Flxible Metro/Grumman 870
A Flxible Metro 40102-6C of Santa Clara County Transit (San Jose, California) in 1987
Overview
Manufacturer	Flxible
Production	1978–1983 (as Grumman 870) 1983–1995 (as Flxible Metro)
Assembly	Delaware, Ohio
Body and chassis
Body style	Monocoquestressed skin
Powertrain
Engine	Detroit Diesel orCummins
Transmission	ZF, Voith, or Allison
Dimensions
Length	30 ft (9.14 m), 35 ft (10.67 m), or 40 ft (12.19 m)
Width	96 in (2.44 m) or 102 in (2.59 m)
Height	120 in (3.05 m)
Chronology
Predecessor	Flxible New Look

TheFlxible Metro is atransit bus that was assembled and manufactured by theFlxible Corporation from 1983 until 1995. From 1978 until early-1983, when Flxible was owned byGrumman, the model was known as theGrumman 870, with a Grumman nameplate. The earlier model 870 experienced a large number of major design defects and deficiencies, some of which led to the filing oflawsuits against the company by purchasers, and the successor "Metro" model addressed those defective design issues.

Over the combined 17-year production history, a total of 14,456 were built, of which 4,642 were model 870 and 9,814 were Metros.^[1]

Under the ownership ofRohr Industries since 1970, while their very popular Flxible New Look was still in production, Rohr began development of what would become theGrumman 870 Advanced Design Bus. The Grumman 870 bus was one of two advanced-design buses (the other being theRapid Transit Series (RTS II) developed by rivalGeneral Motors and later taken byMTS).^[3] Both models were compromises by theUrban Mass Transit Administration (UMTA), which sought to develop a"Transbus" design that would be "attractive, roomy, comfortable", and easier for elderly and disabled customers to board, accepting these two models as compromises. At the time, the federal government would subsidize the purchase of only the 870 or the RTS II.^[4][5]

In 1978, Rohr sold Flxible toGrumman forUS$55 million, with the sale including the sale of two prototypes of what would become the 870. In spite of the fact that the second prototype failed testing as the result of a cracked "A" frame, and with an endurance test not yet performed, Grumman decided that the 870 was ready for production, and discontinued theFlxible New Look almost as soon as the purchase closed^[6] (more in "Litigation resulting" below). The first 870 rolled off the assembly line in spring 1978.^[3] Under Grumman ownership, Grumman-Flxible (as the company was called at the time) received a major order of buses from theNew York City Transit Authority along with other agencies. The NYC Transit Authority order, built in 1980, is notable because this batch would expose the design flaw in A-frame noted during testing: the inability of the bus to withstand wear and tear in cities where potholes were a problem, forcing all 870s built until that time to be taken out of service beginning that December while repairs to the A-frame were made, which would cost Grumman $7 million to fix. A total of 2,656 buses, including buses inAtlanta,Chicago,Connecticut,Houston,Los Angeles andOrange County, California needed to be fixed.^[4] In early 1982 Grumman announced that the 870 model would be renamed "Grumman Metro".^[7]

Eventually, Grumman was forced to sell the line to General Automotive Corporation in 1983 for $41 million, a 25-percent loss after developing what by this time had become known as the "Flxible Metro", which addressed all of the shortcomings of the Model 870 in 1982.^[8] Under the ownership of General Automotive, the Flxible nameplate was restored to the buses.^{[citation needed]}

Production continued until late 1995, when financial problems prompted the company to suspend production and lay off most of its workforce at the Delaware, Ohio, factory.^[9] The layoffs were initially planned to be temporary, but ultimately became permanent,^[9] and in 1996 Flxible was forced intoChapter 11 bankruptcy and liquidated. Parent company General Automotive would meet the same fate as Flxible (bankruptcy and liquidation) the following year.^[10]

The last Flxible Metros delivered were ones delivered in November 1995 toMonterey-Salinas Transit (Monterey, California), and theBaltimore Metropolitan Transit Authority (Baltimore, Maryland). However, neither of these orders included the Metro with the highest serial number (106591), which had been delivered the previous month to Columbus, Ohio.^[9] The official production total for the Metro model from company records is 9,820, but there is strong evidence indicating that the last six of the 25-bus order for Baltimore were never built, and this makes the total more likely to be 9,814 units.^[1]

In 1995, some used 870s were purchased from theCentral Ohio Transit Authority (Columbus, Ohio) byKirov,Russia, where they were used until 2004.^[11]

The Grumman era of production would result in a number of lawsuits related to defects in theA-frame of the 870, involving either Flxible's former owner Rohr or the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York.

1. TheMetropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), in whose buses where the first cracked A-frame problem was noticed in early December 1980 at their Ulmer Park Depot, yanked itsNYC Transit Authority fleet for the first time in 1980 (a separate batch forMSBA was built with the problem rectified the next year) and sued Grumman. This lawsuit would result in a settlement to fix all 870 buses built until that time (2,656 examples in all), along with an early termination of the build contract where the final 200 buses of the order were transferred to General Motors.^[4][5]
2. In 1983, shortly before Grumman sold Flxible, Grumman would sue Rohr Industries for $500 million infederal court, claiming that it was not aware of design flaws in the 870 model before it began production shortly after the sale closed. Rohr was quickly grantedsummary judgment, which was upheld on appeal; the court noted that Grumman indeed had access to all of the testing information, including knowledge that testing was incomplete.^[6]
3. In 1984, following a fire in a Model 870 NYCTA bus number 411,David L. Gunn, on only his fifth day on the job with the MTA, ordered the Grumman 870 fleet within New York City off the road for the final time (the units for MSBA built in 1981, owned byNassau County (NY), as well as the units built for the five private companies in the Borough of Queens, New York remained in service until the mid-1990s). That May, the MTA sued Grumman again (which by this time no longer owned the line), asking for $184 million in damages as the result in fraud and $140 million to purchase replacements, referring to the buses as "lemons".^[12][13][14] This time, Grumman wouldcountersue the MTA for $1 billion, claiming that poor maintenance was the cause, and took out full-page advertisements in local media attesting to this fact.^[5][12] The MTA would end up paying $56 million back to the Urban Mass Transit Administration for refusing to run the buses. The buses would sit for nearly two years at the Brooklyn Army Terminal until late 1985, when UMTA exchanged the payment for equity in MTA properties, allowing for 835 of the 851 buses to be sold.^[15] 620 of the buses were rebuilt and sold toNew Jersey Transit, 175 of these buses were also rebuilt and sold to theQueen City Metro of Cincinnati, Ohio, with the remaining 40 buses rebuilt and sold to a transit agency in Puerto Rico. The 16 unsold buses were held for evidence until the lawsuit was resolved;^[5] one bus (236) was preserved, 13 were sold to the Pioneer Valley Transportation Authority of Springfield, Massachusetts in early 1985, and the remaining two were scrapped.

The model history of the Grumman 870/Flxible Metro is as follows:

• Rapid Transit Series—competing Advanced Design Bus
• List of buses

• Ebert, Robert R. (2001).Flxible: A History of the Bus and the Company. Yellow Springs, OH: Antique Power, Inc.ISBN 0-9660751-2-9.
• Luke, William A. & Metler, Linda L. (2005).City Transit Buses of the 20th Century. Hudson, WI: Iconografix.ISBN 1-58388-146-8.
• McKane, John (2001).Flxible Transit Buses: 1953–1995 Photo Archive. Hudson, WI: Iconografix.ISBN 1-58388-053-4.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toFlxible Metro buses.

• Flxible Production List
• Flxible Owners International

• Buses
• Buses of the United States
• Vehicles introduced in 1978
• Vehicles discontinued in 1995
• Grumman vehicles

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