The First and Second Avenues Line, also known as the Second Avenue Line, is 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 ...

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 List of counties in New York, origin ...

, New York City, running mostly along Second Avenue (and northbound on First Avenue since 1951) from

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 ...

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, Fif ...

. 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 ...

along Second Avenue, it is now the M15 bus route, the busiest bus route in the city, carrying over 8.1 million people annually.

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. , MTA Regional Bus Operations ru ...

, under the

New York City Bus 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 ...

and

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 ...

brands, operates the local out of the Tuskegee Airmen Bus Depot and the SBS from the Mother Clara Hale Bus Depot. Service is operated exclusively with

articulated bus An articulated bus, also referred to as a banana bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, wiggle wagon, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, (either a motor bus or trolleybus) is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is usua ...

es.

History

MTA New York City Bus Nova Bus LFS articulated (2010 - non-Select Bus Service)

The

Second Avenue Railroad The Second Avenue Railroad was a street railway company in Manhattan, New York City, United States. Its lines included the Second Avenue Line. The line ran from Peck Slip in Lower Manhattan to the Harlem River. It included branches to the 92nd Stre ...

opened the line in 1853 and 1854, from Peck Slip on the

East River The East River is a saltwater Estuary, tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough o ...

north along Pearl Street,

Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "Bow ...

(shared with the Third Avenue Line), Grand Street,

Chrystie Street Chrystie Street is a street on Manhattan's Lower East Side and Chinatown, running as a continuation of Second Avenue from Houston Street, for seven blocks south to Canal Street. It is bounded on the east for its entirety by Sara Delano Roose ...

, and Second Avenue to

. A short branch was later built along

Stuyvesant Street Stuyvesant Street is one of the oldest streets in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs diagonally from 9th Street at Third Avenue to 10th Street near Second Avenue, all within the East Village, Manhattan, neighborhood. The major ...

and

Astor Place Astor Place is a one-block street in NoHo/ East Village, in the lower part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs from Broadway in the west (just below East 8th Street) to Lafayette Street. The street encompasses two plazas at ...

to end at

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 ...

NoHo NoHo, short for North of Houston Street (as contrasted with SoHo), is a primarily residential neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is bounded by Mercer Street to the west and the Bowery to the east, ...

. 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 a ...

leased the line in January 1898, and on April 3 the line from Astor Place to Manhattan 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 ...

. The original line was later electrified to the Bowery, where streetcars used the Third Avenue Line to

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 house ...

, and the line to Peck Slip was abandoned. Buses were substituted for streetcars by the East Side Omnibus Corporation on June 25, 1933. The

New York City Board of Transportation The New York City Board of Transportation or the Board of Transportation of the City of New York (NYCBOT or BOT) was a city transit commission and operator in New York City, consisting of three members appointed by the mayor. It was created in ...

took over operations in 1948, with 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 ...

(NYCTA) replacing it in 1953. Limited-stop service began on September 13, 1976, with buses making only 15 stops, spaced every eight blocks, between 126th Street and Houston Street, saving riders up to 23 minutes. Limited-stop service ran every six minutes on weekdays, heading southbound in the morning, between 7:12 and 9:21 a.m., and northbound in the afternoon, between 4:12 and 6:11 p.m. These buses were identified by signs on the lower right side of the windshield. As part of the project, new dedicated bus lanes were installed. On September 7, 1987, a public hearing was held to discuss the NYCTA's plan to reduce the span of weekend evening M15 service to City Hall and Park Row from ending at 12:40 a.m. to ending at 8:10 p.m.. In addition, the hours of weekday service were to be lengthened slightly. The changes were to be made to provide a more uniform service frequency and service pattern. In June 2002 as part of an outside study, the First/Second Avenues corridor was identified for the implementation of

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

(BRT) service, due to heavy ridership and slow travel speeds on the corridor. In late 2004, the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in the ...

(MTA) and the

New York City Department of Transportation The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) is the agency of the government of New York City responsible for the management of much of New York City's transportation infrastructure. Ydanis Rodriguez is the Commissioner of the Depart ...

selected the route as one of the candidates for bus rapid transit service, along with Fordham Road (since implemented), Nostrand Avenue, Merrick Boulevard, and Hylan Boulevard. This evolved into Phase I of the

(SBS) program in 2006. On October 10, 2010, service began on the M15 Select Bus Service, replacing limited stop service. By then, the MTA had discontinued service to City Hall due to budget cuts. Both the M15 local and M15 SBS were previously assigned to the 126th Street Depot until January 4, 2015.

Select Bus Service stops

References

External links

*
M15 First/Second Avenues SBS
− mta.info
First Avenue And Second Avenue Select Bus Service
−

NYCDOT The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) is the agency of the government of New York City responsible for the management of much of New York City's transportation infrastructure. Ydanis Rodriguez is the Commissioner of the Depart ...

{{Select Bus Service 02 1853 introductions M015

015 Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak albu ...

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