The New York Railways Corporation was a railway company that operated

street railway 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 ...

s 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 ...

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 ...

between 1925 and 1936. During 1935/1936 it converted its remaining lines to

bus routes 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 ...

which 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 ...

, and now operated by 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 ...

. The organization was the successor to the

New York Railways Company 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 ...

which was in

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

History

The New York Railways Corporation took over operations from the receivers of the

on May 1, 1925. A majority of stock was bought in August 1926 by 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 ...

which had been acquired by the newly formed

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 purc ...

the same year. It was reported at the time that the company had plans to abandon the lines and replace them with buses operated by the newly formed

. The Eighth and Ninth Avenue Railroads merged in December 1926 to form the Eighth and Ninth Avenues Railway, but that company entered receivership on May 5, 1927, and was bought by the Fifth Avenue Coach Company. The New York and Harlem's lines were leased again in 1932. Conversion to bus operation started with the Fourth and Madison Avenues Line in February 1935 using specially-built larger vehicles from

Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company The Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company (informally Yellow Coach) was an early manufacturer of passenger buses in the United States. Between 1923 and 1943, Yellow Coach built transit buses, electric-powered trolley buses, and parlor coaches. Fou ...

). The line was judged to be a success and the remaining streetcar lines were converted over an 18-month period: Electric Railroader's Association
The Bulletin
Vol. 49, No. 5, May 2006 * Sixth Avenue Line - March 12, 1936 * Seventh Avenue Line - March 6, 1936 * Eighth Avenue Line - November 12, 1935 *

Ninth and Amsterdam Avenues Line The Ninth and Tenth Avenues Line or Ninth Avenue Line is a surface transit line in the New York City borough of Manhattan, running mostly along Ninth Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue from Lower Manhattan to Manhattanville. Originally a streetcar l ...

- November 12, 1935 * Broadway Line - February 12, 1936 * Columbus Avenue Line - February 12, 1936 * Lexington Avenue Line - March 25, 1936 *

Eighth Street Crosstown Line The Eighth and Ninth Streets Crosstown is a public transit line in Manhattan, New York City, running mostly along Eighth Street, Ninth Street, Tenth Street, and Christopher Street through the West Village, Greenwich Village, and East Village. ...

- March 6, 1936 * 14th Street Crosstown Line - April 20, 1936 * 23rd Street Crosstown Line - April 8, 1936 * 34th Street Crosstown Line - April 1, 1936 *

86th Street Crosstown Line The 86th Street Crosstown Line is a bus line in Manhattan, New York City, running mostly along 86th Street on the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. Originally a streetcar line, it now comprises the M86 Select Bus Service bus line. ...

- June 8, 1936 * 116th Street Crosstown Line - April 1, 1936 Due to a stockholders' lawsuit, the company had to operate a single trolley trip on each line until early June 1936 to retain the

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

s. The 86th Street Crosstown Line was the last New York Railways line because

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 ...

was operating buses along 86th Street. The New York and Harlem Railroad trolleys (Fourth and Madison Avenues; 86th Street Crosstown was not replaced with buses) were replaced by Madison Avenue Coach Company buses, and the Eighth and Ninth Avenues Railway trolleys by

Eighth 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 ...

buses, both companies owned by Fifth Avenue Coach.

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

Buses to Run Soon on 8th and 9th Avs.
October 5, 1935, page 17

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New York Railways Streetcar lines in Manhattan Defunct public transport operators in the United States Defunct New York (state) railroads 1926 mergers and acquisitions