Throwback: WTVJ Rides Metrobus on Biscayne JAN1986

Going back one last time to what I believe is the last week of January, 1986, Miami's then-CBS affiliate WTVJ/channel 4 (today's NBC 6) is working on a story on Metrobus for their newsmagazine show "Montage". Reporter Amy Huggins and her camera crew are trying to get from Biscayne Boulevard to Coral Gables in this video. Chiefly among the waiting passengers they interviewed was a delightful, engaging young man trying to get to work at the Port of Miami, who wasn't afraid to share details of his off-duty life before the cameras. Nowadays he'd be in his 60s and I hope he's still with us and doing well!

The WTVJ crew shadowed the route 54 bus that showed up, 1091, in the second half of this video, as it ran south on Biscayne as far as NW 6th Street. Back then this stretch of Biscayne was covered by routes 14, 54 and 60 (today's 62, 3 and 16, respectively) with today's 3 being the main route on the line. MDTA's 1091, a 1980 GMC T8J-204 RTS-04, the bus working the southbound 54, itself later went to Coral Way Division, where it worked until at least March 1999. I rode it several times as a passenger. The last of the RTSes were retired in August and September of 1999 after 19 years of service, holding the longevity record for MDT's Advanced Design Bus generation.

This video of course is courtesy of the wonderful Wolfson Archives and is the last in this series. A treasure trove of historic video is hosted on their site (www.wolfsonarchives.info) and this is posted under Fair Use guidelines.

A toast to the memory of the late, lamented GMC RTS coaches that were delivered new in 1980. **hic**