Vancouver sells buses to Argentine city

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- The regional transit authority serving metropolitan Vancouver, British Columbia, says it is selling 80 retired trolley buses to an Argentine city for $184,000.

The South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, known as TransLink, says it is selling the 25-year-old buses, made by New Flyer Industries Inc. of Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Mendoza, Argentina, because they aren't accessible to all passengers.

The trolleys have steps at the entry doors and poles in the center aisle.

"They just don't meet our needs because we need to get the whole fleet to accessibility standards," TransLink representative Drew Snider told The Vancouver Sun.

Mendoza, a city of about 900,000 in the north-central part of Argentina's Mendoza Province, is apparently "putting together a fleet of buses from different parts of the world," he said.

TransLink, which is responsible for major roads and bridges as well as public transit, is selling each bus for $2,300 each plus shipping costs, it said.

The agency's current fleet of some 228 trolley buses is now 100 percent accessible, Snider said.