Lothian

This 8350 is not the same bus as the one delivered last year. Different order number, different work number. 8350 (1st) must have been only a pilot. Is it still on property?

Not quite, instead of going L1000 to L9999 they chose LA01-LZ99... And I'm pretty sure the LFS production will have ended before they reach LZ99.

That's no mistake, order numbers have moved beyond L999 in the last few years to LAxx and now LBxx.

Those sheets are order details for each bus. For example 8337 has: LB58-13 3928 8337 ?-Nov-2018 14-Nov-2018 LB58 is the Nova Bus order number, -13 is the unit number within that order. 3928 (or what looks like it) is an internal Plattsburgh factory work number, 8337 is the CTA road number. The dates are related to the production schedule. No serial number (VIN) is present.

All CNG Novas are being assembled in Plattsburgh, where a gas supply station has been built.

Even then, they obviously have options on their American orders as well.

Nitpicking here, but that bus is from Montreal and it's a 2003 model. Not true anymore. In 2013 and 2014 Nova has sold more units to American TAs than to all of the Canadian TAs, including Quebec. Sales in the US in 2015 are looking to reach twice the Canadian sales.

Bus 8139 can be seen at Nova Bus on their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1000507223295398.1073741867.379066625439464&type=1

It's Santa Barbara MTD LFS Artic 1001.

According to a Nova Bus employee on Facebook, work has resumed on the CTA order.

Not to mention that there are some 60 artics on the Plattsburgh production list between 7999 and 8000, so while I don't know what order they're working on right now my guess is that there will be no 80xx deliveries before 2015.

To be fair, the builders plates do show D40LF, so it's a Flyer goof.

Sorry I should have made myself clearer. By batches I mean production batches, not order batches. Production lists show that Nova first built 2 pilots for CTA, then a few months later 48 more buses. That's the first batch. After an interval building buses for other TAs, they built (or are still building?) 50 more for CTA. And this will probably go on until the order is complete. I think someone mentioned earlier in this thread that Nova would deliver 50 buses every 2 months or so -- this is reflected in the production schedule.

According to the CTA Payment database, as of roughly 1 month ago there were 88 7900s built and inspected, of which 35 delivered, of which 15 in service. Obviously more that 15 are in service right now, so it's pretty safe to think that the first two batches of 50 buses have been completed. However there's no clue whether production of the third batch has started yet.

Haha. To start building buses in Plattsburgh, more likely. Otherwise the sentence doesn't make sense. If anything, Nova is ramping up production in Plattsburgh. The new Prevost X3-45 order for MTA should be assembled in the Nova plant, so perhaps that's why Nova is recruiting. If rumours spread by fans are true, that is.

Here's an interesting short article featuring #7900: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/May-2014/What-You-Should-Know-About-the-New-CTA-Buses/

Invoices 7344-7362 are initial payments on 19 buses. The balance will be paid in smaller amounts (e.g. 1st payment of 50% = $245,000; 2nd payment of 30% = $147,000, etc). Invoices 7170 and 7171 are initial payments on 2 buses, invoice 7202 is a second payment on the first bus (#7900 I presume). I think that full payment is only due when the bus is in revenue service.

Check the payments.