The Transbus program had five major goals; • Increase bus ridership • Improve safety • Improve environmental adaptability • Improve maintenance and service • Reduce barriers to the elderly, handicapped, and young • Improve aesthetics (exterior & interior) • Improve performance
Early development The interest in newer transit buses was sparked in part by laws passed in the late 1960s and early 1970s granting federal subsidies for public transportation equipment, including buses. That same year, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) published a report providing recommendations for buses that would reduce costs and improve ridership. Although RTX would have met many of the objectives from the 1968 NAS report, testing and evaluation showed several issues: the lowered floor of the RTX, at , meant novel chassis, suspension, and brake components were needed, adding to the complexity, weight, and cost of the RTX design. but no one was injured; at the time, it was carrying two technicians, instruments, and sandbags to simulate a full passenger load.
Shifting requirements In January 1975, UMTA Administrator
Frank C. Herringer announced the prototypes would be used to create a composite performance specification for Transbus the lawsuit effectively halted all transit bus procurement nationwide. AM General lost their suit in April 1977.
Bid failure The Transbus specification requirement led three transit agencies to request bids for a joint procurement of 530 buses in January 1979. By March 1979,
Grumman Flxible announced it did not intend to bid on the new contract, and GM stated it was unlikely to bid. The president of Grumman Flxible, Thomas J. Bernard, said that internal estimates put the bid price at per bus, nearly double the cost per conventional New Look bus, and added the Department of Transportation "has been seeking a more productive bus. We believe that a bus that weighs more, gets fewer miles per gallon, has fewer seats and less standing room is not a more productive bus." Flxible also stated that component suppliers (such as
Rockwell International, who built transit bus axles) would need federal support to develop the new technologies needed for Transbus, as the limited transit bus market meant most component suppliers were unwilling to develop them. A Congressional hearing was held later in May regarding the failure of the procurement. With the failure of the 1979 procurement, the requirement to procure new, federally subsidized buses to the Transbus specification was suspended in August. ==Legacy==