Canada / USA – ARBOC Specialty Vehicles LLC of Middlebury, Indiana, a subsidiary of Canada’s NFI Group Inc of Winnipeg, Manitoba has announced its Spirit of Equess medium-duty bus has successfully completed the FTA Altoona Model Bus Testing endurance programme. While the Pennsylvania-based Altoona Testing offers no 'pass' or 'fail', it does provides an assessment or benchmark on the vehicle's dependability for use in federally funded public transit system procurement programmes.

            Other NFI Group vehicles that have successfully undergone the Altoona test recently include the all-new, fully-accessible MCI D45 CRT LE intercity coach built by Motor Coach Industries (‘MCI’) of Des Moines, Illinois and the all-electric sixty-foot articulated heavy-duty transit bus built by New Flyer of America Inc in Crookston, Minnesota, USA. NFI claims the latter was the first battery-electric bus of this type (length) to complete FTA’s Altoona Testing. The Altoona test lasts seven months, simulating a ten-year, 350,000 mile service life.