The M5 and M55 bus routes constitute 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 ...
corridor 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 ...
, running along the Fifth / Sixth Avenues / Riverside Drive Line as well as the southern portion of the Broadway Line after the discontinuation of the
M6. The routes primarily run along
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
,
Fifth and
Sixth Avenues, and
Riverside Drive from
South Ferry,
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
to
Washington Heights. The M5 covers the northern portion of the route north of 31st Street, while the M55 operates along the southern portion of the route south of 44th Street. The two routes overlap in
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...
. The portion along Broadway south of East 8th Street was 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 ...
.
The whole line was a single route, the M5, until January 2017, when the M55 was created.
Route description
![Bowling Green td (2018-08-23) 09](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Bowling_Green_td_%282018-08-23%29_09.jpg)
Broadway Line
The Broadway line began at
Columbus Circle
Columbus Circle is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South ( West 59th Street), and Central Park West, at the so ...
. It runs east along
Central Park South
59th Street is a crosstown street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan, running from York Avenue and Sutton Place on the East Side (Manhattan), East Side of Manhattan to the West Side Highway on the West Side (Manha ...
one block, and turned right onto
Seventh Avenue. It followed Seventh to Times Square, and bore left on Broadway. It followed Broadway to
Madison Square
Madison Square is a town square, public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway at 23rd Street (Manhattan), 23rd Street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. The square ...
, and bore right onto Fifth Avenue. It ran on Fifth along with the
Fifth/Madison Avenue Line to 8th Street. Both lines turned left onto East 8th Street (also known as St. Marks Place) east towards Broadway. At Broadway, the Broadway line turned right and terminated at the South Ferry; the Fifth/Madison Avenue Line continued to Fourth Avenue and terminated at Astor Place and Fourth Avenue.
Current alignment
![RTS 5222 M55](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/RTS_5222_M55.jpg)
The current M5 and M55 follow a similar route, except the M55 does not run on Broadway north of St. Marks Place after the pedestrian plazas were implemented.
The current northbound M55 route begins at South Ferry and runs uptown on Church Street and Sixth Avenue. Downtown M55 buses run along Fifth Avenue to East 8th Street, where the route cuts over to Broadway and terminates at South Ferry. The northbound M55 runs along Fifth and Sixth Avenues until 44th Street, where it terminates.
The M5 starts at 31st Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, using Sixth Avenue northbound and Fifth Avenue southbound until it reaches Central Park South. This corridor is shared by the
M1, M2, M3 and M4 routes, and Sixth Avenue with the
M7. There, the M5 runs crosstown along Central Park South (West 59th Street) and uptown along Broadway from Columbus Circle to West 72nd Street, where it crosses over to the southern terminus of Riverside Drive. This Broadway section is shared by the M7 and M104, and 72nd Street is shared by the street's M72 crosstown bus route, as well as the M57. The route shifts to Riverside Drive, parallel to Broadway and runs the entire length of the street. This portion is not served by any other bus route. At 135th Street, the bus route goes back to Broadway, where it meets the M4 route, and continues up that street until Fort Washington Avenue, where the M4 shifts on that street to head to
The Cloisters
The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights, Manhattan, Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art ...
while the M5 continues up Broadway until the
George Washington Bridge Bus Station
The George Washington Bridge Bus Station is a commuter bus terminal located at the east end of the George Washington Bridge in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan in New York City. The bus station is owned and operated by the Port Authori ...
at 178th Street.
During the daytime, all M5 buses make limited stops between 135th and 157th Streets, as well as between 72nd and 31st Streets. M5 Limited buses serve all local stops between 72nd and 135th Streets and north of 157th Street. When the M5 Limited is running, there is no M5 local service.
The M55 runs local at all times.
The M2, M3, M4, M5 and M104 are based out of
Manhattanville Depot, while the M1 and M7 are based out of
Mother Clara Hale 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 Westc ...
and the M55 out of
Michael J Quill Depot.
History
Streetcar service
The
Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad opened a line from Lower Manhattan to Central Park in 1864. However, south of
Union Square
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
, tracks were not allowed in Broadway due to local opposition. Thus the route began in the trackage west of
City Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
, jointly owned by the
Sixth Avenue Railroad
Sixth is the ordinal form of the number six.
* The Sixth Amendment, to the U.S. Constitution
* A keg of beer, equal to 5 U.S. gallons or barrel
* The fraction
Music
* Sixth interval (music)s:
** major sixth, a musical interval
** minor si ...
and
Eighth Avenue Railroad, and used the
one-way pair
A one-way pair, one-way couple, or couplet refers to that portion of a bi-directional traffic facilitysuch as a road, bus, streetcar, or light rail linewhere its opposing flows exist as two independent and roughly parallel facilities.
Descriptio ...
of
Church Street and
West Broadway
West Broadway is a north-south street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, separated into two parts by Tribeca Park. The northern part begins at Tribeca Park, near the intersection of Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), Walker Street a ...
to
Canal Street and
Greene Street and
Wooster Street to
8th Street, north of which both directions used
University Place to Union Square. North of Union Square, tracks were built in Broadway to north of
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
, where it merged with the Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad's other line, along Seventh Avenue, to end at Seventh Avenue and
59th Street.
On May 8, 1884,
Jacob Sharp, the owner of the Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad, incorporated the Broadway Surface Railroad to run along Broadway from Union Square south to the
Bowling Green
A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls.
Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on ...
. It opened in 1885, and was leased to the Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad. A
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
was installed on May 1, 1893, and the
Lexington Avenue Line and
Broadway and Columbus Avenue Line
The Columbus Avenue Line is a public transit line in Manhattan, New York City, running mostly along Columbus Avenue, 116th Street, and Lenox Avenue from Lower Manhattan to Harlem. Originally a streetcar line, it is now the M7 bus route, operat ...
were also operated by cable as branches. The Broadway Line was
electrified
Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source.
The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...
with
conduit
Conduit may refer to:
Engineering systems
* Conduit (fluid conveyance), a pipe suitable for carrying either open-channel or pressurized liquids
* Electrical conduit, a protective cover, tube or piping system for electric cables
* Conduit curre ...
in May 1901.
The Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad was leased by the
Houston, West Street and Pavonia Ferry Railroad
The Houston, West Street and Pavonia Ferry Railroad was a street railway company in the U.S. state of New York. It owned and operated a system in Lower Manhattan, and became part of the Metropolitan Street Railway.
History
The Avenue C Railro ...
on June 30, 1893, and the lessee merged with the Broadway Surface Railroad and
South Ferry Railroad on November 29, 1893 to form the
Metropolitan Street Railway
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 ...
. Buses were substituted for streetcars 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 ...
on March 6, 1936, as route number 6. That company 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 ...
in 1956; the
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 ...
took over operations in 1962.
Reroutes along north-south avenues
When Broadway from
34th Street to
Columbus Circle
Columbus Circle is a traffic circle and heavily trafficked intersection in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South ( West 59th Street), and Central Park West, at the so ...
, Sixth Avenue from 34th Street to 59th Street, and Seventh Avenue from Times Square to 59th Street became
one-way street
One-way traffic (or uni-directional traffic) is traffic that moves in a single direction. A one-way street is a street either facilitating only one-way traffic, or designed to direct vehicles to move in one direction. One-way streets typical ...
s on March 10, 1957, the Broadway-Seventh Avenue route 6's northbound route was shifted to Sixth Avenue between 34th and 59th Streets. When several lower Manhattan streets were converted to one-way traffic on June 3, 1962, the 6's northbound path in the area was rearranged to travel along
Greenwich Street
Greenwich Street is a north–south street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. It extends from the intersection of Ninth Avenue (Manhattan), Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District, Manhat ...
, Trinity Place and
Church Street. Following the one-way conversions of Sixth Avenue below 34th Street to one-way northbound, and of Broadway between 34th and 23rd Streets and between 14th and Canal Streets to one-way southbound, on November 10, 1963, the NYCO's Sixth Avenue bus (numbered 5) was discontinued and absorbed into the 6, now designated the Broadway-Seventh Avenue-Avenue of the Americas Line, and later
M6.
![MTA New York City Bus DesignLine EcoSaver IV (2009)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/MTA_New_York_City_Bus_DesignLine_EcoSaver_IV_%282009%29.jpg)
Meanwhile, the
Fifth Avenue Coach Company
The Fifth Avenue Coach Company was a bus operator in Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, and Westchester County, New York, providing public transit between 1896 and 1954 after which services were taken over by the New York City Omnibus Corporation. It ...
had been operating its own route 5, the Fifth Avenue–Riverside Drive line, since August 5, 1900. For decades up to the 1962 MABSTOA takeover, its route largely held the same: running from
168th Street –
Washington Heights to
Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park is a public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City's public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity. ...
, traveling through Fifth Avenue south of
57th Street, then turning onto
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
through Columbus Circle, turning at
72nd Street towards
Riverside Drive on its way to its northern terminus. The only change in the route path was following Broadway's conversion to
one-way southbound between Columbus Circle and
Herald Square
Herald Square is a major commercial intersection in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, formed by the intersection of Broadway, Sixth Avenue (officially Avenue of the Americas), and 34th Street. Named for the now-defunct ''New ...
in 1957, requiring the northbound 5 to turn at 57th Street onto
Eighth Avenue en route to Columbus Circle.
Bus service
In the first decade following MABSTOA's 1962 takeover of all Fifth Avenue Coach and
Surface Transit
A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is ...
lines, several changes to the M5's route were made. After Washington Square Park was closed to bus traffic on September 2, 1963, its southern terminus (and that of
today's M2 and M3) was moved to
8th Street west of
University Place, then turning on there to
9th Street towards Fifth Avenue. Next, on November 10, 1963 (the same day the NYCO's 5 was discontinued), the southern terminus of the FACCo's 5 was moved to
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 ...
and
West Broadway
West Broadway is a north-south street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, separated into two parts by Tribeca Park. The northern part begins at Tribeca Park, near the intersection of Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue), Walker Street a ...
, and its route south of 8th Street extended to Broadway southbound and
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 ...
northbound (M2 and M3's southern terminus was moved further east to 8th Street and
Fourth Avenue in the vicinity of
Cooper Square
__NOTOC__
Cooper Square is a junction of streets in Lower Manhattan in New York City located at the confluence of the neighborhoods of Bowery to the south, NoHo to the west and southwest, Greenwich Village to the west and northwest, the East Vi ...
as part of the same service change). The rest of the 5's northbound route below 57th Street was shifted to Sixth Avenue on January 14, 1966 following Fifth Avenue's conversion to one-way southbound. Then, its northern terminus was extended to
178th Street –
George Washington Bridge Bus Station
The George Washington Bridge Bus Station is a commuter bus terminal located at the east end of the George Washington Bridge in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan in New York City. The bus station is owned and operated by the Port Authori ...
on January 10, 1971.
Closures of Broadway in the
Theater District A theater district (also spelled theatre district) is a common name for a neighborhood containing several of a city's theatres.
Places
*Theater District, Manhattan, New York City
*Boston Theater District
*Buffalo Theater District
*Cleveland Theater ...
south of 47th Street and around
Herald Square
Herald Square is a major commercial intersection in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, formed by the intersection of Broadway, Sixth Avenue (officially Avenue of the Americas), and 34th Street. Named for the now-defunct ''New ...
in 2009 resulted in major changes to the M6's southbound service, with the northern half of the route shifting to Seventh Avenue before returning to Broadway in the vicinity of Union Square. On July 13, 2009, southbound M6 service was rerouted to run across 23rd Street instead of 14th Street to provide more consistent service.
On June 27, 2010, due to budget problems, the M6 was discontinued and the M5 was extended to South Ferry via Broadway to replace former M1 and M6 service south of Houston Street.
In January 2016, it was proposed to split the M5 into two routes. The uptown section would continue to operate as the M5, running between Washington Heights and West 37th Street in Midtown. The downtown section would be the M55, a new route between Midtown and South Ferry.
In July, in response to public comments, the proposal was modified so the routes could have a 13-block overlap in Midtown. Under the modified proposal, the M5 would run between Washington Heights and West 31st Street near
Penn Station Pennsylvania Station is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad to several of its grand passenger terminals.
Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station may also refer to
Current train stations
* Baltimore Penn Station
* Pennsylvania Station (Cinci ...
and
Herald Square
Herald Square is a major commercial intersection in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, formed by the intersection of Broadway, Sixth Avenue (officially Avenue of the Americas), and 34th Street. Named for the now-defunct ''New ...
; the M55 would run between West 44th Street, two blocks north of
Bryant Park
Bryant Park is a public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Privately managed, it is located between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas ( Sixth Avenue) and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. The e ...
, and South Ferry, starting on January 8, 2017.
The new route would provide 88% of M5 customers to have reliable service without transferring, since many customers from both ends wanted to retain service to Midtown (the area between 34th Street and 59th Street). The M5 would continue to have limited-stop service during the daytime, while the M55 would operate local at all times.
Other ideas to improve reliability, which included restoring the M5 and M6 to their pre-2010 services and converting the M5 into a
Select Bus Service
Select Bus Service (SBS; stylized as +busservice) is a brand used by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s Regional Bus Operations for limited-stop bus routes with some bus rapid transit features in New York City. The first SBS route ...
route, were rejected. A three-legged transfer was provided to M5 and M55 customers along Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
The split M5 and M55 services began on January 8, 2017.
References
External links
*
*
{{NYC streetcar transit
Streetcar lines in Manhattan
M005
1864 introductions
005
Sixth Avenue
Fifth Avenue