NovaBus RTS T80 206 0309

Location: Massachusetts Avenue at Brattle Street, Boston, MA
Operator of Vehicle: Massachusetts Bay Area Transit Authority (MBTA)
Date of Photo: May 2, 2011

Since 1977, the “RTS” has been plying the streets for transit agencies across the United States.  Perhaps, these buses are associated most with New York City, where they made up much of the bus fleet in the 1990s.  However, they had a presence in lots of other cities, too, such as Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston.  It is in the last of these cities that I took this photo back in 2011.  Even five years ago, the RTS’s dominance in the Boston bus fleet was already considered to be a time that had passed.  However, the RTS is not completely gone from the streets of Boston.  Although the RTSs are being retired gradually, the last ones are expected to remain in service until sometime in 2018.

For more photos of MBTA’s RTS buses, please click here.