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People's Rapid Transit Co. operated buses over 200 miles of route in the
vicinity of Kalamazoo. In 1938 the company constructed a lightweight
16-passenger intercity bus based on a Ford front-engine commercial chassis,
the same chassis originally used by Beaver and also found in large numbers
in the Detroit bus fleet. Restyling in 1940 made the Pony Cruiser greatly
resemble small FitzJohn buses of the period; also in that year a larger Ford
engine was made available, as was a 19-passenger version, and the
manufacturing business was separated from the operating company under
another name.
The Pony Cruiser had the same kind of appeal as the Ford Transit in being
cheap to buy, economical to run, and easy to repair, with so many parts
available through Ford auto dealers. A notable use of these buses was by the
British Yukon Navigation Co. along the Alcan Highway in the years after
World War II. Chevrolet and International K-7 chassis were listed in
addition to Ford in 1947, and in 1948 there was a larger model with 25 or 29
seats known as the Kalamazoo Cruiser. Probably about 625 Pony and Kalamazoo
Cruisers were built, almost all of them operated by small companies.
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