The Fifth Avenue Coach Company was a bus operator in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
,
The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
,
Queens
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...
, and
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...
, providing public transit between 1896 and 1954 after which services were taken over by the
New York City Omnibus Corporation
The New York City Omnibus Corporation (NYCO, later Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc.) ran bus services in New York City between 1926 and 1962. It expanded in 1935/36 with new bus routes to replace the New York Railways Corporation streetcars when ...
. It succeeded the
Fifth Avenue Transportation Company
The Fifth Avenue Transportation Company was a transportation company based in New York which was founded in 1885 and operated of horse-and-omninbus transit along Fifth Avenue, with a route running from 89th Street to Bleecker Street using horse ...
.
History
![NYC Transit Authority FACCo GM TDH-5106 Old Look 3100](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/NYC_Transit_Authority_FACCo_GM_TDH-5106_Old_Look_3100.jpg)
The company was founded in 1896 when it succeeded the bankrupt
Fifth Avenue Transportation Company
The Fifth Avenue Transportation Company was a transportation company based in New York which was founded in 1885 and operated of horse-and-omninbus transit along Fifth Avenue, with a route running from 89th Street to Bleecker Street using horse ...
.
[ It initially operated existing horse-and-omnibus transit along Fifth Avenue, with a route running from 89th Street to Bleecker Street. Fifth Avenue is the only avenue in Manhattan never to see streetcar service due to the opposition of residents to the installation of railway track for streetcars.] The company introduced electric buses two years later[ and was acquired by the newly formed New York Transportation Company in 1899.][
They introduced a fleet of 15 of their own ]motorbus
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 ...
es in 1907 that operated along Fifth Avenue and on some crosstown routes. The company became independent of the New York Transportation Company in 1912.
In 1925, the year that they came under control of The Omnibus Corporation The Omnibus Corporation (also Omnibus Corporation of America) is an American bus company that was formed in 1924 and acquired control of Fifth Avenue Coach Company and the Chicago Motor Coach Company with John D. Hertz as chairman. In 1953, it purch ...
, the company purchased a majority share in the New York Railways Corporation
The New York Railways Corporation was a railway company that operated street railways in Manhattan, New York City, United States between 1925 and 1936. During 1935/1936 it converted its remaining lines to bus routes which were operated by the New ...
.
When the New York Railways Corporation started converting streetcar lines to buses in 1935–36, the new replacement bus services were operated by the New York City Omnibus Corporation
The New York City Omnibus Corporation (NYCO, later Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc.) ran bus services in New York City between 1926 and 1962. It expanded in 1935/36 with new bus routes to replace the New York Railways Corporation streetcars when ...
, which had been formed in 1926 and had shared management with The Omnibus Corporation. New York Railways Corporation was dissolved in 1936.
The New York and Harlem Railroad trolleys were replaced by Madison Avenue Coach Company, Inc. Madison may refer to:
People
* Madison (name), a given name and a surname
* James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States
Place names
* Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...
buses, and the Eighth and Ninth Avenue Railway trolleys by Eighth Avenue Coach Corporation
Eighth is ordinal form of the number eight.
Eighth may refer to:
* One eighth, or ⅛, a fraction, one of eight equal parts of a whole
* Eighth note (quaver), a musical note played for half the value of a quarter note (crotchet)
* Octave, an i ...
buses, both companies owned by Fifth Avenue Coach. (Fourth and Madison Avenues; 86th Street Crosstown was not replaced with buses). Madison Avenue Coach and Eighth Avenue Coach were folded into New York City Omnibus in November 1951.
In 1954 The Omnibus Corporation sold the Fifth Avenue Coach Company to the New York City Omnibus Corporation which changed its name to Fifth Avenue Coach Lines
The New York City Omnibus Corporation (NYCO, later Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc.) ran bus services in New York City between 1926 and 1962. It expanded in 1935/36 with new bus routes to replace the New York Railways Corporation streetcars when t ...
two years later. In 1956, the company also acquired the Westchester Street Transportation Company, a bus company previously affiliated with the Third Avenue Railway
The Third Avenue Railway System (TARS), founded 1852, was a streetcar system serving the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx along with lower Westchester County. For a brief period of time, TARS also operated the Steinway Lines i ...
. The same year, they also acquired the Surface Transportation Corporation The Surface Transportation Corporation was the bus-operating subsidiary of the Third Avenue Railway in New York City which operated under that name following the conversion of the streetcar lines in Manhattan and the Bronx to bus service between Mar ...
, and allowed it to operate under a new name as a subsidiary of Fifth Avenue. After a strike in 1962, and a fight for control with financier Harry Weinberg Harry Weinberg (1908–1990) was an American billionaire businessman who founded ''The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Inc.'', a private charitable foundation, with over $2 billion in assets in 2018 and headquartered in Owings Mills, Maryla ...
, bus operations were taken over by the city. Buses in Westchester survived the strike and city takeover until they were acquired by Liberty Lines Transit
Liberty Lines Transit is the owner of local bus routes in Westchester County, New York, and operates these and other local bus routes under contract as part of the Bee-Line Bus System. It had been affiliated with Liberty Lines Express, the owner ...
in 1969.
Routes
The routes that were operated by the Fifth Avenue Coach Company are listed below.
See also
*Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority
MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It was created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations in New York City operated by the MTA. , MTA Regional Bus Operations ru ...
, successor to FACCST within New York City
*Liberty Lines Transit, Inc.
Liberty Lines Transit is the owner of local bus routes in Westchester County, New York, and operates these and other local bus routes under contract as part of the Bee-Line Bus System. It had been affiliated with Liberty Lines Express, the owner ...
, successor to the FACCST routes in Westchester County
References
External links
Fifth Avenue Transportation Company, 1885-1895; Fifth Avenue Coach Company, 1895-1962, New York, New York
The Fifth Avenue Coach Company Collection
at the New-York Historical Society
{{Authority control
1896 establishments in New York City
1962 disestablishments in New York (state)
American companies established in 1896
American companies disestablished in 1962
Transport companies established in 1896
Transport companies disestablished in 1962
1899 mergers and acquisitions
1925 mergers and acquisitions
1954 mergers and acquisitions
Fifth Avenue
Surface transportation in Greater New York
Bus transportation in New York City
Defunct companies based in New York City
Defunct public transport operators in the United States