These Buses Used to Be Everywhere...We Flew 1500 Miles to the Last Place They Run
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 27 фев 2024
- Check out Manta Sleep at bit.ly/42sO2mR and use promo code POORBID for 10% off your order!
Alternate title: Miles and Jackson pretend to be in college again.
Patreon: / milesintransit
Twitter: / milesintransit1
Facebook: / milesintransit
Website: milesintransit.com/ 
Развлечения
I love how cool and supportive the strangers at 14:44 were even though they deff thought you were crazy hahaha
Now I know why there is practically no video of these busses.
It's incredible, surreal, and (near-painfully) nostalgic to watch the buses that I drove as a college student - and still love to this day - featured so thoughtfully. Thank you @MilesinTransit and @jacksonbetz for helping to document and share a part of the unique, RTS-filled story of the Aggie Spirit!
Thanks for helping us make sense of the system Barrett!!
Thanks so much, Barrett!!
Wanna visit a college town with weird busses? Come to Davis, CA where they run double deckers (enviro500s) in regular service. (They also have some routemasters for special occasions). Plus they're also called the aggies.
It seems like a really good system! I'm sad the Routemasters don't regularly run anymore though.
Do those routemasters still have their RM numbers? I would love to know which RMs were they as its harder to know the status of exported buses
@@iDislikeAlotofThingsJudging by RUclips videos of them, yes the Unitrans (Davis, CA) Routemasters do still have their fleet numbers, and probably their UK registration numbers too. I've found: RT 742 (can't see the registration); RT 2819 / LYR something; RT 4735 / KGK 704; and also JXC 105 (can't see the fleet number). Unitrans is another student-run bus operator, so I expect they'd be happy to answer questions about the Routemasters.
As a Brit Enviros are great, solid, robust buses which run almost everywhere.
@@MarkWaller2Hi! I actually used to drive for Unitrans! They're not Routemasters but Regent III RTs, the model series preceding the Routemasters. When I was working there a few years back, they used two in service, RT 742 and RT 4735, and one for training, RT 2819 (which was converted to using CNG iirc!). They were bizarre, finicky, and broke down all the time, but very fun to drive!
Aleena's "✨ P O O R B I D ✨" was priceless! The Altoona bus blew up....probably because it saw an Altoona-style pizza and couldn't take it anymore 💀. I know you said NJ Transit cancelled the order and that's how they ended up in Texas, but I still find it wild to see a bus with NJ Transit seats in Texas of all places, let alone an active RTS bus! That SEPTA toy bus in the intro really took me back to my childhood of getting a toy vehicle (usually a taxi or pull-back bus) whenever I stopped at CVS! Yup, I definitely love these RTS buses, they have their charm with their signature front look, the plastic Stop Requested indicator, and those backdoors! I also have a WDW version of the RTS that I got as a 3-pack with diecast DCL and Magical Express buses back in 2011 (WDW since changed the diecast version of the bus so that it looked like a Gillig Low Floor). They were a signature part of Disney Transport!
Kyle Field is quite impressive! It's called Kyle Field because of Edwin Jackson Kyle who was an 1899 graduate of Texas A&M and professor of horticulture. In 1904, he wanted to develop an athletic field but Texas A&M was unwilling to provide funds, so he said "Fine, I'll do it myself", fenced off a section of campus that had been assigned to him for agricultural use, and built wooden bleachers that could sit 500 people. In 1927, the school finally chose to build a concrete stadium. It had a capacity of over 32,000 people at the time, but as time went on, the capacity kept growing, and now it's able to have a capacity of over 100,000 people! It had a record attendance of 110,633 during an Ole Miss game in 2014. Though not the largest in the US thanks to Michigan Stadium!
Watching a couple of transit nerds get initiated into college football culture was fun!
Hey Miles did you figure out what we’re gonna bring to Gabriele’s party on Saturday
Are we all invited? 😂
@@IrishJon I consider myself invited. I'm bringing jambalaya.
bring a TAXI
my guess would be snyders of hanover pretzels.
AYO TAXI@@yukaira
Didn't have Miles and Jackson attending an Aggies game on my 2024 bingo but here we are! I don't blame you for geeking out for the band, as the formations that these college marching bands do during these games are incredible! I also don't blame you for leaving the game early, since leaving early not only gave you enough time to climb down all those crazy stairs, but also leaving games early is something I always do because I just don't like dealing with crowds when leaving a venue! The farm road thing is known as farm-to-market roads, roads established for farmers and ranchers to transport products to market towns or distribution centers! The first farm-to-market road in Texas was completed in January 1937
In 1860, the Houston and Texas Central Railway began building through the region. A decade later, the site was chosen as the location for the proposed Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. In 1876 when the US celebrated its centennial, the school opened as Texas's first public higher education institution! As it grew, so did the transit options, and in 1900, the International & Great Northern was extended to College Station. In the 1910s, an electric interurban was built between it and Bryan nearby, which was replaced by buses in the 1920s. In 1924, the New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railway (a Gulf Coast Lines subsidiary) bought the I&GN. In 1963, the school was renamed to Texas A&M, and in 1965, the Missouri Pacific Railroad (which all the GCL subsidiaries merged into in 1956) abandoned the line.
"👹PWLEHHH" - Miles 2024. "Y'all been to Whataburger?" being the immediate question from them when they found out you're visitors is so on-brand for Texas! Shame the real diner part of the diner was closed! Whataburger was founded in 1950 by Harmon Dobson and Paul Burton. Dobson's goal was to "make a better burger that took two hands to hold and tasted so good that when you took a bite you would say 'What a burger!'", thus the name! They opened their first location in August of that year in Corpus Christi across from Del Mar College. Inspired by his love for flying, Dobson designed the first orange and white striped A-frame store in Odessa, Texas in 1961 which became the chain's signature look! In 1967, they commissioned its iconic flying W logo. That same year, Harmon passed at age 53 due to an airplane crash, but the Dobson family remained the owners of the chain until 2019!
I like how Jackson says bluntly about leaving the football game early to go look at buses. 20 years ago when I was in high school I was kinda like you guys, nerding out with trains and buses.
As a fellow northeasterner who went to college in the south it was hilarious seeing you guys try to navigate SEC football culture 😂. Its really overwhelming the first time!
Could say same for older more real Big 10 teams who have been in conference since 1980's or prior, Jump Around at Camp Randal is a big deal for University of Wisconsin as is white out day at Penn State. Some of the oldest rivalries in top division like UW and Minnesota State going back to 1890 with in 1930 first a big slab of Paul Bunyon's bacon fat of marbled walnut in M or W depending on how was set down from 1930--1948 when was lost till 1992 when was found by UW and Axe replaced it with a new axe in 2003 due to age of old axe which was donated to College/University hall of fame or University of Michigan and Ohio state in 1889 where the rivalry is so intense a trophy is not needed.
My years in Boston the T had just become an all-RTS fleet. I rode those all over the place.
There’s a Tik Tok creator who drove those buses as a student at Texas A&M and as a recent graduate her and her boyfriend or husband are buying recently retired RTS’s and converting them to shuttle/party/charter buses around town.
Jackson trying to understand tailgating 😂😂
The green oval lights on the back doors are my fondest memories of riding these types of buses in New York as a kid. That, and the woman’s voice that *screamed* “PLEASE,,,, do *NOT* stand in the rear door well🙂”
Wow, y'all are TRULY committed to transit geekery
“The men you shot, the men you shot Now you’re looking at the men you shot”
Miles in Transit if it was a crime drama
It’s a confession. Some of the teams in the Race to Rockaway Beach went to great lengths to come in first.
Current Aggie student here. I never realized those RTS busses I see everyday were among of the last. Now I wanna try to ride on those not for the purpose of going to class lol
Heck yeah, thanks for watching!
15:08 She asked a good question 😂. This is an excellent video. ❤
I found the door mechanism insanely interesting as a small child. I would stare at it for the whole bus ride.
I moved back to the Boston area only a few years before the RTS’s were retired on the MBTA, but I still remember riding a few on the 77 in like 2015. I thought they were so cool at the time, and it felt very special the few times I rode them. I had no idea there is only one town left that regularly operates them, so hopefully they’ll stick around for as long as possible. However, they are not the most accessible bus though, so it’s bittersweet to see them go.
I loved that conversation you had with the A&M students after the game, they seemed so friendly and interested. Maybe you helped spark another person’s interest in transit!
Also the manta sponsorship was pure gold
Thank you! Agreed on accessibility, it's probably for the best they've mostly been retired in that sense...
The last place I expected to see Miles and Jackson would be at an SEC foobaw game! Plus you, evangelized transport to some Aggies students, as well! This was fun.
"Y'all been to Whataburger?" being one of the locals' first questions once they found out you were visitors from far away is just ridiculously on-brand for my state, haha.
He didn't say Waterbury?😀
Coming from New York City the RTS has been a part of my life since I was a little boy and to see how the RTS was once common and now has become a bit of a rare oddity is mind blowing to me and being a huge fan of the RTS since I was a toddler I have to say New York City feels so weird without them
You should visit the place with the best metro or mrt “Singapore”.The busses and trains are modern and they have screen doors.
I have to admit that even though I attended two Big Ten schools (Penn State and Purdue) I never once set foot in a football stadium during those 9 years. Miles in Transit has made it further than I ever have! I too would have avoided a social interaction to attempt to get food via tailgating.
LA resident and transit rider here. Let me know when you inevitably end up in LA to ride the Bowl Shuttle and see a show at the Hollywood Bowl (the latter being a quintessential LA experience).
From my childhood, I used to enjoy riding the RTSs
here in New York City, they were everywhere, and they are as iconic as the subway, New York Style Pizza, etc.
sad to see that they were retired 5 years ago from NYCT service
“Have you been to Whataburger?” As a Texan can confirm this is one of our common greetings lol
I heard waterbury instead of the burger joint
You guys should've asked for a garage tour! They have student drivers like numerous other college campuses, including UMass Amherst, which ALSO used to run RTS buses (UMass Transit/PVTA).
What did in much of the UMass fleet was road salt eating away at the undercarriages, plus the flooring, from people tracking sand/salt/water in on their shoes. Even with a great body shop, which UMass has, at some point it becomes cheaper to replace rather than keep fighting nature at increasing expenses.
I would suspect that's WHY Texas A&M has been able to keep theirs longer: far less salting and sanding every winter.
didnt expect to see MILES IN SPORTSBALL
Growing up In western Massachusetts PVTA late 80s through the entire 1990s, I spent my entire childhood riding rts buses. This video brought back great memories.
I rode PVTA too, I'm a native of SPringfield. I loved those buses!
I used to work as a server at Kyle Field while I was a student. They would tell all the cooks, cashiers, and servers as well as low mobility fans to park out at an admin building off campus and they had a special bus come pick us up and bring us to campus. A specific route designated only for game day support staff and people with mobility issues that dropped off right in front of the stadium. It was a cool experience.
Oh wow, that's cool!
NYC operated over 5,000 RTS buses in total, and had them in service for 38 years, from 1981 until 2019. These buses are an icon of NYC, and possibly one of the most iconic buses of all time (behind only the AEC Routemaster)
Kyle Field is nothing compared to the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang! After the 1988 Summer Olympics had been awarded to Seoul, the DPRK intensified its efforts to present itself as the legitimate Korean state. As part of these efforts, it successfully bid to organize the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang in 1989, with the centerpiece of the festival being the stadium. During the Cold War, the World Festival of Youth and Students was a festival held in mainly communist states, with sports and political discussions. The 1989 edition was the largest ever World Festival of Youth and Students as about 22,000 people from 177 countries took part in the eight-day festival, including 100 people from the US.
The stadium features a scalloped roof features 16 arches arranged in a ring, and resembles a magnolia blossom, as Siebold's magnolia is the national flower of the DPRK. The stadium was originally built with a capacity of 150,000, but most of the time has an official capacity of 114,000. The famous Collision in Korea wrestling event happened at the stadium in 1995, however it is also known for being the venue of the Arirang Mass Games, a patriotic artistic and gymnastics festival that is the world's largest gymnastics display. From 1989 to 2020, it was the world's largest stadium until Narendra Modi Stadium in India expanded to have a capacity of 132,000.
Nice humble brag there Respected Comrade.😉
Don’t you have some rockets to go shoot into the ocean little rocket man! 🤪
Thank you Supreme Leader, what a perfect stadium!
I would fly that far to ride cool buses too. Interesting how, well-made, durable and functional transport like that was discontinued and nothing really suitable took it's place. And they call it 'progress'. Gotta love the rear door action.
It's nice to see there are some RTS left operating. I'm more partial to the Flxible Metro, Neoplan, Orion Is and Vs, and Gillig Phantoms. My city had some RTS, that they purchased from an agency, who had gotten them from Fayetteville in North Carolina. Disney World's entire fleet until the early 2000s were all RTS, so I had many rides on them.
Impressive they still got them wlthough theyre only like 18-19 years old.
I knew them as "Jumbo Bus " 😂
We had (maybe still have?) RTS buses at UMass Amherst! They were only for field trip service tho, afaik. Never actually got to ride one. PVTA may have scrapped them a few years ago as I haven't seen them lately but you never know.
I drove those busses for a little bit while in college there. The 40ft Millenniums were the new busses when I was there with the more powerful Caterpillar engines. They also had 35Ft Nova's at the time that had Detroit engines. The 40Fters could get up to around 80 pax. They'll have a spot in my heart as they were the first commercial vehicle I drove before graduating from A&M and becoming a truck driver.
Seeing y'all experience Aggie football is fucking hilarious. Truly nothing else like college football in the south
When I was really little I used to love buses, especially school buses, and even more especially this type of bus. There was something about it that I really loved about the design
You guys rock. I rode so many of those in the ‘80s. Sounds like fun!
I'm just old enough that in my early childhood, these were still common enough in NYC that I rode them reasonably frequently. I remember them, although I think NYC buses had different engines that sounded different. Oh the nostalgia is real!
Miles and jackson met texan hospitality
As a fellow college band geek, halftime is the best!!
Glad you enjoyed the 12th Man experience! 👍
12th man. Lol. Horns up 🤘
Wait, the little SEPTA bus at [REDACTED] is one of the ones that you can push back and then it rolls?
Yes! I have the same one
Gig'Em! I used to take the 5 to West Campus every day for classes and had no clue the buses were so unique. We just started getting electric buses when I moved away. College Station isnt an urban utopia but the bus coverage and frequency isnt that bad. Buses used to come every 5-10 minutes by my apartment so it made it super easy and convenient to get to work.
I absolutely love these buses! Growing up in Europe I dreamed of visiting New York back when these were still in service there but my family was never able to afford big trips like that until after they were retired. If I had the money I'd do this trip as well LOL, hopefully they stay in service for a while longer 😅🤞
I remember hanging out in New York and riding those buses all the time. I also remember the RTS in Disney World. Would I fly all the way to Texas to still ride them? Probably not, but that is what Miles is for.
As someone that lived in NYC through the 90's I have to admit I'm fascinated at the idea of taking a vacation trip to ride these buses. I've literally riden them 1000''s of times just as a normal part of life when I lived there.
When I went there, inside these buses daily to get to campus or to get to HEB. Majority of the drivers are students and the school trains and helps get you your class B license as well.
The MBTA, from 1996-2000, was almost exclusively RTS. The RTS era ended with the delivery of the C40LF buses, and then the delivery of the NABI, Neoplans, and the New Flyers.
Some trivia...
- The 8000-8029 buses were the last 35' buses used by the MBTA.
- The 8900-8969 buses were the last to use suburban seating on the express bus routes.
- Of the 1994-1995 buses, the final RTS by TMC was 0138, and the first RTS bus was 0139.
- With the retirement of the Neoplan buses in 2021-2022, the MBTA's fleet is almost exclusively New Flyer.
Correction: Of the 1994-1995 buses, the final RTS by TMC was 0138, and the first RTS bus *by NovaBus* was 0139.
My city, where my transit agency (DDOT) had retired their remaining 2001 and 2002 NovaBus RTS-06 82VN models in June of 2015 and were replaced with the 2015 New Flyer Xcelsior XD40s, XDE40s, and XD60s.
It is funny how every bus in North America is the exact same now. Also, my university’s shuttles/brt (one of the routes definitely counts as BRT, counts more than the transit agency BRT) has doors similar to those back doors on some of their busses.
$20 bucks says next week's video is the Hollywood bowl shuttle RTS hunt
Okay, I don't work THAT quickly...
I didn't know the RTS was still around in the 2020s! TTC had around 50 of them from 1998 to 2015. I grew up with them as a kid.
There was a party bus company based out of nearby (by Texas standards) San Marcos, Texas that used former RTS buses for charter. Sadly, a few months ago the lot and old warehouse they used as their garage were sold and the fleet were forced to move. I don't know if they're still in business or if those buses were just sent for scrap.
I actually find this kinda fun, I’ve seen these at Disney World in Florida! ❤
This was such a wonderful video. I enjoyed hearing you to reminisce about these buses and what they meant to you. So awesome that the students drive and maintain them. I hope that you and Jackson will do many more trips like this. In the future. It was a joy to watch!!!
Thank you!
Probably the first transit enthusiast in history to go to College Station for their transit. Truly a momentous occasion.
A bit closer to me York Region is the last place that Van Hool transit buses operate in Canada! They surprisingly just refurbished some of them at 18 years old, because they're short on funding for new buses, even though their drivers and mechanics don't like them.
Hey, don't forget Quebec City which has 64 30 ft Van Hool from 2019. Van Hool is still alive in Canada!
@@jeanjolet9292 Lol, whoops!! I always forget about them, and it feels like many Canadian transit enthusiasts do to anywhere east of Montreal. YRT does have last A330s in North America, I think.
Those Van Hools were the coolest thing when they entered service in 2005. At the time, next stop displays, low floors, kneeling, wifi, information screens and such were new features, and the buses rode more smoothly than the other YRT buses of the time
@@OntarioTrafficMan Charging ports! That's new, I still haven't noticed them there. They still ride very smoothly and feel bright today.
@@davidcho1579Didn't they have some outlets? Maybe I'm misremembering. Yeah looking it up it appears they didn't have outlets.
By far one of my favorite videos of yours! I hope the strangers see this video 😅
Thanks so much! I hope so as well, that would be awesome.
Man, from Europe the US seem like a strange place, familiar but strange anyway. And thanks to you, besides buses and trains I have the opportunity to see much more things I would have never considered, like American football, marching bands, questionable pizzas, so thank you so much!
I have a question: is there a historic or cultural reason why I'm always seeing cords or stripes used on buses to request a stop, and not the buttons I've seen everywhere else?
cords and pull strings came first, so pretty much any bus built before the 2010s was made with em and probably still has em
I do generally prefer buttons, but I didn't know there was historical reason for it!
@@sgt.eclairI see, but even Italian buses from the Eighties that used to be around when I was a child still had buttons. I remember that when requesting a stop a bell would ring, probably a real one hidden somewhere in the bus. Newer models just have a recorded sound.
That’s definitely an EX-NJT Bus… either canceled order or retired & sold to Texas
2:55: Those are standee straps; these things used to be VERY common on busses and streetcars.
Standee straps are still used on plenty of buses today! I was referring to the stop request strip that runs along the ceiling.
wow nostaliga can take us so far, even buses. the memories people have with these, the days going to school, work, or a day out, crazy to think about. another great showcase!
If you can fly to College Station to ride an RTS, why not fly out to Breckenridge, CO to take what is likely the only transit line that crosses the continental divide. 🙂
Thank you!
oh no, not the Midnight Yell
not sure anybody outside of A&M is prepared for the cult of the Aggie
this video made me really miss CFB season, not gonna lie
The college football was wild. In my (Canadian) university they couldn't even get people to show up to watch the American Football games for free, let alone go the night before and pay for tickets.
@@OntarioTrafficMan based on game day traffic, I would say for the NFL, the Buffalo Bills are Canada's football team. My Queen city is very neighborly.
This video unlocked so many memories of taking these buses back from school in NYC, it was a sad day when the MTA finally retired the last one. I’m glad you were able to go back for one last hurrah!
It's really cool that you got to experience these one last time - Over here in the UK, We have a lot of really old gems, often hiding in plain sight with tiny bus conpanies. Ive tracked down many of them all across the country myself!
The thing I miss about these buses is not having to maneuver around the guy just standing by the back door even though there’s plenty of seats.
Aggie culture is something else! For anyone who is thinking of trying to ride these RTS buses, do it soon because they are slated to be replaced sometime within the next 2 years.
Those buses last a long time. Strong engines and transmissions
My first time really using public transit was the DC metro in 2023, but I have plenty of memories of that bus at Disney World.
it reminded me of when my parents took me and my sister to disney world in 1995
NJ Transit didn't get many RTS's until near the end of the RTS era, so when I would see the MTA ones in New York I thought they looked so futuristic compared to the Flxible Metro variants we mostly had on the NJ side. I was so surprised when I eventually figured out they were basically contemporaries.
i recall them being down here in south jersey but i was a teen in the 90s and didnt ride them barely ever
I had no idea they were contemporaries until doing the research for this video! They feel like a totally different era to me.
@MilesinTransit I can't completely confirm or deny but I swear there was still one in service on a nj transit route maybe going to paulsboro or Pennsville that was still one of these bus types from the video in the early 2000s
Yeah, that would make sense! I'm pretty sure NJT had a ton of these.
As someone who went to a&m and moved to Boston after graduation 2 years ago and starting binging your videos after riding the T, this video definitely was a small world moment. Also you can also ride off campuses buses without a&m id, you just need to board from anywhere on campus, and if you get off, off campus you can't get back on :D.
Ohhhh, that's good to know! We actually did take an off-campus bus at one point to get back to our hotel and no one checked - we really thought we were pulling a fast one by "sneaking on" but it sounds like we weren't!
@@MilesinTransit yeah, they only check if you board outside campus and honestly if you just look young, the drivers won't care
I ride the 34 every day and they don't check ID at all, no matter which stop
@@billert i have had it checked during the nights, I think during rush hour no one cares in general
also it amazed me how much public transit Boston had in comparison to College station :D, I'm sure you found our public transit makes boston look like europe
I used to call them "moon buses", they looked like they belonged to Space: 1999, or alternatively, Imperial Stormtrooper plastic aesthetic.
I think some places called it the tmc. I know Chicago had from the early nineties till about 2002 or 2003 they had the tmc. Probably every small town transit system in America had those RTS buses. When I was a teenager that's what I wrote on a lot.
I have seen comments from The British Isles, so I will add some from Norway. I have certainly seen them RTS-buses first-hand in NYC and Disney World. It is a while ago, so I can not say for certain that I have ridden in one or more of them.
RTSseses formed the entirety of Disney World's fleet when I was last there back in the 20th century
Cant believe RTS buses still run in College Station! I remember riding these on Chicago Transit Authority(CTA) service many years ago, and i miss these buses. Many of CTA's former RTS buses were assigned to North Park Garage CTA bus routes, so I remember these buses well. I am VERY amazed College Station still runs buses like this. Like others, I worry they may not run for much longer.
Also i liked how you got into A&M related college things, and explored this local area and Bryan. I'm kinda surpised College Station pedestrianized 1 block of a local street(per google street view) in the early 2010s. Not a town I would've expected to have one implemented, but good they did so.
College Station is fun. There's a chili festival down there that's a rip-roaring good time.
This is what I am going through riding the Orion V before the beeline is officially retiring them.
This is the nerdiest thing I've ever watched and I loved everything about it! You guys are funny, and I'm glad to learn other people have a weird thing about busses like me.
Thanks so much!
I would assume a bus in Texas has longer life than in North East of Canada due to lack of sow/salt/sand on roads.
Had to look up the RTS on Wikipedia and it has a different path after GMC yet still ended up at Novabus for a while.
Here in Quévec, Novabus was created to "rescue" the plant that GMC had sold to Dial Corp (which also onwed Greyhound at the time as well as MCI) and which Dial wanted to close. They got the rights to the Classic bus and eventually developped their own low floor which is still in production today (it was inspired from a dutch design which is pretty much ubiquitous today)
So it was interesting to read that the RTS too a different path after GMC, but still ended up with Novabus for short stint and then different path again. It was never built in Canada.
Haha I rode these all the time in college a few years ago, never knew they were so rare. Thank yall for taking the trip to College Station and getting the A&M experience!
Thanks for watching!!
As a driver, I can say that the Mills have always been my favorite to drive. They do their best to keep them running, but given the buses and most of their components are no longer in production, it’s become harder to keep them going.
When the RTS Buses first came to Baltimore their A/C units had to be retrofitted because the original A/C would not keep the interiors cool enough.I rode probably 100 different RTS Buses at Disney World.They used shorties in the Campground
Never knew College Station had such interesting buses!!! 😂
I remember when these things first came out in the 1970's; the doors were much better than the doors on the old Flxibles, and the hard molded seats were better than the hard seats on other city busses of the time But those things rattled like a coffee can full of marbles right from day1! Add to that the screaming Detroit Diesel's roots blower shrieking at high decibels made for a rather poor experience. Many people stopped taking the bus locally because they couldn't stand riding these things.
FWIW, these busses were originally built at the GM Ste. Therese assembly plant in Bois Briand, Quebec, north of Montreal, just south of Mirabel. In the early 90's, this factory was repurposed to build the Camaro/Firebird models, which I used to carry truckloads of Cooling assemblies and windshield wiper assemblies.
This gives me so much joy.
That's wild. I'm 43, and I remember when these were basically new to NYC around 1985. Before that they had very rundown fishbowls that didn't even have A/C. These things looked like they were out of the future back then, even the sound of the engines had an "new" sounding aesthetic. I was with Miles years later when they were ubiquitous by the time the late 90s early 2000s... Then the low floors showed up and man, the they suck by comparison. The RTS is much more comfortable bus.
One funny thing is back when these were introduced, those stop tapes seemed more advanced than a pull string which was common on the older buses. It was surprising when they made a comeback in the 90s and 00s.
Great video as always guys.
Thanks so much!
I wish they kept the tape. The stupid string is in my way when I lean on the glass on the high part of bus.
Foxwoods gave up its integral role in transit history, such a CT move
I remember in 1994 my class went to Disney World for our senior trip. They had these busses there as shuttles and the drivers all seamed to be former race car drivers. I learned that these buses could be fast and hold a corner better than you would expect. Every time we had to use them it was one of the most fun rides on the trip.
Drove them for my local transit company until they were retired. Loved those clamshell doors, they closed with a satisfying thunk. You had to limber to get in and out of the driver's seat, sat up high and felt a little protected from the passengers.
With the coach variant of the RTS, Greater Cleveland RTA had a few laid out for express operations IIRC.
These busses are so cool!
Great video.
I remember riding this style of bus. I kind of liked the other style better. the more squared off looking ones where the one front windshield is sort of tilted back