TransLink will order up to 87 Xcelsior diesel-electric hybrid buses from Winnipeg-based New Flyer Industries, according to a company news release.

The initial order for 25 60-foot articulated buses and 17 40-foot buses "supports the growth in local ridership and delivers on TransLink’s customer enhancement strategies", New Flyer stated.

It's the first order since 2008, and cost approximately $28 million.

"TransLink has done an outstanding job of promoting and growing transit services for the residents of Metro Vancouver,” New Flyer president and CEO Paul Soubry said in the news release. “TransLink and New Flyer have a long working relationship, with over 70 percent of TransLink’s fleet consisting of New Flyer buses."

Former TransLink president and CEO Pat Jacobsen is a director of New Flyer Industries Inc.

The largest shareholder of the company is Mawer Investment Management, which owns 14.79 percent of the stock, according to the company's most recent management information circular document.

Coliseum Capital Management owns 12.6 percent, and Franklin Templeton Investments Corp. holds 10.21 percent of the shares.

Jacobsen involved in earlier bus purchase

In 2004, the TransLink board—with Jacobsen acting as CEO—voted to buy 228 trolley buses from New Flyer Industries.

Shortly afterward, its largest shareholder at the time, KPS Special Situations Fund, announced the sale of the company to Harvest Partners.

KPS Special Situations Fund makes investments on behalf of public and private-sector pension funds.

It worked with the Manitoba government, the Communications Workers of America, and the Canadian Auto Workers Union to save New Flyer Industries from going broke.

In 2004, a local CAW representative who drove buses in Greater Vancouver, Jim Houlahan, criticized TransLink's three-year plan and 10-year outlook because he felt that the decision to develop the Canada Line and reduce the number of bus purchases would hurt transit riders.

Houlahan claimed at the time that because he refused to endorse the TransLink plan, the Canadian Auto Workers "removed" him as a spokesperson who would speak to the TransLink board.

Jacobsen became a director of New Flyer Industries in 2009 and held 11,514 shares in the company when the last management information circular was published. The stock last traded at $6.94.

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.