These Buses Used to Be Everywhere...We Flew 1500 Miles to the Last Place They Run 

I love how cool and supportive the strangers at 14:44 were even though they deff thought you were crazy hahaha

It's incredible, surreal, and (near-painfully) nostalgic to watch the buses that I drove as a college student - and still love to this day - featured so thoughtfully. Thank you @MilesinTransit and @jacksonbetz for helping to document and share a part of the unique, RTS-filled story of the Aggie Spirit!

Wanna visit a college town with weird busses? Come to Davis, CA where they run double deckers (enviro500s) in regular service. (They also have some routemasters for special occasions). Plus they're also called the aggies.

15:08 She asked a good question 😂. This is an excellent video. ❤

“Have you been to Whataburger?” As a Texan can confirm this is one of our common greetings lol

Aleena's "✨ P O O R B I D ✨" was priceless! The Altoona bus blew up....probably because it saw an Altoona-style pizza and couldn't take it anymore 💀. I know you said NJ Transit cancelled the order and that's how they ended up in Texas, but I still find it wild to see a bus with NJ Transit seats in Texas of all places, let alone an active RTS bus! That SEPTA toy bus in the intro really took me back to my childhood of getting a toy vehicle (usually a taxi or pull-back bus) whenever I stopped at CVS! Yup, I definitely love these RTS buses, they have their charm with their signature front look, the plastic Stop Requested indicator, and those backdoors! I also have a WDW version of the RTS that I got as a 3-pack with diecast DCL and Magical Express buses back in 2011 (WDW since changed the diecast version of the bus so that it looked like a Gillig Low Floor). They were a signature part of Disney Transport! Kyle Field is quite impressive! It's called Kyle Field because of Edwin Jackson Kyle who was an 1899 graduate of Texas A&M and professor of horticulture. In 1904, he wanted to develop an athletic field but Texas A&M was unwilling to provide funds, so he said "Fine, I'll do it myself", fenced off a section of campus that had been assigned to him for agricultural use, and built wooden bleachers that could sit 500 people. In 1927, the school finally chose to build a concrete stadium. It had a capacity of over 32,000 people at the time, but as time went on, the capacity kept growing, and now it's able to have a capacity of over 100,000 people! It had a record attendance of 110,633 during an Ole Miss game in 2014. Though not the largest in the US thanks to Michigan Stadium!

Didn't have Miles and Jackson attending an Aggies game on my 2024 bingo but here we are! I don't blame you for geeking out for the band, as the formations that these college marching bands do during these games are incredible! I also don't blame you for leaving the game early, since leaving early not only gave you enough time to climb down all those crazy stairs, but also leaving games early is something I always do because I just don't like dealing with crowds when leaving a venue! The farm road thing is known as farm-to-market roads, roads established for farmers and ranchers to transport products to market towns or distribution centers! The first farm-to-market road in Texas was completed in January 1937 In 1860, the Houston and Texas Central Railway began building through the region. A decade later, the site was chosen as the location for the proposed Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. In 1876 when the US celebrated its centennial, the school opened as Texas's first public higher education institution! As it grew, so did the transit options, and in 1900, the International & Great Northern was extended to College Station. In the 1910s, an electric interurban was built between it and Bryan nearby, which was replaced by buses in the 1920s. In 1924, the New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railway (a Gulf Coast Lines subsidiary) bought the I&GN. In 1963, the school was renamed to Texas A&M, and in 1965, the Missouri Pacific Railroad (which all the GCL subsidiaries merged into in 1956) abandoned the line.

"👹PWLEHHH" - Miles 2024. "Y'all been to Whataburger?" being the immediate question from them when they found out you're visitors is so on-brand for Texas! Shame the real diner part of the diner was closed! Whataburger was founded in 1950 by Harmon Dobson and Paul Burton. Dobson's goal was to "make a better burger that took two hands to hold and tasted so good that when you took a bite you would say 'What a burger!'", thus the name! They opened their first location in August of that year in Corpus Christi across from Del Mar College. Inspired by his love for flying, Dobson designed the first orange and white striped A-frame store in Odessa, Texas in 1961 which became the chain's signature look! In 1967, they commissioned its iconic flying W logo. That same year, Harmon passed at age 53 due to an airplane crash, but the Dobson family remained the owners of the chain until 2019!

I like how Jackson says bluntly about leaving the football game early to go look at buses. 20 years ago when I was in high school I was kinda like you guys, nerding out with trains and buses.

Hey Miles did you figure out what we’re gonna bring to Gabriele’s party on Saturday

My years in Boston the T had just become an all-RTS fleet. I rode those all over the place. There’s a Tik Tok creator who drove those buses as a student at Texas A&M and as a recent graduate her and her boyfriend or husband are buying recently retired RTS’s and converting them to shuttle/party/charter buses around town.

As a fellow northeasterner who went to college in the south it was hilarious seeing you guys try to navigate SEC football culture 😂. Its really overwhelming the first time!

LA resident and transit rider here. Let me know when you inevitably end up in LA to ride the Bowl Shuttle and see a show at the Hollywood Bowl (the latter being a quintessential LA experience).

Watching a couple of transit nerds get initiated into college football culture was fun!

The last place I expected to see Miles and Jackson would be at an SEC foobaw game! Plus you, evangelized transport to some Aggies students, as well! This was fun.

This is the nerdiest thing I've ever watched and I loved everything about it! You guys are funny, and I'm glad to learn other people have a weird thing about busses like me.

I moved back to the Boston area only a few years before the RTS’s were retired on the MBTA, but I still remember riding a few on the 77 in like 2015. I thought they were so cool at the time, and it felt very special the few times I rode them. I had no idea there is only one town left that regularly operates them, so hopefully they’ll stick around for as long as possible. However, they are not the most accessible bus though, so it’s bittersweet to see them go. I loved that conversation you had with the A&M students after the game, they seemed so friendly and interested. Maybe you helped spark another person’s interest in transit! Also the manta sponsorship was pure gold

“The men you shot, the men you shot Now you’re looking at the men you shot”

We had (maybe still have?) RTS buses at UMass Amherst! They were only for field trip service tho, afaik. Never actually got to ride one. PVTA may have scrapped them a few years ago as I haven't seen them lately but you never know.

I have to admit that even though I attended two Big Ten schools (Penn State and Purdue) I never once set foot in a football stadium during those 9 years. Miles in Transit has made it further than I ever have! I too would have avoided a social interaction to attempt to get food via tailgating.

Jackson trying to understand tailgating 😂😂

From my childhood, I used to enjoy riding the RTSs here in New York City, they were everywhere, and they are as iconic as the subway, New York Style Pizza, etc. sad to see that they were retired 5 years ago from NYCT service

Coming from New York City the RTS has been a part of my life since I was a little boy and to see how the RTS was once common and now has become a bit of a rare oddity is mind blowing to me and being a huge fan of the RTS since I was a toddler I have to say New York City feels so weird without them

You should visit the place with the best metro or mrt “Singapore”.The busses and trains are modern and they have screen doors.

It's nice to see there are some RTS left operating. I'm more partial to the Flxible Metro, Neoplan, Orion Is and Vs, and Gillig Phantoms. My city had some RTS, that they purchased from an agency, who had gotten them from Fayetteville in North Carolina. Disney World's entire fleet until the early 2000s were all RTS, so I had many rides on them.

You guys rock. I rode so many of those in the ‘80s. Sounds like fun!

Current Aggie student here. I never realized those RTS busses I see everyday were among of the last. Now I wanna try to ride on those not for the purpose of going to class lol

By far one of my favorite videos of yours! I hope the strangers see this video 😅

"Y'all been to Whataburger?" being one of the locals' first questions once they found out you were visitors from far away is just ridiculously on-brand for my state, haha.

Growing up In western Massachusetts PVTA late 80s through the entire 1990s, I spent my entire childhood riding rts buses. This video brought back great memories.

I drove those busses for a little bit while in college there. The 40ft Millenniums were the new busses when I was there with the more powerful Caterpillar engines. They also had 35Ft Nova's at the time that had Detroit engines. The 40Fters could get up to around 80 pax. They'll have a spot in my heart as they were the first commercial vehicle I drove before graduating from A&M and becoming a truck driver.

Wow, y'all are TRULY committed to transit geekery

I used to work as a server at Kyle Field while I was a student. They would tell all the cooks, cashiers, and servers as well as low mobility fans to park out at an admin building off campus and they had a special bus come pick us up and bring us to campus. A specific route designated only for game day support staff and people with mobility issues that dropped off right in front of the stadium. It was a cool experience.

I would fly that far to ride cool buses too. Interesting how, well-made, durable and functional transport like that was discontinued and nothing really suitable took it's place. And they call it 'progress'. Gotta love the rear door action.

Kyle Field is nothing compared to the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang! After the 1988 Summer Olympics had been awarded to Seoul, the DPRK intensified its efforts to present itself as the legitimate Korean state. As part of these efforts, it successfully bid to organize the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang in 1989, with the centerpiece of the festival being the stadium. During the Cold War, the World Festival of Youth and Students was a festival held in mainly communist states, with sports and political discussions. The 1989 edition was the largest ever World Festival of Youth and Students as about 22,000 people from 177 countries took part in the eight-day festival, including 100 people from the US. The stadium features a scalloped roof features 16 arches arranged in a ring, and resembles a magnolia blossom, as Siebold's magnolia is the national flower of the DPRK. The stadium was originally built with a capacity of 150,000, but most of the time has an official capacity of 114,000. The famous Collision in Korea wrestling event happened at the stadium in 1995, however it is also known for being the venue of the Arirang Mass Games, a patriotic artistic and gymnastics festival that is the world's largest gymnastics display. From 1989 to 2020, it was the world's largest stadium until Narendra Modi Stadium in India expanded to have a capacity of 132,000.

Seeing y'all experience Aggie football is fucking hilarious. Truly nothing else like college football in the south

wow nostaliga can take us so far, even buses. the memories people have with these, the days going to school, work, or a day out, crazy to think about. another great showcase!

NYC operated over 5,000 RTS buses in total, and had them in service for 38 years, from 1981 until 2019. These buses are an icon of NYC, and possibly one of the most iconic buses of all time (behind only the AEC Routemaster)

You guys should've asked for a garage tour! They have student drivers like numerous other college campuses, including UMass Amherst, which ALSO used to run RTS buses (UMass Transit/PVTA). What did in much of the UMass fleet was road salt eating away at the undercarriages, plus the flooring, from people tracking sand/salt/water in on their shoes. Even with a great body shop, which UMass has, at some point it becomes cheaper to replace rather than keep fighting nature at increasing expenses. I would suspect that's WHY Texas A&M has been able to keep theirs longer: far less salting and sanding every winter.

My city, where my transit agency (DDOT) had retired their remaining 2001 and 2002 NovaBus RTS-06 82VN models in June of 2015 and were replaced with the 2015 New Flyer Xcelsior XD40s, XDE40s, and XD60s.

Miles and jackson met texan hospitality

This was such a wonderful video. I enjoyed hearing you to reminisce about these buses and what they meant to you. So awesome that the students drive and maintain them. I hope that you and Jackson will do many more trips like this. In the future. It was a joy to watch!!!

Glad you enjoyed the 12th Man experience! 👍

I remember hanging out in New York and riding those buses all the time. I also remember the RTS in Disney World. Would I fly all the way to Texas to still ride them? Probably not, but that is what Miles is for.

I absolutely love these buses! Growing up in Europe I dreamed of visiting New York back when these were still in service there but my family was never able to afford big trips like that until after they were retired. If I had the money I'd do this trip as well LOL, hopefully they stay in service for a while longer 😅🤞

I'm just old enough that in my early childhood, these were still common enough in NYC that I rode them reasonably frequently. I remember them, although I think NYC buses had different engines that sounded different. Oh the nostalgia is real!

This video unlocked so many memories of taking these buses back from school in NYC, it was a sad day when the MTA finally retired the last one. I’m glad you were able to go back for one last hurrah!

When I was really little I used to love buses, especially school buses, and even more especially this type of bus. There was something about it that I really loved about the design

I actually own the 4400 series rts from the movie straight outta compton.. i regularly drive it around compton and la.. it’s 1 of 2 surviving 4400 series RTD rts buses left in the world and the only one in private hands still wrapped in its original rtd design

I found the door mechanism insanely interesting as a small child. I would stare at it for the whole bus ride.

Impressive they still got them wlthough theyre only like 18-19 years old.

didnt expect to see MILES IN SPORTSBALL

It's really cool that you got to experience these one last time - Over here in the UK, We have a lot of really old gems, often hiding in plain sight with tiny bus conpanies. Ive tracked down many of them all across the country myself!

As someone that lived in NYC through the 90's I have to admit I'm fascinated at the idea of taking a vacation trip to ride these buses. I've literally riden them 1000''s of times just as a normal part of life when I lived there.

It is funny how every bus in North America is the exact same now. Also, my university’s shuttles/brt (one of the routes definitely counts as BRT, counts more than the transit agency BRT) has doors similar to those back doors on some of their busses.

The MBTA, from 1996-2000, was almost exclusively RTS. The RTS era ended with the delivery of the C40LF buses, and then the delivery of the NABI, Neoplans, and the New Flyers. Some trivia... - The 8000-8029 buses were the last 35' buses used by the MBTA. - The 8900-8969 buses were the last to use suburban seating on the express bus routes. - Of the 1994-1995 buses, the final RTS by TMC was 0138, and the first RTS bus was 0139. - With the retirement of the Neoplan buses in 2021-2022, the MBTA's fleet is almost exclusively New Flyer.

There was a party bus company based out of nearby (by Texas standards) San Marcos, Texas that used former RTS buses for charter. Sadly, a few months ago the lot and old warehouse they used as their garage were sold and the fleet were forced to move. I don't know if they're still in business or if those buses were just sent for scrap.

Very late but as a fellow SEC student (Alabama) tailgate tradition is you are either invited to a tailgate by friends, you see people you know and stop by to say hello, or you are a part of an organization that has a tailgate. For an organization alcohol may be provided but if it’s just a tailgate with friends you’re normally expected to have your own alcohol. This is all if you don’t have your own tent/tailgtae though, of course In addition to this, absolutely zero shade for leaving early. I’ve been at Bama for 3 years, I’ll leave by halftime if games aren’t particularly interesting or I’m tired. It’s usually the people who are very dedicated or people making a trip from out of town who stay the whole time

A bit closer to me York Region is the last place that Van Hool transit buses operate in Canada! They surprisingly just refurbished some of them at 18 years old, because they're short on funding for new buses, even though their drivers and mechanics don't like them.

I actually find this kinda fun, I’ve seen these at Disney World in Florida! ❤

Man, from Europe the US seem like a strange place, familiar but strange anyway. And thanks to you, besides buses and trains I have the opportunity to see much more things I would have never considered, like American football, marching bands, questionable pizzas, so thank you so much! I have a question: is there a historic or cultural reason why I'm always seeing cords or stripes used on buses to request a stop, and not the buttons I've seen everywhere else?

Probably the first transit enthusiast in history to go to College Station for their transit. Truly a momentous occasion.

I knew them as "Jumbo Bus " 😂

Drove them for my local transit company until they were retired. Loved those clamshell doors, they closed with a satisfying thunk. You had to limber to get in and out of the driver's seat, sat up high and felt a little protected from the passengers.

I didn't know the RTS was still around in the 2020s! TTC had around 50 of them from 1998 to 2015. I grew up with them as a kid.

Wait, the little SEPTA bus at [REDACTED] is one of the ones that you can push back and then it rolls?

Haha I rode these all the time in college a few years ago, never knew they were so rare. Thank yall for taking the trip to College Station and getting the A&M experience!

The green oval lights on the back doors are my fondest memories of riding these types of buses in New York as a kid. That, and the woman’s voice that *screamed* “PLEASE,,,, do *NOT* stand in the rear door well🙂”

That's wild. I'm 43, and I remember when these were basically new to NYC around 1985. Before that they had very rundown fishbowls that didn't even have A/C. These things looked like they were out of the future back then, even the sound of the engines had an "new" sounding aesthetic. I was with Miles years later when they were ubiquitous by the time the late 90s early 2000s... Then the low floors showed up and man, the they suck by comparison. The RTS is much more comfortable bus. One funny thing is back when these were introduced, those stop tapes seemed more advanced than a pull string which was common on the older buses. It was surprising when they made a comeback in the 90s and 00s. Great video as always guys.

I took these buses to trade school from a nearby town 80-84 . Great memories, made lots of friends. Thanks guys ,

You guys made a pretty interesting video about an insanely obscure topic. Awesome!

Thanks for the memories. In 1981, these busses were my ticket to freedom starting at age 8. These RTS units were so modern in 1981 compared to the Crown School busses i also rode

I have seen comments from The British Isles, so I will add some from Norway. I have certainly seen them RTS-buses first-hand in NYC and Disney World. It is a while ago, so I can not say for certain that I have ridden in one or more of them.

Oh my goodness. I really appreciate this video. It is like pulling teeth trying to find videos of the rare MillenniumRTS bus. Please feel free to record more! Thank you from the East Coast!

I think some places called it the tmc. I know Chicago had from the early nineties till about 2002 or 2003 they had the tmc. Probably every small town transit system in America had those RTS buses. When I was a teenager that's what I wrote on a lot.

Those buses last a long time. Strong engines and transmissions

That’s definitely an EX-NJT Bus… either canceled order or retired & sold to Texas

With the coach variant of the RTS, Greater Cleveland RTA had a few laid out for express operations IIRC.

My first time really using public transit was the DC metro in 2023, but I have plenty of memories of that bus at Disney World.

This gives me so much joy.

Oh God these busses take me back! I used to love riding them all over NY

Gig'Em! I used to take the 5 to West Campus every day for classes and had no clue the buses were so unique. We just started getting electric buses when I moved away. College Station isnt an urban utopia but the bus coverage and frequency isnt that bad. Buses used to come every 5-10 minutes by my apartment so it made it super easy and convenient to get to work.

I remember when these things first came out in the 1970's; the doors were much better than the doors on the old Flxibles, and the hard molded seats were better than the hard seats on other city busses of the time But those things rattled like a coffee can full of marbles right from day1! Add to that the screaming Detroit Diesel's roots blower shrieking at high decibels made for a rather poor experience. Many people stopped taking the bus locally because they couldn't stand riding these things. FWIW, these busses were originally built at the GM Ste. Therese assembly plant in Bois Briand, Quebec, north of Montreal, just south of Mirabel. In the early 90's, this factory was repurposed to build the Camaro/Firebird models, which I used to carry truckloads of Cooling assemblies and windshield wiper assemblies.

As someone who went to a&m and moved to Boston after graduation 2 years ago and starting binging your videos after riding the T, this video definitely was a small world moment. Also you can also ride off campuses buses without a&m id, you just need to board from anywhere on campus, and if you get off, off campus you can't get back on :D.

0:02 OBJECTION!!!! I rode transit in greater Cincinnati and northern kentucky and we didnt use RTS

If you can fly to College Station to ride an RTS, why not fly out to Breckenridge, CO to take what is likely the only transit line that crosses the continental divide. 🙂

I remember in 1994 my class went to Disney World for our senior trip. They had these busses there as shuttles and the drivers all seamed to be former race car drivers. I learned that these buses could be fast and hold a corner better than you would expect. Every time we had to use them it was one of the most fun rides on the trip.

Wow! My city, Philadelphia, had them in the 1980s and I think I was last on one around 1995 right before SEPTA removed them from the fleet. NYC still had some rolling during my 1st solo visit there in 2007 but I didn't take the bus within that city.

oh no, not the Midnight Yell not sure anybody outside of A&M is prepared for the cult of the Aggie

$20 bucks says next week's video is the Hollywood bowl shuttle RTS hunt

Wow Miles - this was an excellent vlog. As someone who went to college in NYC in the aughts, this one really brought back the memories. Although the Orions were really starting to take hold by the time I graduated, I rode on many an RTS listening to "M79" by Vampire Weekend. I admit I got a little emotional at the end when you ran into those A&M students and it transformed into a real "we're not so different after all" moment, not just between you and Jackson and the students - but also generationally for me as a viewer. This really got me. Anyway, just an excellent vlog, honestly up there with John Wilson's type of work, that I will return to again and again.

Thanks for the video. I road one of the last ones in service in Boston but it was many years ago.

The incandescent egress lights as the RTS at the very end drives away are remarkable. They remind me of the spot lights on the side of a fire truck more than what I’ve seen on new buses today.

This is what I am going through riding the Orion V before the beeline is officially retiring them.

15:37 yeah I thought he said "Waterbury" too

NJ Transit didn't get many RTS's until near the end of the RTS era, so when I would see the MTA ones in New York I thought they looked so futuristic compared to the Flxible Metro variants we mostly had on the NJ side. I was so surprised when I eventually figured out they were basically contemporaries.

I used to call them "moon buses", they looked like they belonged to Space: 1999, or alternatively, Imperial Stormtrooper plastic aesthetic.

I used to live in Toronto, and the RTS usually operated routes around downtown when I first saw them in 2001. My favorite experience (and probably the most shocking one) was when one of the passengers in the back shamelessly had a large pet snake (that looked like a boa constrictor) right around his neck. Yeah, and I was only 6 years old when I saw that!

first off cant wait to see yous in hollywood! also i'm 42 so definitely remember this type of bus, they were used as models for hot wheels and match box toys and would be drawn in alot of the kids books at the time of transportation and cars and whatnot, definitely remember septa and nj transit having them from growing up in delco, phila and south jersey my personal fondest memory of this bus type is that it was the busses disney world had back when my parents took me and my sister when we were kids in 1995

Aggie culture is something else! For anyone who is thinking of trying to ride these RTS buses, do it soon because they are slated to be replaced sometime within the next 2 years.