The oddity: Transit Bus Manufacturing MRT-30

[Kumiko Oumae]

Since nobody mentioned this bizarre bus here, I wanted to share this model that nobody heard of that the company by the name of “Transit Bus Manufacturing” who built 20 MRT-30 buses on a Isuzu chassis for the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority in 1985, who was the sole operator while others such as rental car and private tour companies owned that model. TBM’s journey as a bus maker was short lived as that company was sued by General Motors Corporation for allegations of copyright infringement due to the resemblance and appearance of its RTS II buses at the time. Because of the lawsuit, TBM collapsed after its bankruptcy and the last of the MRT-30 buses were withdrawn and Des Moines sold off the remaining fleet in 2000. Thank you to James Roach for writing a brief description and anyone here can add additional details about TBM’s underserved history on the Wiki.

John Lebeau had provided this picture of a Des Moines MRT-30 taken in the 1990s.

[M. Parsons]

On 7/11/2023 at 5:53 AM, Kumiko Oumae said:

John Lebeau had provided this picture of a Des Moines MRT-30 taken in the 1990s.

I actually own that exact slide. Date on the slide mount is November 1986, so it was taken somewhere around October or November 1986, not the 1990's. Des Moines also had the not-too-common Neoplan AN408A.