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Q65A

MCI decided to exit the transit bus business in early 1993, and sold the designs for the RTS and The Classic to Quebec-based Nova Bus Corp.
The Roswell (NM) plant continued to build the RTS while the Ste. Eustache (PQ) plant produced The Classic from 1993 to 1997.
Nova made only minor changes to The Classic during a 4-year production run. ONly 40-foot long, 102" wide CLassics were produced by Nova; no artics were built. The low-floor Nova LFS was introduced in 1995, and it became increasingly popular, prompting Nova to terminate manufacture of the high-floor Classic early in 1997. Nova Bus Classics were not purchased by NYC transit agencies; the geographically closest property that operated Nova Classics was CT Transit.
A total of 4,744 Classics were produced by 3 builders over a 14-year period, as detailed below:
GMD built 1,111 units from 1983-1987
MCI built 2,431 units from 1987-1993
Nova Bus built 1,202 units from 1993-1997
Nova Bus continues to build the LFS in transit and suburban configurations, both in conventional diesel-hydraulic and hybrid (diesel-electric) powertrain configurations. Nova also offers an articulated version of the LFS. Although NYCT was a very good customer for the Nova RTS (a bus which is still very much in service at NYCT) the agency has not purchased an LFS. NYCT evaluated 3 diesel-hydraulic LFS demonstrators at various times (NYCT 995 in 1998; TBTA 956-957 in 2001) plus an LFS artic in 2006, without registering a sale.

ripta42 · Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 11:15 am Post subject:

And no Classic postscript would be complete without mention of the DuponTrolley Cartier, a completely remanufactured Classic built by Dupont Industries of Quebec. Dupont purchased 25(?) Queens Surface Classics for remanufacture in to Cartiers; some of these are running today in Canada.

Mr. Linsky · Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 2:40 pm Post subject:

And what postscript would be complete without a few good pictures being that each is worth about a thousand words?

Wouldn't it have been terrific if they could have gotten all the Classics and rebuilt them?

What a bus!

Photos courtesy of Busfan Place.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

ripta42 · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:30 pm Post subject:

Those are older refurbs by Dupont; here's the Cartier:

Mr. Linsky · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:08 pm Post subject:

Michael,

From what I can make out from the size of the picture, it appears as though they're playing around with the front end and it's beginning to look a little like a NABI 45C!

There's and old Jewish expression which loosley translated to English means 'if it ain't broken, don't fix it!'.

Why would anyone want to do anything to change the 'classic' front end of the 'Classic'?

Beats me!

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

The Don of All Buses · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:04 pm Post subject:

you should see what i did to an MCI Classic paper bus! I changed the sront and rear ends and rebadged it as a CTBI Dominicana. The front and rear ends don't look at all like the Cartier.

shortlineMCI · Age: 54 Joined: 07 May 2007 Posts: 241

I'm still sick! OH THE PAIN!!!!