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 c ...

in Brooklyn,

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 Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...

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 public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City. Pa ...

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 and ...

, Sunset Park, and

Gowanus Gowanus ( ) is a neighborhood in the northwestern portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community District 6. Gowanus is bounded by Wyckoff Street on ...

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 Avenu ...

, 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 ...

and west on Atlantic Avenue to South Ferry. Along the way, connections with the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

can be made at , , and , as well as the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. With an average wee ...

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 section ...

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 the F ...

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 Rai ...

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 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 Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the s ...

. 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 Ra ...

, 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 fo ...

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 MTA Bus Time, stylized as BusTime, is a Service Interface for Real Time Information, automatic vehicle location (AVL), and passenger information system provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York City for customers ...

. 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