Motor Coach Industries announced its revolutionary new D45 CRT LE Commuter Coach joined the July 24 March to the U.S. Capitol sponsored by the National Council on Independent Living.
The Washington, D.C. march, part of NCIL’s 30th annual conference July 23-26, welcomed MCI’s D45 CRT LE as the only vehicle to participate in the march for the leading annual event that draws more than 1,000 people with disabilities, disability advocates and allies, members of Congress, and government officials.
But the relationship between NCIL and MCI goes back much further. Three years ago, MCI invited volunteer representatives from NCIL, the Society of Manitobans with Disabilities (SMD) and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) to review early design concepts on a revolutionary new ADA accessible Commuter Coach from MCI.
An accessible coach like no other
With a Battery-Electric version coming in 2020, the D45 CRT LE is a durable workhorse like no other. The project produced 32 design concepts – aided by longtime MCI partner Designworks, a BMW Group Company – in the first top-to-bottom D-Series coach redesign in more than two decades. Featuring a curb-level ramp, requiring minimal operator support, passengers with mobility devices board through a mid-coach door that opens directly into same-level, patent pending low floor entry (LE) vestibule. The vestibule offers passenger seating, including for those using mobility devices, plus companion seating, and amenities including power outlet access.
“We don’t know of any other bus manufacturer that did the kind of user-based testing we did with the D45 CRT LE,” said Brent Maitland, MCI vice president of product planning. “It’s been a remarkable experience from the beginning. We learned what features people using wheelchairs or other mobility devices were looking for, plus how our design could help reduce the stress often associated in a daily commute, in addition to full comfort and convenience factors everyone wants on commuter express.” With passenger tests going on now on both coasts, “Passenger feedback has been outstanding,” said Maitland, adding that passengers of a West Coast transit agency conducting in service user testing recently gave the D45 CRT LE a 93 percent approval rating, and this positive feedback has been consistent with other in-service demonstrations that have followed.”
According to Tim Fuchs, NCIL operations director, “We’re featuring the D45 CRT LE at our Annual Conference on Independent Living because we support this vehicle and the options it gives people with disabilities accessing OTR (Over the Road) and commuter buses,” he said.
“We know how closely MCI considered NCIL’s feedback and all regulatory requirements when designing this vehicle, and we appreciated the new ideas that came out of the process,” said Fuchs. “There’s still much more to be done in regard to fully accessible mass transit, but we appreciate that MCI involved us from the beginning and then listened.”
