Jamaica Buses, Inc., also known as Jamaica Bus Lines or the Jamaica Bus Company, was a

bus 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 ...

company in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, operating local service in

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 express service to

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 ...

until January 30, 2006, when the

MTA Bus Company 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 ...

took over its operations. The president of Jamaica Buses, and GTJ Reit Inc. was the late Jerome Cooper (August 14, 1928 – May 20, 2015, aged 86). Its facility was located on 114-15 Guy R. Brewer Boulevard in

South Jamaica, Queens South Jamaica (also commonly known as "The Southside") is a residential neighborhood in the Borough (New York City), borough of Queens in New York City, located south of downtown Jamaica, Queens, Jamaica. Although a proper border has not been est ...

. From 1954 to 1995, Jamaica Buses, also provided charter services.

History

After the bankruptcy of the

Long Island Electric Railway The Long Island Electric Railway was a streetcar company operating in Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau County, New York, United States between 1894 and 1926. The company was partially owned by the Long Island Consolidated Electric Companies, a holding ...

in 1926, the company's trolley lines in Nassau County were disestablished, however the ones in Queens survived, and the company was reorganized as the Jamaica Central Railways. This company would continue to operate streetcars for another six years. Upon reestablishment, the company purchased used trolley cars from companies such as the Empire State Railroad of Oswego, and the

New York and Stamford Railway The New York and Stamford Railway was a streetcar line that connected the Westchester County suburbs of New Rochelle, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Harrison, Rye, and Port Chester, with the Connecticut suburbs of Greenwich and Stamford. The company was ...

. Many of these cars dated back as far as 1911 and proved to be defective when used on the Far Rockaway Line. The conditions became so dangerous that by the Summer of 1930 the

New York State Public Service Commission The New York Public Service Commission is the public utilities commission of the New York state government that regulates and oversees the electric, gas, water, and telecommunication industries in New York as part of the Department of Public Ser ...

intervened and demanded that they trade the cars in for those from the

Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway The Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway (Eastern Mass) was a streetcar and later bus company in eastern Massachusetts, serving northern and southern suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. Its precursor company was the Bay State Street Railway, which ...

. Unfortunately, those cars proved to be inadequate, and that line was eventually abandoned. Cars on other lines inherited from the LIER did not suffer such misfortunes. In 1930, the City of New York granted the company a bus franchise service named Jamaica Buses, a subsidiary of Jamaica Central Railways. Bus operation over all the former JCR trolley lines began on November 12, 1933; this coincided with the widening of Jamaica Avenue, and the removal of the trolley tracks on the former routes. The company was acquired by the stockholders of

Green Bus Lines Green Bus Lines, also referred to simply as Green Lines, was a private bus company in New York City, United States. It operated local service in Queens and express service to Manhattan until January 9, 2006, when the city-operated MTA Bus Compan ...

in April 1949 after financial troubles, but also continued to operate independently. The change in ownership took effect on April 13, 1949, with Green Lines paying $200,000. In 1971 the QM21 express route to Manhattan was initiated.

Bus routes

Just prior to MTA Bus takeover, Jamaica Buses operated on the following routes that are now based in

Baisley Park Bus Depot MTA Regional Bus Operations operates local and express buses serving New York City in the United States out of 29 bus depots. These depots are located in all five boroughs of the city, with the exception of one located in nearby Yonkers in Westch ...

, the former company facility. All four local routes shared a northern terminal in

Jamaica, Queens Jamaica is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is mainly composed of a large commercial and retail area, though part of the neighborhood is also residential. Jamaica is bordered by Hollis to the east; St. Albans, Springfi ...

at the

Parsons Boulevard Parsons Boulevard is a road in Queens, New York. Its northern end is at Malba Drive in the Malba neighborhood and its southern end is at Archer Avenue in downtown Jamaica. Route The road stretches for nearly six miles, divided into four segme ...

subway station at

Hillside Avenue Hillside may refer to the side of a hill. Places Australia *Hillside mine, a proposed mine on the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia * Hillside, New South Wales *Hillside, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne Canada * Hillside, Nova Scotia United Kin ...

. Old route designations can also be found in the local routes.

References

External links

NYCDOT - Privately Operated Bus Service
(as of early-to-mid 2000s, accessed January 19, 2007)
Jamaica Bus Photos (Bus:NYCSubway.org)

''Story of the Long Island Electric Railway and the Jamaica Central Railways, 1894-1933''

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{NYC streetcar transit Transport companies established in 1933 Bus transportation in New York City Defunct public transport operators in the United States Transport companies disestablished in 2006 1933 establishments in New York City 2006 disestablishments in New York (state)