The M21

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 ...

constitutes a

public transit Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

line 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 ...

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 ...

. The M21 operates between the

West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The traditional boundaries of the West Village are the Hudson River to the west, 14th Street (Manhattan ...

and the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

, serving as a

Houston Street Houston Street ( ) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs the full width of the island of Manhattan, from FDR Drive along the East River in the east to the West Side Highway along the Hudson River in t ...

crosstown.

Current route

The M21 bus route begins at Spring St at Hudson St in the

. Eastbound buses use

Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...

to access

, whereas westbound buses use King Street and Washington Street to access the terminus. The M21 stays on Houston Street until Columbia Street. Eastbound buses continue to FDR Drive, and use the service road to access Grand St, where they terminate. Westbound buses then use Lewis St, Delancey St, and Columbia St to access Houston St, where they head back to the West Side.

History

Early history

The M21 was originally the New York City Department of Plant and Structures bus route M10 – later became NYCO's 21. This route replaced

New York Railways The New York Railways Company operated street railways in Manhattan, New York City, United States between 1911 and 1925. The company went into receivership in 1919 and control was passed to the New York Railways Corporation in 1925 after which al ...

Avenue C Line The M9 is a local bus route that operates along the Avenue C Line (also known as the Houston Street Line), in Manhattan, New York City. The route runs mostly along Essex Street and Avenue C from Battery Park City to Kips Bay. Originally a str ...

streetcar on September 21, 1919.

Recent history

Due to the 2010 budget crisis, the M21's weekend service discontinued on June 27, 2010, in conjunction with an extension to its current terminus at Grand St and FDR Dr. Weekend service was restored on January 6, 2013.

Equipment

The M21 operates out of

Michael J. Quill Depot MTA Regional Bus Operations 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. , ...

, using Orion VII NG HEV 07.501,

New Flyer New Flyer is a Canadian multinational Bus manufacturing, bus manufacturer, specializing in the production of transit buses. New Flyer is owned by the NFI Group, a holding company for several bus manufacturers. New Flyer has several manufacturing ...

XD40 Xcelsior, and New Flyer Xcelsior XDE40 buses. Prior to 2019 and 2022 the route operated

Nova Bus Nova Bus (stylized as NOVABUS) is a Canadian bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec, Canada. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group. The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was est ...

RTS-06 and Orion VII Old Gen buses, but these were replaced by the

XD40 Xcelsiors and New Flyer Xcelsior XDE40's

References

{{Manhattan bus routes

021 021 is: * in Brazil, the telephone area code for the city of Rio de Janeiro and surrounding cities (Greater Rio de Janeiro) * in China, the telephone area code for the city of Shanghai. * in Indonesia, the area code for the city of Jakarta and su ...

M021