NJT learned nothing from its abortive purchase of Millennium transit buses a number of years ago (remember those?) After delivering a paltry number of coaches, Millennium went belly-up and NJT instead turned to the more stable NABI for its new transit fleet. I believe all those buses have now been delivered.
So flash forward a few years and NJT again is in the market for cruisers. Their MCI fleet is aging and the first target is the natural gas buses garaged at Howell. So, let's see.... hey, let's try this Design Line company, they have absolutely no track record in the United States... we'll give them a big order and see what they can do!
From their U.S. plant in Charlotte, NC, Design Line delivered exactly 14 buses - 7201-7214 - to NJT before going bankrupt last fall, and those 14 buses aren't running revenue service as far as I can see. NJT has now ordered about 85 new CNG cruiser buses from MCI, which should more than replace the 77 or so MCI 102D3's at Howell, in terms of both number of buses and passenger capacity (the new buses are 45 foot models). Delivery should begin in the summer. Meantime passengers can still enjoy the 7000 series buses for another few months. You can't say NJT doesn't get the most out of their buses. Witness those Flxibles that NJT kept online for almost 20 years! I think they still have some on their roster!
We are presently unable to update our static (non-blog) pages at this time due to computer software issues but soon we should have an updated roster. Bear with us.