High Point, N.C. – Michael J. Connolly & Sons, Inc., of Walpole, Mass., has ordered 61 Thomas Built Saf-T-Liner® C2 buses for the coming school year. These buses, along with the 73 C2s the company purchased last year, will give Connolly the largest private fleet of C2s in the nation. The buses were purchased from New England Transit Sales in Tyngsboro, Mass., and will be delivered in June.

Connolly Bus Company contracts its services to school districts in eastern Massachusetts. In business since 1943, Connolly Bus Company has a fleet of 289 buses. Joe Connolly, president of Connolly Bus Company, said that the Saf-T-Liner C2 is already affecting his bottom line.

“The C2s, with their MBE 900 engines, are more fuel efficient than our other buses so we get a couple more miles per gallon. That’s a significant savings when you multiply it by 134 buses,” he said. Connolly also noted that the C2s have 100-gallon tanks, rather than the 65-gallon tanks that are standard on most of his other buses. “Instead of filling them twice a week, we can fill the C2s once a week and still have plenty of fuel left over. We used to have three fuel trucks making rounds to all our lots twice a week. Now I can get by with one less fuel truck and driver,” he said.

George Logan, president of New England Transit Sales, said that Thomas Built has revolutionized the school bus with the introduction of its Saf-T-Liner C2. He noted that the C2 features the largest driver visibility footprint in the Type C category and has a body assembly system that uses welds, structural adhesives and self-piercing rivets. The C2 also features an ergonomic driver cockpit, recessed warning lights and a multiplexed wiring system that’s shared by the body and chassis. It’s available with either Mercedes-Benz MBE 900 series engines or Caterpillar C7 diesel engines.

Celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, Thomas Built Buses (www.thomasbus.com) is the leading manufacturer of school buses in North America, with more than one-third of the market. Since the first Thomas Built bus rolled off the assembly line in 1936, the company has focused entirely on delivering the smartest, safest and most innovative buses in North America. Thomas Built Buses is a member of the Freightliner Group, the largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America and a leading manufacturer of class 3-8 vehicles. The Freightliner Group produces and markets commercial vehicles under the Freightliner, Sterling, Western Star and Thomas Built Buses nameplates. Freightliner is a company of DaimlerChrysler, the world’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer. Media contact for Freightliner LLC: Amy Sills, 503-745-8535, amysills@freightliner.com.