses would be assembled in Germany.

Neoplan USA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August 2006, listing assets of $13.