The B63 is a

bus route A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, running mainly along Fifth Avenue and Atlantic Avenue between

Fort Hamilton Fort Hamilton is a United States Army installation in the southwestern corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, surrounded by the communities of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights. It is one of several posts that are part of the region which i ...

and Cobble Hill. Originally a

streetcar line A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

called the Fifth Avenue Line, it is now operated by the

New York City Transit Authority The New York City Transit Authority (also known as NYCTA, the TA, or simply Transit, and branded as MTA New York City Transit) is a New York state public-benefit corporations, public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York (state), New ...

as the Fifth/Atlantic Avenues bus.

Route description

The B63 bus route begins at Shore Road and Fourth Avenue in

, and heads north on Fourth Avenue, splitting onto Fifth Avenue at 94th Street. Fifth Avenue is followed through

Bay Ridge Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the east, the Narrows and the Belt Parkway to the west, and Fort Hamilton Army Base an ...

, Sunset Park, and Gowanus to

Park Slope Park Slope is a neighborhood in northwestern Brooklyn, New York City, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park and Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush A ...

, where buses turn northwest on

Flatbush Avenue Flatbush Avenue is a major avenue in the New York City Borough of Brooklyn. It runs from the Manhattan Bridge south-southeastward to Jamaica Bay, where it joins the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, which connects Brooklyn to the R ...

and west on Atlantic Avenue to South Ferry. Along the way, connections with the New York City Subway can be made at , , and , as well as the Long Island Rail Road's

Atlantic Branch The Atlantic Branch is an electrified rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It is the only LIRR line with revenue passenger service in the borough of Brooklyn. The line consists of two sectio ...

Atlantic Terminal Atlantic Terminal (formerly Flatbush Avenue) is the westernmost stop on the Long Island Rail Road's (LIRR) Atlantic Branch, located at Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. It is the primary terminal for th ...

History

The

Brooklyn Central and Jamaica Railroad The Atlantic Avenue Railroad was a company in the U.S. state of New York, with a main line connecting downtown Brooklyn with Jamaica along Atlantic Avenue. It was largely a streetcar company that operated its own trains, but the Long Island R ...

opened the line along Fifth Avenue, from its Atlantic Avenue Line south to 24th Street at Greenwood Cemetery, on August 28, 1860. The

Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Rail Road The West End Line or New Utrecht Avenue Line was a surface transit line in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, running along New Utrecht Avenue and other streets between Coney Island and Sunset Park. Built by the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Is ...

opened on October 5, 1863, running steam dummies from Fifth Avenue and 36th Street (the city line) south to 37th Street, and east on 37th Street and south towards Coney Island. At the same time, the Central Railroad extended its Fifth Avenue Line south to 36th Street. The

Atlantic Avenue Railroad The Atlantic Avenue Railroad was a company in the U.S. state of New York, with a main line connecting downtown Brooklyn with Jamaica along Atlantic Avenue. It was largely a streetcar company that operated its own trains, but the Long Island R ...

, the Central's successor, gained control of the Brooklyn, Bath and West End Railroad, the BB&CI's successor, in January 1893, and soon changed it to an

electric trolley Electric current collectors are used by trolleybuses, trams, electric locomotives or EMUs to carry electrical power from overhead lines, electrical third rails, or ground-level power supplies to the electrical equipment of the vehicles. Those for ...

line. The

Nassau Electric Railroad The Nassau Electric Railroad was an electric street railway company in the U.S. state of New York. The company operated throughout the borough of Brooklyn, as well as over the Brooklyn Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge into Manhattan. The company wa ...

was incorporated in 1893, and its plans included the east-west Church Avenue Line along 39th Street and a branch south along Fifth Avenue into

New Utrecht New Utrecht ( nl, Nieuw Utrecht) was a town in western Long Island, New York encompassing all or part of the present-day Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York Cit ...

. The Nassau Electric leased the Atlantic Avenue on April 5, 1896, and opened their Fifth Avenue Line that day as an extension of the Atlantic Avenue's line all the way to

; they also continued to operate West End Line cars via Fifth Avenue, and soon also ran cars to Coney Island over Fifth Avenue and the 86th Street Line. Bus service replaced streetcar service on February 20, 1949. In February 2011, the B63 became the first bus route in Brooklyn to test the tracking real time arrival system called MTA Bus Time. The pilot program was implemented after similar technology had been tested on the M16 and M34 buses in Manhattan during 2010. Following the success of MTA Bus Time on the B63, the program was expanded to all bus routes in the city. On December 1, 2022, the MTA released a draft redesign of the Brooklyn bus network. As part of the redesign, the B63 would maintain its existing routing, but closely spaced stops would be eliminated.

References

{{Brooklyn bus routes Streetcar lines in Brooklyn B063 B063