Grande West breaks into US transit market

Grande West, the Canadian assembler of Chinese midibuses, has secured Buy America compliance to sell its Vicinity model in the United States and has won an order from one of the US’s 10 largest public transport agencies.

Its US distributor, Alliance Bus Group, is establishing a 70,000sqft assembly plant in Atlanta, Georgia to meet the local content threshold for orders to qualify for federal government funding. Production begins later this year.

MARTA, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, has ordered 10 Vicinity midis for neighbourhoods unable to accommodate full-size buses.