Flxible
All Time Flxible Roster

Short History:

In 1970, there were a handful of older Old Look buses in the 2000 series that were virtually supplanted by many 500, 5000, and 6000 series New Looks. These old look buses, some purchased as far back at 1951 and some as old holdouts from the Eastern Mass Railway, were ready to be retired from the MBTA roster.

The MBTA began its Flxible dynasty with the delivery of 40 Flxibles, numbered 7000-7039. They were used almost exclusively by the Albany Street garage for the new Express Bus routes, since they had the powerful Detroit Diesel 8V71 engines normally used in motorcoaches. 7000-7039 also had soft seats, a staple in many MBTA coaches until vandalism forced the pruchase of hard plexiglas seats beginning with their RTS deliveries in 1985.

Between 1972 and 1976, the MBTA purchased 425 more Flxible coaches. First came 7050-7099, 7200-7364, and 7600-7684. All were the same model except for the engines (7050-7099 had the same DDEC 8V71s as their sister units in 7000-7039; 7200-7364 and 7600-7684 were powered by 6V71s) and length (the 7600 series buses were 35 feet in length). This first order of 300 coaches allowed the 200-300 series buses to be shifted to the former Eastern Mass Garages, while the 7200-7300 series buses quickly replaced the GM Old look and Mack buses that held on at Arborway and Bartlett garages, and began a new fleet with the brand-new Cabot garage that replaced the function of Albany Street..

But the MBTA wasn't done yet. For the Albany garage, an exclusive set of buses were needed for Turnpike service. Buses 7100-7149 arrived in 1975 to take place of the 7000 series for all base turnpike and extended suburban service to Waltham and Belmont. The 7100s were different because they had rounded rear windows - the 7000s, 7200s, 7300s and 7600s had flat rear windows. They also used 8V71 engines like the 7000 series buses, perfect for the Massachusetts Turnpike. Their lower-powered (6V71) sister units, 7365 through 7439 were delivered to the city-based garages of Cabot, Arborway/Bartlett, and Charlestown. This allowed any remaining Old Looks and beyond-repair fishbowl 3500s to finally meet their fate with the scrappers torch. (Ironically, the 200-300 series fishbowls would meet their fate when the AM General Metropolitans arrived in 1978, and the final 200-300 series bus was retired in 1982 with 318 being the only bus remaining from the first MBTA delivery in 1966.)

Although the seats were soft, often Flxible buses masked a rough and heavy ride through the narrow streets of Boston. The 7000 and 7100 series Flxibles often ran well above the speed limit of 55 miles per hour on the Mass Turnpike (sometimes higher than 90 miles per hour). In the 1980s, many of the Flxibles were repainted into a scheme of yellow with a white skirting near the driver's window, but it didn't help matters any.

By 1987, the new 8400-8700 series RTS buses arrived to replace the beaten up, overworked Flxbles, with more to come in nearly two years. The much-smoother riding RTSs, with quieter 6V71TA engines, became the staple bus service, relegating Flxibles to tripper and reserve service. Even the 7600s which were used quite frequently in short-turn or light-volume service were replaced by the 5700 series GM of Canada fishbowls.

Once the 8800s, the 8900s, and 8000s arrived, only four Flxibles were in dedicated - if severly limited - service. 7247, 7251, 7404 and 7420 were the lone holdouts at the Bartlett Garage, mainly doing school tripper work and operating as reserve buses until the last of the 8800 series buses were accepted for revenue service in 1989. Then they too met their fate through the scrapper's torch.

The Flixble era lasted only a mere 18 years. The MBTA could have purchased the famous Flxible Metro buses, which were used in many, many cities and towns, but ironically this was not meant to be. Flxible fell on tough times and ended in bankruptcy in 1996.

Specifications:
 

Fleet List:

The first column is the bus number; the second column is the garage the bus was delivered to according to the Rollsign 1981 Vehicle Inventory, and the last column is where the bus was retired from in the 1987-1989 Vehicle Inventory.  These buses are assumed accurate unless otherwise noted; any corrections can be sent to busesofthembta@lycos.com.

7000-7039
7050-7099

(7100-7149 were delivered and retired from Albany)

7040-7049 were never produced for the MBTA, but are listed to maintain the table's continuity.

7200-7299

7300-7364
7365-7399

7400-7439

7600-7684