Manchester Transit Authority 107

The Truck and Coach Division of General Motors (GMC) built over 44,000 "New Look" buses beginning in 1958 and continuing to 1977 in the U.S. and 1985 in Canada. The "New Look" buses were also called "fishbowl" buses because of their angled windshields. The buses featured lightweight aluminum construction and good visibility for the driver due to the windshield design. The GM "New Look" bus was the most popular transit bus of its era. GM offered "New Look" buses in many variations including 29-foot, 35-foot and 40-foot lengths, transit and suburban configurations and through four "generations." No. 107 is a model T6H-4523A bus indicating the following: T - Transit 6 - 6 cylinders H - Hydraulic transmission 45 - 45 seat, 35-foot length 23 - series 23 A - Air conditioned This bus is a fourth generation model built at GM's Pontiac, MI factory. The city-owned Manchester Transit Authority (MTA) was created in 1973 to take over the bus operations of the privately-owned Manchester Transit Inc (MTI). At the time, the MTI fleet was between 10 and 25 years old and was battered and unreliable. So, the following year, with a grant from the Federal Urban Mass Transit Administration, the MTA acquired 29 GMC "New Look" buses which were to provide most of Manchester’s transit service. Of these, Nos. 100-124 were two-door city buses, model T6H-4523A, and Nos. 125-128 were single-door buses for suburban service with eight cylinder engines, model T8H. The two-door buses cost $42, 642 each. The MTA "New Look" buses were equipped with an Environmental Kit exhaust. This included extra filters in the exhaust system and dual exhaust outlets near the roof line at the rear of the buses instead of at ground level in an attempt to reduce air pollution. Nos. 100-128 were the first buses acquired by the Authority and replaced the buses used by Manchester Transit Inc. Also in 1974, the MTA, extended several routes to serve new areas based on ridership surveys. The MTA’s new buses were well maintained, and No. 107 was able to operate for over 30 years. At retirement in 2005, it had run 640,000 miles. When the MTA retired its T6H-4523A buses in 2005, Seashore member and former MTA General Manager, Herb Pence, asked if the MTA could donate one to Seashore. No. 107 was still in working condition and was driven from Manchester to Kennebunkport. That year, Seashore displayed No. 107 at a festival in Beverly, MA. No. 107 joined three Manchester streetcars at the museum: Manchester Street Railway parlor car City of Manchester, Manchester Street Railway No. 60 and Manchester & Nashua Street Railway No. 38.