The Pride of Freeway - Kuo-Kuang's MCI in Taiwan
Kuo-Kuang Motor (國光客運) earlier announced that all MCI 96A3 motor coaches in the fleet would be retired next year, bringing the 37-year legend of MCI coaches on freeways in Taiwan to an end.
Kuo-Kuang is currently the sole carrier which operates Motor Coach Industries buses in Taiwan. It owns a total of 33 units in which all of them are 40-feet long 96A3s. Most of them are deployed to ferry passengers between Taipei Taoyuan International Airport and the capital's Main Station.
In late 1970s, a batch of luxury coaches had to be imported for the express bus services on the newly completed North-South Freeway. At that time, there was a serious trade deficit between Taiwan and the United States. As a result, the Directorate General of Highways decided to purchase a total 50 units of MC-8 coaches from the American coach-builder - Motor Coach Industries (MCI).
In 1980, Taiwan Motor Transport (臺灣汽車客運) was set up to continue providing bus services. The company imported another batches of MCI coaches. 210 units of MC-9s were acquired in 1980s. In 1989 and 1992, there were two more bunches of MCI 96A3s.
All of these extraordinary MCI coaches were put on the freeway bus routes, with the brand named "Kuo-Kuang Class" (國光號) - meaning the pride of freeway in Chinese. To better position the premium service of "Kuo-Kuang Class", the carrier invited Professor Wang Chang-wei (王壯為教授) to create the calligraphy on the bus-body. At that time, travelling on a Kuo-Kuang bus was a superior experience.
In 21st century, Taiwan Motor Transport went privatization. Kuo-Kuang Motor was founded and received some of the MC-9 and 96A3 buses. Due to the high maintenance and fuel costs, the operator had plans to replace these old American machines with newer Daewoo buses.
FA-188 MCI 96A3
FO-068 MCI 96A3
FA-986 MCI MC-8