On May 6, 2019, NYCT's RTS bus took a final trip on the M55 route in Midtown and Lower Manhattan. Marc A. Hermann/MTA NYCT
NYC Transit’s fleet of nearly 4,900 RTS buses were built by GMC Truck and Coach Division, TMC and Nova Bus, and were ordered between 1981 and 1999. The first RTS bus was put into service in 1979 as a demo, and eventually the RTS buses served routes in every borough and operated out of nearly every NYC Transit and MTA Bus Company depot across the city.
As recently as this year, RTS buses were serving a wide variety of neighborhoods across the boroughs. Several were sent to Atlanta for use during the Summer Olympics in 1996. NYC Transit became the first major public transit agency to have a 100 percent accessible bus fleet through its use of the RTS vehicles, all of which have wheelchair lifts.
“Both my father and I drove the ‘Big Blues & Whites’ during our careers at New York City Transit, so the retirement of the RTS fleet is a nostalgic moment for my family,” said Darryl C. Irick (shown), MTA Bus Co. president/NYC Transit sr. VP of Buses. Marc A. Hermann/MTA NYCT
The RTS buses have been replaced by a modern, low-emissions fleet that includes new state-of-the-art hybrid and zero-emissions vehicles (shown on right). Marc A. Hermann/MTA NYCT
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