Optima Bus, LLC, formerly Chance Coach Inc., was a brand of small transit buses manufactured by
North American Bus Industries. It was established in 1976 in
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the List of cities in Kansas, most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397, ...
.
It was originally the
trolley-replica and conventional bus production business of Chance Industries, Inc. In 1998, Chance Coach, Inc. was sold to American Capital Strategies, which rebranded the company as Optima Bus Corporation in 2003. American Capital subsequently sold Optima to
North American Bus Industries, who closed the Kansas assembly plant on August 8, 2007, with production moved to their existing plant in
Anniston, Alabama
Anniston is a city and the county seat of Calhoun County, Alabama, Calhoun County in Alabama, United States, and is one of two urban centers/principal cities of and included in the Anniston–Oxford metropolitan area, Anniston–Oxford Metropo ...
. Optima Bus was owned by North American Bus Industries, Inc. until 2010, when NABI discontinued the production of its Optima and
Blue Bird brand commercial bus products.
Models
* Opus: under or under
low-floor bus
A low-floor bus is a bus or trolleybus that has no steps between the ground and the floor of the bus at one or more entrances, and low floor for part or all of the passenger cabin. A bus with a partial low floor may also be referred to as a l ...
; designed in collaboration with Northern Irish manufacturer
Wrightbus' international Expotech division
** Opus ISE Series Hybrid:
hybrid version of the Opus. It utilizes
ISE-Siemens ThunderVolt hybrid technology built around
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
ELFA
motors,
generators and
inverters.
* American Heritage Streetcar AH-28 - trolley-style body on bus chassis
* RT-52: a
front-engined small-sized transit bus
A transit bus (also big bus, commuter bus, city bus, town bus, urban bus, stage bus, public bus, public transit bus, or simply bus) is a type of bus used in public transport bus services. Several configurations are used, including low-floo ...
measuring in length. It was primarily used as a
shuttle bus
A shuttle bus is a bus that travels a shorter route in comparison to most bus routes. Typically, shuttle buses travel in both directions between two points. Shuttle buses are designed to transport large groups of people who are all travelling ...
, and normally carried 19 passengers. The maximum passenger capacity was 23 passengers. Powered by an
inline 6-cylinder Cummins 6BTA5.9 turbo
In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (also known as a turbo or a turbosupercharger) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake air, forcing more air into the ...
diesel engine
The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...
displacing , coupled to an
Allison MT643 manual transmission, its
gross vehicle weight (GVW) was , its
wheelbase
In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...
was , and it was wide.
:The RT-52 was used in the
Wiki Wiki Shuttle
The Wiki Wiki Shuttle () is a free shuttle bus service at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, Hawaii. Shuttles run between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. local time, carrying people and baggage between the various terminals and gate ...
route at
Honolulu International Airport
Daniel K. Inouye International Airport , also known as Honolulu International Airport, is the main and largest airport in Hawaii. . The first
wiki
A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...
site, called
WikiWikiWeb
The WikiWikiWeb is the first wiki, or user-editable website. It was launched on 25 March 1995 by programmer Ward Cunningham and has been a read-only archive since 2015. The name ''WikiWikiWeb'' originally also applied to the wiki software that o ...
, was named by its programmer,
Ward Cunningham
Howard G. Cunningham (born May 26, 1949) is an American computer programmer who developed the first wiki Excerpt from 2014 book '' The Innovators''. and was a co-author of the '' Manifesto for Agile Software Development''. Called a pioneer, and ...
, after this line of buses.
The buses were also purchased by
Pace, primarily for use in
Niles, Illinois; all have now been retired, with the last one running service routes in May 2007.
* Sunliner: an open-air towed tram used at various parks and zoos in the United States and Canada
References
External links
Optima page on North American Bus Industries siteOpus ISE Series Hybrid Bus
{{North American bus builders
Bus manufacturers of the United States
Hybrid electric bus manufacturers
Companies based in Wichita, Kansas
Private equity portfolio companies
Cerberus Capital Management companies
Electric vehicle manufacturers of the United States