The Rapid Transit Series, known everywhere as the RTS, is a high-floor city bus launched by GMC in 1977 with curved body and window panels in the manner of a car. Nova Bus took the design over in 1994 and built it in Quebec and New Mexico until 2002, when the company turned to its own low-floor LFS.
Nova Bus RTS at a glance
| Maker | GMC Truck and Coach (1977–1987), Transportation Manufacturing Corporation (1987–1994), Nova Bus (1994–2002), Millennium Transit Services (2003–2009) |
|---|---|
| Production | 1977–2009 |
| Class | high-floor Advanced Design transit bus |
| Lengths | 30 ft (9.14 m), 35 ft (10.67 m) and 40 ft (12.19 m) |
| Seating | up to 47 passengers in the 40-foot version |
| Construction | modular design, the same parts used for all three lengths |
| Engines | Detroit Diesel Series 71 with six or eight cylinders; later Series 92 and Series 50 |
| Transmission | Allison V730 or ZF 5HP-500 |
| Styling | curved side panels and window glass, automobile-like |
| Generations | six production generations plus two experimental prototypes |
The RTS was designed by GMC and passed through four manufacturers; this page covers the whole series, including the years when Nova Bus built it.
History of the Nova Bus RTS
Before production
The RTS grew out of GMC’s work for the American Transbus project. Its direct ancestor was the RTS-3T prototype, which in turn followed the RTX (Rapid Transit Experimental) of 1968, a turbine-powered bus under development since 1964. The RTX used the GT-309 gas turbine already tried in the Turbo Titan III and Turbo-Cruiser concept vehicles, with a toric continuously variable transmission, smaller wheels and a kneeling suspension that cut the first step by 4½ in (110 mm). Its floor stood 21 in (530 mm) above the road, 7 in lower than a New Look bus, but a 40-foot RTX carried only 29 seated passengers instead of 50. Wanting a fallback in case Transbus failed, GMC began the RTS-II project in 1970; the first prototype was assembled in 1973, the project paused, and work resumed in 1974 after GMC withdrew from Transbus. GMC announced it was ready to take orders in October 1975.
GMC and TMC
Production began in 1977 at GMC Truck and Coach in Pontiac, Michigan. The RTS was an Advanced Design Bus, a transitional type between the high-floor buses of the 1950s and 1960s, such as the GMC New Look, and the low-floor buses that came later: it kept a high floor but wrapped it in curved panels. Poor sales led GMC to announce in September 1985 that it was trying to sell or close its transit bus business, and in May 1987 the design, patents, tooling and production line went to Transportation Manufacturing Corporation in Roswell, New Mexico, a Motor Coach Industries subsidiary. The two companies completed a joint order for the New York City Transit Authority to prepare TMC for production.
Nova Bus and the end
TMC sold the design and patents to Nova Bus in September 1994, in the middle of an order for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority; the first Nova Bus RTS buses were delivered in February 1995. Nova Bus kept building the bus until 2002, when it left the United States market to concentrate on the LFS, its own low-floor design. Millennium Transit Services revived production at the former TMC plant in Roswell from 2003, showed a new RTS at the APTA Expo in New Orleans in 2011 and planned a 42.5-foot version, but won no substantial orders; the market for high-floor buses with rear-door wheelchair lifts had disappeared as transit agencies moved to low-floor buses with front-door ramps. MTS closed in 2009 and disappeared after 2012.
Design and features
- Advanced Design body: curved side panels and window glass gave the RTS a car-like shape unlike the flat-sided buses around it.
- Modular lengths: 30, 35 and 40-foot versions shared the same parts, and the longest seated up to 47.
- Two-stroke diesels: Detroit Diesel Series 71 and later Series 92 engines, with Allison or ZF transmissions.
- Long production life: the same basic design was built by four different manufacturers over 32 years.
Nova Bus RTS versions
- RTS-01 (1977–78): first production version, for a consortium of agencies in California, Massachusetts and Texas led by Houston, with a different bumper.
- RTS-03 (1978–80): the first mass-produced version, which made the bus popular with transit authorities.
- RTS-04 (1981–86): the version of the early 1980s.
- RTS-06 and later: further numbered generations of the same design followed into the 1990s and 2000s.
The RTS was replaced in Nova Bus production by the low-floor LFS, which the company designed itself, while the older Classic was still being built at the same Quebec plant. More buses are in the Nova Bus collection.
Sources
- Rapid Transit Series, English Wikipedia: history, prototypes, models, engines
- Nova Bus, French Wikipedia: Nova Bus takeover and first deliveries
