The Last Months of the RTS Buses: Why they Retired NYC?
The Rapid Transit Series Bus [RTS] was an iconic New York City Transit bus. The design originally made by General Motors for New York City was produced for New York City MTA from the late 1970’s all the late 1990’s. The Design started off in the General Motors Company [GMC] (1977–1987), then the Transportation Manufacturing Corporation [TMC] (1987–1994) and finally as the Nova Bus (1994–1999) in New York City. Powerd by a Series 50 Detroit Diesel engine, these busses were loud and cool sounding!
For the sake of this article we will be narrowing this down to the RTS-06 Nova Bus division. Since that was the latest version of Rapid Transit Series in New York City. They retired on April 30, 2019.
The RTS-06 Nova Buses were the oldest MTA buses in the 21st Century. They lasted 21 years until they retired on April 30, 2019. This was the version of the Rapid Transit Series bus I remember growing up with. Their distinctive sinuous design and loud engine is what made me notice and like them the best out of the whole MTA fleet.
They were the last of the high floor (local) city buses to operate in New York City. Which was one of the main reasons why I had liked these buses. They had a very sinuous design and loud Detroit Diesel Engines! To me real buses are high floor, loud and comfortable. The RTS bus had all three of these attributes!
The picture above was taken on April 4, 2017. Nearly two years before retirement. In that picture, that was right before I started to notice many of New York’s Rapid Transit Series buses (Speaking of the 4000’s and 5000’s fleets) chipping away paint and forming rust stains. As you can see, the Bumper looks really clean in the picture above.
But Unfortunately, Like Everything they Age
Just look at the mismatched doors, the rust stains on the sides and bumper, plus the paint chips. You will see in these pictures that these bused had aged. Below I will share a personal experience with one broken down RTS’s from it’s aging fleet (4000’s-5000’s fleet).
On March 11, 2019 on my usual routine home, I saw RTS 4996 parked out on the B3 stop. I was curious as of what had happened to the bus meanwhile waiting for another bus to come.
Speaking to a bus Dispatcher at this bus stop on the corner of Ocean Avenue and Avenue U. He was wearing a reflective coat and was standing on the bottom right of the picture. Adjacent to the door of broken down 4996 RTS bus and I asked him,
“How much longer do these buses have?”
He responded in a ponderous and slight mournful tone with his tablet on his left hand,
“Not much longer — we have them now because of need…”
That made me realize the MTA wanted to replace them but couldn’t at the time and still need to use them because of their bus shortages.
Inside the bus I saw there were two more people. One person on the middle step of the bus (Assumed it was the Bus driver). The other one in the driver seat (assumed he was the mechanic). I heard the mechanic who was in the driver seat say to the bus driver on the steps and bus dispatcher by the door,
“The engine has no fuel pressure”
Based on everything I had heard, it seemed as if the bus had a broken fuel pump. Which needed to be replaced in order to pump fuel into the engine. Since there was no fuel pressure according to the mechanic inside the bus.
It sounded like it should have been a simple fix and yes, the bus had to be towed. It seemed all they had to do was replace the fuel pump (assuming access to it was easy) to get it running back in service.
Surprisingly enough as I had expected, I saw it back in service.
I don’t know when It was put back in service, but 14 days from the last time I saw it broken down (As seen in the picture above). There it was, across the street of Avenue U on March 25, 2019 at 2:09 PM again! Sounded deep and strong too! (The picture is below).
Why Get Rid of the RTS’s if they Ran Strong and Broke Down Only a Few Times?
Based on my observations on the whole story of RTS-06 Nova Bus 4996. It seemed these buses were easy to repair. However they would break down. Think about it, they were 21–20 years old!
They were once brand new beauties in the late 90’s but now they are 20 year old hoopties. The MTA couldn’t keep these much longer technically speaking.
The Rapid Transit Series buses itself although being a great design to begin with, began to been seen as an embarrassment to the MTA.
Just like my father. He had a early first generation Ford Escape. I loved that car, it was spacious, a compact SUV, had a column sifter, and ran great! I even got to drive it a few times. But the thing was a hooptie and would sometimes break down.
The clear-coat was chipped off in the front of the hood and it was a rust-bucket!
My mother forced him to get rid of the thing since it was “embarrassing”.
Just like the Rapid Transit Series buses in the MTA. They had to go since they were old and made the MTA look like they were cheap.
The RTS’s could have lasted possibly 5–10 years longer. Like Toronto did with their 30 year old GM New Look Fishbowl buses in 2007. But New York City needed to replace the RTS buses since they were just too old.
Other Drawbacks: What made them Obsolete?
The main drawback of the Rapid Transit Series buses in the 21st century was the fact that they were high floored buses.
Although they were accessible and equipped with handicap lifts it wasn’t the most efficient. When there was a passenger who had a wheelchair. The driver would of had to stop the bus, get out of his seat, walk to the rear of the bus. Then open the handicap control box (As seen above) and open the lift to bring the passenger into the bus. It would take around 5 minutes on average. Plus an obnoxious alarm would go off the entire time the bus driver moved the handicap lift. On some RTS buses that was alarm disabled, but on others it was not and when it wasn’t — it was iterating!
Sometimes these lifts were broken as well. An experience I had with a broken handicap lift was once on the B3 to Bergen Beach. An accessible passenger was waiting at the bus stop on Ocean Parkway and Avenue U.
The bus driver pulled to the stop swung the front doors of the RTS bus open and said to the old man with a cane,
“ — The lift is broken, there is another bus right behind us”
The driver was referring to a low floor New Flyer Xcelsior XD40 bus that was minutes behind us. The elderly man said in return
“But I have been waiting — 15 minutes”
The driver apologized, swung the doors of the RTS bus closed and drove off to pass the long light on the intersection of Ocean Parkway — pressured make his route on time.
Theory on the Future of High Floor City Buses?
Unfortunately because of scenarios just like the one described above. Buses aren’t made high floored for the most part anymore. As of May 2019, the only transit system I can think of that is a hundred percent high floored is — New Jersey Transit with their high floor NABI buses.
Transit systems have found high floor buses to be inefficient compared to low floor buses. The Rapid Transit Series buses quoted on the front steps,
“Watch Your Step Kneeling Bus”
The Rapid Transit Series buses were the first type of accessible buses that were made for mass transit systems. Which were equipped with handicap lifts and kneeled for passengers.
In the past buses before RTS, such as — GM The New Look Bus (Often called, “GM Fishbowl” as a nickname) — as seen in the left picture, never kneeled or were equipped with handicap lifts. The RTS bus design took over the New Look buses in mass transit systems due to it’s vast accessible features it offered.
Just how the Rapid Transit Series buses had taken over the GM New Look buses for it’s accessible features. The low floor New Flyer Xcelsior have just taken over the Rapid Transit Series buses since they are more accessible than the RTS’s were. Since it eliminated the need for accessible people to have to struggle climbing two steps.
In my honest opinion with all the respect to the accessible passengers, I do not like low floor buses. They are not high up in the air like any normal bus, you don’t feel as comfortable on the low floor section of the bus.
Plus the low floor buses seat underneath the windshield of the bus. This makes riding a bus feel like sitting in a moving bathtub. Two more steps anyone can handle, in my opinion. If I were elderly I would rather climb two more steps for a better quality ride.
But transit systems I find are not made for comfort and quality rides. They are made for efficient, expedient and short term riding. That’s why city buses are now made to be low floored and no longer offered in high floored variants for the most part.
Express buses are high floor since they go on longer routes. People expect a more comfortable ride than a local city bus. Therefore a comfortable seating position is desired higher up when on a bus.
We will dearly miss the Rapid Transit Series buses in New York City. They were comfortable, sharp looking, cool sounding, high floored, and were unlike any other city bus.
I doubt transit systems such as NYC MTA will ever bring back high floor buses. But our memories of the Rapid Transit Series buses will always remain. The Rapid Transit Series buses have served New York City well and will never be forgotten!
