MTA Regional Bus Operations
MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the Public transport bus service, bus operations division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City. The MTA operates local, limited-stop, express, and Select Bus Service (bus rapid transit ...
operates local and express
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
es serving
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
out of 27
bus depots.
These depots are located in all five boroughs of the city, plus one located in nearby
Yonkers
Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...
in
Westchester County
Westchester County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York, bordering the Long Island Sound and the Byram River to its east and the Hudson River on its west. The county is the seventh most populous cou ...
. 19 of these depots serve
MTA New York City Transit
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 New York state public-benefit corporations, public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York (state), New ...
(NYCT)'s bus operations, while the remaining eight serve the
MTA Bus Company
MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the bus operations division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City. The MTA operates local, limited-stop, express, and Select Bus Service ( bus rapid transit) services across the city o ...
(the successor to private bus operations taken over around 2006.) These facilities perform regular maintenance, cleaning, and painting of buses, as well as collection of revenue from bus
farebox
A fare is the fee paid by a passenger for use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used. Fare structure is the system set up to determine how much is to be paid by various p ...
es.
Several of these depots were once car barns for
streetcar
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
s, while others were built much later and have only served buses.
Employees of the depots are represented by local divisions of the
Transport Workers Union of America
Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. This article disc ...
(TWU), particularly the TWU Local 100 or of the
Amalgamated Transit Union
The Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) is a labor organization in the United States and Canada that represents employees in the public transit industry. Established in 1892 as the Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees of America, the u ...
(ATU)'s Local's 726 for all depots in Staten Island, 1056 for Casey Stengel, Jamaica, and Queens Village Depots, 1179 for JFK & Far Rockaway Depots, and 1181 for Spring Creek Depot.
History
On June 1, 1940, 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 of New York City, m ...
(BOT) took over the streetcar operations of the
Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation
The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) was an urban transit holding company, based in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, and incorporated in 1923. The system was sold to the city in 1940. Today, together with the IND subway sy ...
(BMT), as part of the
unification
Unification or unification theory may refer to:
Computer science
* Unification (computer science), the act of identifying two terms with a suitable substitution
* Unification (graph theory), the computation of the most general graph that subs ...
of the city's transit system under municipal operations. The streetcar lines would be motorized into diesel bus routes or
trolleybus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
routes over the next two decades.
In 1947, the BOT took over the
North Shore Bus Company
The North Shore Bus Company operated public buses in Queens, New York City. It was established in 1920 as the successor to the New York and North Shore Traction Company trolley system, and operated until 1947 when it went bankrupt, and its operati ...
in Queens and Isle Transportation in Staten Island, giving the city control of the majority of surface transit in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island.
[ On September 24, 1948, the BOT took over the East Side Omnibus Corporation and Comprehensive Omnibus Corporation in Manhattan, receiving two depots in ]East Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem, or , is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, Fifth Avenue to the west, and the East and Harlem Rivers to the eas ...
. From 1947 to 1950, the BOT reconstructed numerous depots and trolley barns inherited from the private operators, and erected or purchased new facilities to expand capacity. In 1962, 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 New York state public-benefit corporations, public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York (state), New ...
(successor to the BOT) and its subsidiary Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA) took over the operations of 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. I ...
in Manhattan and the Bronx. The Transit Authority inherited at least 12 bus depots from the company, some of which were kept in operation while others were condemned and closed. From 2005 to 2006, the remaining private operators were taken over by the MTA Bus Company. The MTA inherited eight facilities at this time, which had been built either by the companies or 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 Departm ...
(NYCDOT).[
]
Central Maintenance Depots
The MTA has two major "central maintenance facilities" (CMFs) that serve the New York City area. The Grand Avenue Central Maintenance Facility is adjacent to the Grand Avenue Depot
MTA Regional Bus Operations operates local and express buses serving New York City in the United States out of 27 bus depots. These depots are located in all five boroughs of the city, plus one located in nearby Yonkers in Westchester County. 1 ...
in Maspeth, Queens
Maspeth is a residential and commercial community in the Borough (New York City), borough of Queens in New York City. It was founded in the early 17th century by Dutch and English settlers. Neighborhoods sharing borders with Maspeth are Woodside ...
, and the Zerega Avenue Central Maintenance Facility is located at 750 Zerega Avenue in the Bronx
The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
. Both maintenance facilities are responsible for the major reconstruction of buses in need of repair including engine rebuilding, transmission shops, and shops for body components on New York City Transit Authority's bus fleet, as well as repainting of buses. The facilities also include several employee workshops for surface transportation training and institutional instruction. In addition, Zerega Avenue CMF is responsible for registry of new buses in the fleet. The two facilities were conceived as part of the 1995-1999 and 2000-2004 MTA Capital Programs. The Zerega Avenue facility was opened in 2001, while the Grand Avenue facility was opened in 2007 along with the bus depot. Previously, the large repair shops of the East New York Depot
MTA Regional Bus Operations operates local and express buses serving New York City in the United States out of 27 bus depots. These depots are located in all five boroughs of the city, plus one located in nearby Yonkers in Westchester County. 1 ...
served as the system's sole central maintenance shops; as of May 2016, East New York is considered a third central maintenance facility.
Zerega Avenue Facility
The Zerega Avenue Maintenance and Training Facility is a one-story structure located on the east side of Zerega Avenue between Lafayette and Seward Avenues in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx (), sitting along the western coast of Westchester Creek
Westchester Creek (also known as Frenchman's Creek) is a tidal inlet of the East River located in the south eastern portion of the Bronx in New York City. It is 2.1 miles (3.39 km) in length. The creek formerly traveled further inland, to w ...
. Plans for the facility were conceived around 1999, and it was constructed in 2000. The facility received an award from the American Society of Civil Engineers
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering soci ...
for design-build project of the year in 2002. Around 2002, the Zerega shops began overhauling NYCT buses to operate on ultra-low-sulfur diesel
Ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) is diesel fuel with substantially lowered sulfur content. Since 2006, almost all of the petroleum-based diesel fuel available in Europe and North America has been of a ULSD type.
The move to lower sulfur content all ...
. The facility includes paint booths for MTA buses, and was designed to maintain compressed natural gas
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in ...
(CNG) equipment. It also features numerous classrooms and a driving simulator
Driving simulators are used for entertainment as well as in training of driver's education courses taught in educational institutions and private businesses. They are also used for research purposes in the area of human factors and medical rese ...
to train MTA bus operators.
Bronx Division
The Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA), a subsidiary of the New York City Transit brand, operates all the local routes in the Bronx aside from the Bx23 and Q50. The latter two routes and all express bus routes in the borough are operated by the MTA Bus Company. All depots in the division, including those under the MTA Bus Company, are represented by TWU Local 100. Although named the Bronx Division, only three are actually located in The Bronx
The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
, with the others in Inwood, Manhattan
Inwood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan, at the northern tip of Manhattan Island, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is bounded by the Hudson River to the west, Spuyten Duyvil ...
and the suburb of Yonkers.
Eastchester Depot (MTA Bus)
The Eastchester Depot is located on Tillotson Avenue near Conner Street () off the New England Thruway
Interstate 95 (I-95) is part of the Interstate Highway System and runs from Miami, Florida, to the Canada–United States border near Houlton, Maine. In the US state of New York, I-95 extends from the George Washington Bridge in New York ...
(Interstate 95
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...
) in the Eastchester and Co-op City
Co-op City (short for Cooperative City) is a cooperative housing development located in the northeast section of the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It is bounded by Interstate 95 to the southwest, west, and north and the Hutchinson River ...
neighborhoods of the Bronx. It was built in 1970, and is owned by Edward Arrigoni, former president of New York Bus Service
New York Bus Service was a private bus company in New York City. Originally a school bus company founded in the mid-1940s, it was known for providing express bus service between Midtown Manhattan and eastern sections of the Bronx from 1970 unti ...
(NYBS), and has been leased to the City of New York and MTA Bus Company for twenty years with an option to purchase afterwards. It was renamed Eastchester Depot upon takeover on July 1, 2005. It previously housed the mass transit operations of NYBS, which operated express service between the Bronx to Manhattan as well as school bus operations.
This depot contains a major bus overhaul and repair facility/shop for various type of buses, a major "reserve storage" facility for out-of-service buses, and a storage facility for decommissioned and wrecked buses awaiting scrapping.[ The latter set of buses are stripped of usable parts such as windows and engine components, as well as reusable fluids such as motor oil and fuel, before the remaining shells and unsalvageable parts are sold for scrap.] The scrapping program began in summer 2008. Under the MTA, the shop was upgraded with a new concrete floor. The facility underwent further renovations in the 2010s, replacing the maintenance building's roof and improving ventilation and pollution controls including containment of fuel spills. The upgraded facility opened on August 13, 2015.
Fleet
* 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
* MCI D4500CL
* Prevost X3-45
Routes
* Local Routes: (split from the former Queens Surface
Queens Surface Corporation was a bus company in New York City, United States, operating local service in Queens and the Bronx and express service between Queens and Manhattan until February 27, 2005, when the MTA Bus Company took over the opera ...
route QBx1 in 2010)
* Express Routes: (all former NYBS routes)
* A.M. Rush Express Routes: (shared with College Point)
Gun Hill Depot
The Gun Hill Depot is located at 1910 Bartow Avenue near Gun Hill Road (), west of the New England Thruway
Interstate 95 (I-95) is part of the Interstate Highway System and runs from Miami, Florida, to the Canada–United States border near Houlton, Maine. In the US state of New York, I-95 extends from the George Washington Bridge in New York ...
(Interstate 95
Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...
) in the Baychester neighborhood of the Bronx near Co-op City
Co-op City (short for Cooperative City) is a cooperative housing development located in the northeast section of the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It is bounded by Interstate 95 to the southwest, west, and north and the Hutchinson River ...
, which a number of its routes serve.
The site was formerly a garbage and toxic waste dump, used at various times for both legal and illegal waste disposal. It was selected by the MTA for a new garage in 1979 to replace the original West Farms Depot It opened on September 10, 1989, also temporarily replacing the old Kingsbridge Depot, which closed on the same day for reconstruction. The depot also contains heavy maintenance facilities and served the Bronx's central maintenance facility upon its opening.
In 1992, the MTA built little league baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
fields on an adjacent site one block west. The MTA also owned the lot immediately south of the depot until 2014, which was leased and used as a driving range
A driving range is a facility or area where golfers can practice their golf swing. It can also be a recreational activity itself for amateur golfers or when enough time for a full game is not available. Many golf courses have a driving range ...
from 1999 to 2010. This land was originally planned for an expansion of the depot, or a new central rebuild facility. In June 1996, solar panel
A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...
s were installed on the roof of the depot. It was the first NYCTA depot to use solar energy, which now provide about 40% of the depot's power. It is also the only New York City Transit bus garage that was built on previously undeveloped land.
Fleet
* 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
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF40102
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS HEV LF40102
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF60102
Routes
* Local Routes:
*Articulated
An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent coupling in its construction. This coupling works as a large pivot joint, allowing it to bend and turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buse ...
Local/SBS Routes: / Bx4A, / Bx12 SBS, / Bx41 SBS,
Kingsbridge Depot
The Kingsbridge Depot is located in at 4055-4060 Ninth Avenue in Inwood, Manhattan
Inwood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan, at the northern tip of Manhattan Island, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is bounded by the Hudson River to the west, Spuyten Duyvil ...
() and stretches nearly two square blocks, from Tenth Avenue to the Harlem River and from 216th Street to 218th Street. The current facility opened on February 23, 1993, and consists of two separate buildings: one for maintenance (the Ninth Avenue Shop) and one for bus storage. The Ninth Avenue shop rebuilds individual bus components. It was the first in the city to house articulated bus
An articulated bus, also referred to as a slinky bus, bendy bus, tandem bus, vestibule bus, stretch bus, or an accordion bus, is an articulated vehicle, typically a motor bus or trolleybus, used in public transportation. It is usually a ...
es beginning on September 30, 1996. The roof of the depot is a public parking facility.
The site of the depot was originally the Kingsbridge Car Barn, a streetcar barn owned by the Third Avenue Railway
The Third Avenue Railway System (TARS), founded 1852, was a streetcar system serving the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx along with lower Westchester County. For a brief period of time, TARS also operated the Steinway Lines i ...
in 1897. This was a one-story brick structure with a basement and steel frame designed in Roman renaissance style with terracotta
Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...
features. Among its designers included Isaac A. Hopper, who constructed Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
. Across from the barn on the east side of Ninth Avenue was the Kingsbridge Power House, which was constructed around the same time and supplied electricity to the Third Avenue system. It was designed and built by Westinghouse Electric Corporation
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was ...
and by Hopper, with similar brick and terracotta features.
The facility became the location of the company's central repair shop
Shop or shopping may refer to:
Business and commerce
* A casual word for a commercial establishment or for a place of business
* Machine shop, a workshop for machining
*"In the shop", referring to a car being at an automotive repair shop
* Reta ...
in 1947 when the 65th Street Shops closed. In 1948, Third Avenue's central repair shop was moved again to a facility in Yonkers
Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...
, while the Kingsbridge Depot ceased serving trolleys and began serving buses in 1948. In 1962, it was acquired by the MaBSTOA. The original 1897 depot closed on September 10, 1989, when the Gun Hill Depot opened, and was razed soon after. It had fallen into disrepair and the placement of its support columns was inconvenient for bus movements in the building.
Fleet
* 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 ...
XE40
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF40102
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS HEV LF40102
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF60102
Routes
* Local Routes: , Bx18A/ Bx18B, (A.M. rush only, shared with Gun Hill, also runs with articulated buses)
* Articulated Local Routes: , Bx12 (summer only, shared with Gun Hill)
West Farms Depot (CNG)
The West Farms Depot is located along East 177th Street and next to the northern end of Sheridan Boulevard at its interchange with the Cross Bronx Expressway
The Cross Bronx Expressway is a major controlled-access highway, freeway in the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is mainly designated as part of Interstate 95 in New York, Interstate 95 (I-95), but also includes portions of Interstate ...
(), in the West Farms section of the Bronx
The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
. The site is bounded by 177th Street at its north end, Devoe Avenue to the west, and is just south of East Tremont Avenue (also called Hector Lavoe Boulevard) and West Farms Square.[ The depot opened on September 7, 2003, on the site of the former Coliseum Depot.] It is one of five compressed natural gas
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in ...
(CNG) Depots in the Buses system, along with Jackie Gleason, Spring Creek, Zerega, and College Point facilities and formerly Rockville Centre and Mitchel Field depots (now NICE bus depots under the same name).[
Originally, the site was an amusement park called ]Starlight Park
Starlight Park is a public park located along the Bronx River in the Bronx in New York City. Starlight Park stands on the site of an amusement park of the same name that operated in the first half of the 20th century.
The amusement park was orig ...
, which hosted the Bronx International Exposition of Science, Arts and Industries in 1918.[ In 1928, the park operators received the auditorium from the 1926 ]Sesquicentennial Exposition
The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition of 1926 was a world's fair in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its purpose was to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, and the 50th anniversar ...
in Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, which became the New York Coliseum
The New York Coliseum was a convention center that stood at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York City, from 1956 to 2000. It was designed by architects Leon Levy and Lionel Levy in a modified International Style, and included both a low buil ...
. The coliseum and park went into receivership in 1940, and the coliseum was used as a vehicle maintenance center for the United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
during World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. It was acquired by the Third Avenue Railway
The Third Avenue Railway System (TARS), founded 1852, was a streetcar system serving the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx along with lower Westchester County. For a brief period of time, TARS also operated the Steinway Lines i ...
in April 1946, and was converted into a bus depot and repair shop for the successor Surface Transportation Corporation The Surface Transportation Corporation was the bus-operating subsidiary of the Third Avenue Railway in New York City which operated under that name following the conversion of the streetcar lines in Manhattan and the Bronx to bus service between Mar ...
around 1950. The company also operated a second facility nearby, at what is now West Farms Road and the Cross Bronx Expressway. Surface Transit was taken over by 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 ...
in 1956, and the depot became municipally operated when its parent company Fifth Avenue Coach folded in 1962. The Coliseum Depot closed in 1995[ and was demolished in 1997, while a new CNG-compatible facility was constructed as part of the MTA's 1995-1999 Capital Program. This included a "fast-fill" CNG filling station at the cost of $7.3 million.] It became the second NYCT depot to facilitate CNG when it opened in 2003.[ Currently, not all buses assigned run on CNG.
]
Fleet
* 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 ...
C40LF CNG
* 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
* 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 ...
XN40 CNG
* 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 ...
XN60 CNG
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF60102
Routes
* Local Routes:
* Articulated Local/SBS Routes: / Bx6 SBS,
Yonkers Depot (MTA Bus)
The Yonkers Depot is located at 59 Babcock Place at the foot of Alexander Street in the Getty Square
Getty Square is the name for downtown Yonkers, New York, Yonkers, New York (state), New York, centered on the town square, public square. Getty Square is the civic center, central business district, and Intermodal passenger transport, transit ...
section of Yonkers, New York
Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...
(), near the facilities of Greyston Bakery. The site was initially a freight yard for the adjacent Hudson Line, used by the New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...
. The depot was originally built by Gray Lines Tours for Riverdale Transit Corp, which later became a part of the Liberty Lines Express
Liberty Lines Transit is the owner of local bus routes in Westchester County, New York, and operates these and other local bus routes under contract as part of the Bee-Line Bus System. It had been affiliated with Liberty Lines Express, the owner ...
system. It is currently owned by New York City and leased to MTA Bus Company, sold by Liberty Lines on January 3, 2005, for $10.5 million. The depot consists of an administration building, a shop for bus maintenance and repairs, and an outdoor parking lot used for storing 80 express buses. The buses from the depot provide express service between Yonkers or Western Bronx and Manhattan. The city of Yonkers plans to acquire at least a portion of the site from the MTA, as part of the redevelopment of the waterfront area, a former industrial section.
Fleet
* MCI D4500CL
* Prevost X3-45
Routes
* Express Routes:
Brooklyn Division
All depots that are part of the Brooklyn Division are represented by TWU local 100 and operated by New York City Transit.
East New York Depot
The East New York Depot, also called the East New York Base Shops, is located at One Jamaica Avenue
Jamaica Avenue is a major avenue in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, New York, in the United States. Jamaica Avenue's western end is at Fulton Street and Broadway, as a continuation of East New York Avenue, in Brooklyn's ...
/25 Jamaica Avenue at Bushwick Avenue in the Broadway Junction area of East New York, Brooklyn
East New York is a residential neighborhood in the eastern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are roughly the Cemetery Belt and the Queens borough line to the north; ...
(), just east of the New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
's East New York Yard
The New York City Transit Authority operates 24 rail yards for the New York City Subway system and one for the Staten Island Railway. There are 10 active A Division yards and 11 active B Division yards, two of which are shared between divisions ...
. The five-story structure is steel-framed with a brick exterior, with two stories for bus storage and repair shops. The facility was built to perform heavy maintenance, and served as New York City Bus' central maintenance facility until the opening of the Zerega and Grand Avenue facilities. Buses enter and exit the complex via numerous doors on Jamaica Avenue, with an additional vehicle entrance at the north end of the complex at Bushwick Avenue. The depot was built to house over 300 buses. It currently has space for around 280 buses,[ including two additional outdoor parking lots south of the depot: Havens Lot at Havens Place between Herkimer Street and Atlantic Avenue, and Herkimer Lot at Herkimer Street and Williams Place underneath the ]BMT Canarsie Line
The BMT Canarsie Line (sometimes referred to as the 14th Street–Eastern Line) is a rapid transit line of the B Division (New York City Subway), B Division of the New York City Subway system, named after its terminus in the Canarsie, Brooklyn, ...
.[ The depot also features a paint shop, which is decommissioned] and has been used to store buses at times. The north end of the depot (1720 Bushwick Avenue) is used to maintain the museum bus fleet along with Amsterdam Depot, and contains a repair shop for MTA Bus. Also, work is underway to modify this depot to accommodate articulated-buses for use in the very near future.[
The original building on the site was a trolley car barn for the Broadway Railroad's Broadway streetcar line, opened in 1859.] The barn began serving buses in 1931, and was acquired by the city during unification in 1940. Construction on the current bus depot began in 1947. The depot was built on top of the subway tunnel roof of the IND Fulton Street Line
The IND Fulton Street Line is a rapid transit line of the IND Division of the New York City Subway, running from the Cranberry Street Tunnel under the East River through central Brooklyn to a terminus in Ozone Park, Queens. The IND Rockawa ...
, which had been built in the early 1940s. The depot opened on December 17, 1950. The trolley barn was replaced by the current depot on October 30, 1956, when Brooklyn streetcar service ended.
Also located at the facility is the MTA's bus command center, also known as the East New York Administration Building. The brick structure built along with the current depot is located at the west end of the bus depot, facing Fulton Street at the foot of Alabama Avenue. The center was expanded in 1962, and again in 1969. The MTA plans to construct a new command center across from the depot, to the east of the current complex. The contract for the project was awarded on June 26, 2015.
Fleet
* OBI Orion VII NG HEV
* 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
* 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 ...
XDE40
* 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 ...
XE40
Routes
* Local/SBS Routes: /[
]
Flatbush Depot
The Flatbush Depot is located at 4901 Fillmore Avenue in Flatlands, Brooklyn
Flatlands is a neighborhood in the southeast part of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. The current neighborhood borders are roughly defined by the Bay Ridge Branch to the north, Avenue U to the south, Ralph Avenue to the east, and Fl ...
(), near the Kings Plaza shopping center, where a number of bus routes terminate. The depot occupies two blocks just off Flatbush Avenue
Flatbush Avenue is a major avenue in the New York City Borough (New York City), Borough of Brooklyn. It runs from the Manhattan Bridge south-southeastward to Jamaica Bay, where it joins the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, which ...
, bounded by Fillmore Avenue, East 49th Street, Avenue N, and Utica Avenue
Utica Avenue is a major avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, New York (state), New York, United States. It is one of several named for the city of Utica, New York, Utica in Upstate New York. It runs north–south and occupies the position of East ...
.
The Brooklyn Heights Railroad (part of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company
The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was a public transit holding company formed in 1896 to acquire and consolidate railway lines in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, United States. It was a prominent corporation and industry leader using ...
) opened the depot in mid-1902 along its Flatbush Avenue Line (later the Bergen Beach Shuttle) on Avenue N. It eventually served a number of lines from the Flatbush
Flatbush is a neighborhood in the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood consists of several subsections in central Brooklyn and is generally bounded by Prospect Park (Brooklyn), Prospect Park to the nort ...
area, including the Bergen Beach Shuttle, Flatbush Avenue Line, Nostrand Avenue Line, Ocean Avenue Line, and Utica Avenue Line. The barn began serving buses in 1931, and was acquired by the city in 1940. The depot was reconstructed under municipal operations in the late 1940s, designed by architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
D. R. Collin of the BRT, and was intended to be the first of a new system-wide design. Few of the former BRT/BMT depots were rebuilt to match such designs. Only Ulmer Park Depot's garage building somewhat matches his new architectural design. The new Flatbush Depot opened for bus service on January 15, 1950, along with Ulmer Park Depot. An adjacent parking lot was added in 1965, and the depot was rehabilitated in 1991. In 2009, the depot became the first to dispatch buses equipped with Plexiglas
Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a synthetic polymer derived from methyl methacrylate. It is a transparent thermoplastic, used as an engineering plastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and bra ...
partitions to protect drivers, after the December 1, 2008 murder of Edwin Thomas, a bus driver who was operating a bus on the B46 Limited route when this incident occurred. This depot has also been modified to accommodate articulated buses, with the B44 Limited (now SBS) converted as of January 2013 and the B46 SBS in January 2020.
Fleet
* OBI Orion VII NG HEV
* 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
* 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 ...
XD60
The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35-foot rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are ...
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF60102
Routes
* Local Routes:
* Articulated SBS Routes:
Fresh Pond Depot
The Fresh Pond Depot is located at 66-99 Fresh Pond Road, on the east side of Fresh Pond Road south of Madison Street in Ridgewood, Queens
Ridgewood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It borders the Queens neighborhoods of Maspeth to the north, Middle Village to the east, and Glendale to the southeast, as well as the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bushwick to ...
(), west of the adjacent Fresh Pond Yard of the New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
. It was the site of a trolley depot called the Fresh Pond trolley yard, which was opened in 1907 by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company
The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) was a public transit holding company formed in 1896 to acquire and consolidate railway lines in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, United States. It was a prominent corporation and industry leader using ...
(BRT). In addition to repair shops, the barn hosted a "trolley car school" where new motormen were trained using a mockup of a streetcar's driver cabin. The trolley barn was acquired by the city in 1940, and was closed after the final trolley route from the depot, the Richmond Hill Line
Richmond Hill is one of the seven train lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It operates between Union Station in Toronto to Bloomington GO Station in the north in Richmond Hill. Trains on the line opera ...
(today's Q55 bus), was motorized into trolley bus service on April 26, 1950. The barn was razed in 1957. Construction of the current bus depot by the Transit Authority began in March 1959. In June 1959, a contract was awarded to rebuild the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line
The Myrtle Avenue Line, also called the Myrtle Avenue Elevated, is a fully elevated railroad, elevated line of the New York City Subway as part of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, BMT division. The line is the last surviving remnan ...
to provide adequate clearance for the passage of buses underneath to the depot. The new depot opened on July 27, 1960, at the cost of $2 million. The new depot was built to be wide by long. The initial capacity of the depot was 185 buses. The construction of the depot was required due to the loss of the West 5th Street Depot. In addition, the new depot replaced the Maspeth Trackless Trolley Depot, and Bergen Street depots located in Brooklyn. The new garage featured automatic fueling and washing facilities. The depot is currently assigned around 200 buses, but has been assigned as many as 262 in the past.
The depot and subway yard are located in an area once known as Fresh Pond, named for two freshwater ponds located just north of Metropolitan Avenue
Metropolitan Avenue is a major east-west street in Queens and northern Brooklyn, New York City. Its western end is at the East River in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and the eastern end at Jamaica Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. The avenue was construc ...
.
Fleet
* 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
Routes
* Local Routes:
Queens Bus Redesign
* New Routes:
* Leaving Route:
Grand Avenue Depot
The Grand Avenue Depot is located between 47th Street and 49th Place on the north side of Grand Avenue in Maspeth, Queens
Maspeth is a residential and commercial community in the Borough (New York City), borough of Queens in New York City. It was founded in the early 17th century by Dutch and English settlers. Neighborhoods sharing borders with Maspeth are Woodside ...
(), on the former site of a car rental business, and near the south end of the Newtown Creek
Newtown Creek, a long tributary of the East River, is an estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City. River engineering#Channelization, Channelization made it one of the most heavily-use ...
.[ This modern and environmentally friendly facility is the first of its kind for New York City Transit Authority.] The contract for the depot was awarded in 2003 to Granite Construction Northeast, with the design created by Gannett Fleming
Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation.
It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as severa ...
. The facility partially opened in 2007 housing 19 buses, and fully opened on January 6, 2008.[ Granite Construction, project information] Upon opening, the Grand Avenue Depot took on many routes and buses from the nearby Fresh Pond Depot, relieving overcrowding at that facility. The building design is certified Environmental Management Systems ISO 14001
The ISO 14000 family is a set of international standards for Natural environment, environment management systems. It was developed in March 1996 by International Organization for Standardization. The goal of these standards is to help organizations ...
specifications.[
The four-story building includes four fueling and defueling stations, cleaning and storage facilities for 200 buses on the first floor, an advanced 27 bus central maintenance facility on the second floor, administrative offices for NYCT's Department of Buses on the third floor, and parking garages for MTA employees on the roof. The central maintenance facility is able to repair and maintain the newer fleet of diesel, diesel hybrid-electric, articulated, express coach and compressed natural gas (CNG) buses, and has expanded the capabilities of the current East New York central maintenance facility for Brooklyn and Queens. The facility also has four environmentally friendly paint booths − self-contained units that avoid the spread of contaminants.]
The building meets the needs of expanding demands, and relief of the overcrowding at the Brooklyn Division's other six existing bus garages, and upgrading the Department of Buses' facilities to be state-of-the-art from both environmental and technological standpoints.[ Also, work to modify this depot to accommodate articulated-buses has been completed, with the B38 converted as of September 1, 2019, and work on electrically powered buses has also been completed.][
]
Fleet
* 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
* 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 ...
XDE40
* 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 ...
XE40
* 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 ...
XD60
The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35-foot rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are ...
Routes
* Local Routes:
* Articulated Local Route:
Queens Bus Redesign
* New Routes:
* Leaving Routes:
Jackie Gleason Depot (CNG)
The Jackie Gleason Depot, called the Fifth Avenue Depot until June 30, 1988, is located on the east side of Fifth Avenue between 36th and 39th Streets in Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Sunset Park is a neighborhoods of Brooklyn, neighborhood in the western part of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, bounded by Park Slope and Green-Wood Cemetery to the north, Borough Park, Brooklyn, Borough Park t ...
(), just west of the 36th-38th Street Yard and Ninth Avenue station of the New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
. The depot had been a passenger terminal named Union Station. Steam trains ran from some of the outlying parts of Downtown Brooklyn
Downtown Brooklyn is the third-largest central business district in New York City (after Midtown Manhattan, Midtown and Lower Manhattan), and is located in the northwestern section of the borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. The neighb ...
where they then continued their journey into Manhattan. Following that, it operated as an elevated car inspection shop from sometime in the early 1900s until approximately 1940, when it was acquired by the city's Board of Transportation. In 1944, it began operation as a bus garage called Fifth Avenue Depot. In 1959, the depot was equipped with heaters to circulate hot water through the heating and cooling systems of buses that had to be stored outside due to the lack of storage space. The depot was later rebuilt, and it opened on September 6, 1984. On June 30, 1988, the depot was renamed after Jackie Gleason
Herbert John Gleason (born Herbert Walton Gleason Jr.; February 26, 1916June 24, 1987), known as Jackie Gleason, was an American comedian, actor, writer, and composer also known as "The Great One". He developed a style and characters from growin ...
, who grew up in Brooklyn and played bus driver Ralph Kramden
''The Honeymooners'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It fol ...
in ''The Honeymooners
''The Honeymooners'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired from 1955 to 1956, created by and starring Jackie Gleason, and based on a recurring comedy sketch of the same name that had been part of Gleason's variety show. It f ...
''; this renaming occurred one year after Gleason's death. The depot later housed a bus built in 1949 similar to that used on the show, part of the New York Transit Museum
The New York Transit Museum (also called the NYC Transit Museum) is a museum that displays historical artifacts of the New York City Subway, MTA Regional Bus Operations, bus, and commuter rail systems in the greater New York City metropolitan ...
fleet.
The depot facilitated the first testing of compressed natural gas
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in ...
(CNG) buses in 1992, when a dual-fueled CNG/Diesel bus was housed in the facility. The bus was fueled at the Brooklyn Union Gas Company facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bordered on the southwest by Williamsburg at Bushwick Inlet Park and McCarren Park; on the southeast by the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway and East ...
. In November 1995, the NYCTA installed a fueling station (leased from Brooklyn Union) at the cost of $1.6 million for several Transportation Manufacturing Corporation (TMC) RTS-06 CNG buses and a fleet of BIA Orion 5.501 CNGs. The depot was fully equipped with CNG on June 7, 1999, with the original "slow-fill" fueling station replaced with a "fast-fill" station. It became the first NYCTA depot to support CNG buses.[ Also, this depot has been modified to accommodate articulated buses, with the B35 converted as of September 1, 2018.
]
Fleet
* 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 ...
C40LF CNG
* 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 ...
XN40 CNG
* 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 ...
XN60 CNG
Routes
* Local Routes:
* Articulated Local Route:
Ulmer Park Depot
The Ulmer Park Depot is located at 2449 Harway Avenue in the neighborhood of Bath Beach, Brooklyn
Bath Beach is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, located at the southwestern edge of the borough on Gravesend Bay. The neighborhood borders Bensonhurst and New Utrecht to the northeast across 86th Street; Dyker Beach P ...
().[ The depot fills the block bounded by 25th Avenue, Bay 38th Street (which is closed to the public), Harway Avenue, and Bath Avenue. Land for the depot was acquired in 1947,] and the facility was constructed in the late 1940s, opening for operation on January 15, 1950.[ It is a single story steel-framed building with a brick exterior.] It was rehabilitated in 1983 and 1989.[ This is the only NYCTA depot in Brooklyn to maintain express buses, storing a total of 285 buses.][ Ulmer Park is notable for rebuilding, repairing, and housing NYCT Bus 2185, a MCI express coach which was badly damaged during the ]September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
in 2001. This depot has also been modified to accommodate articulated buses, with the B1 converted as of June 2020.
The name Ulmer Park is a reference to the Ulmer Park resort, operated by William Ulmer of the William Ulmer Brewery in Bath Beach from 1893 to 1899.
Fleet
* 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
* 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 ...
XD60
The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35-foot rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are ...
* Prevost X3-45
Routes
* Local Routes:
* School Trippers: (shared with Jackie Gleason)
* Articulated Local Route:
* Express Routes:
Manhattan Division
The Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA), a subsidiary of the New York City Transit brand, operates all of the local buses in Manhattan. All Manhattan bus depots are represented by TWU Local 100.
Buses in the Manhattan Division may be swapped between depots on an as-needed basis, and are not reflected in the route assignments as these are short-term loans to cover services at these depots.
Amsterdam Depot
Amsterdam Depot is located on the entire city block bounded by Amsterdam Avenue, Convent Avenue, and 128th and 129th Streets in Manhattanville, Manhattan
Manhattanville (also known as West Harlem or West Central Harlem, after its location near Harlem) is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is bordered on the north by 135th Street; on the south by 122nd and 125th Stree ...
(), several blocks south of the City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...
. It was built in 1882 as a trolley depot for the Third Avenue Railway
The Third Avenue Railway System (TARS), founded 1852, was a streetcar system serving the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx along with lower Westchester County. For a brief period of time, TARS also operated the Steinway Lines i ...
.[Charles L. Ballard]
Metropolitan New York's Third Avenue Railway System
page 105 The last trolley was operated from the building on May 17, 1947. The building was then expanded and reopened as a bus garage by Surface Transit Inc., a subsidiary of 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. I ...
.[ ] The MaBSTOA assumed the depot's operations in 1962. The MTA shut down the Amsterdam Depot's bus operations on September 7, 2003, the day the new 100th Street Depot
MTA Regional Bus Operations operates local and express buses serving New York City in the United States out of 27 bus garage, bus depots. These depots are located in all five boroughs of the city, plus one located in nearby Yonkers, New York, Yo ...
(since renamed the Tuskegee Airmen Depot) opened. The depot was part of the Manhattan Division until spring 1998, when it was transferred to the Bronx Division due to the opening of the Michael J. Quill Depot and the closure of the Walnut Depot.Straphangers Campaign
The Straphangers Campaign is a New York City-based transit interest group that advocates on behalf of riders of public transport. The organization is part of the NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group).
The Straphangers Campaign's main ...
Slow Going: New York City Transit Bus Service
, accessed March 12, 2007 On January 6, 2008, MTA reopened the depot temporarily because of a rehabilitation project at the Mother Clara Hale Depot. Amsterdam Depot closed on June 27, 2010, due to service cuts. The M1 and M7 routes were transferred to Manhattanville, while the M98 route went to Michael J. Quill Depot. This garage now houses and maintains most of the museum and vintage bus fleet.
Manhattanville Depot
The Manhattanville Depot, formerly the 132nd Street Depot, is a three-story structure located in the block bounded by 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 Stre ...
, Riverside Drive, and 132nd and 133rd Streets in Manhattanville, Manhattan
Manhattanville (also known as West Harlem or West Central Harlem, after its location near Harlem) is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is bordered on the north by 135th Street; on the south by 122nd and 125th Stree ...
(). The depot holds 192 buses, with storage space on the second and third floors. The original site on 132nd Street and Broadway was a streetcar barn built in 1918 for 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. I ...
, which later used it for buses. The facility was taken over by the MaBSTOA subsidiary of the Transit Authority in March 1962. It served as the headquarters for the MaBSTOA. The original depot was demolished in the late 1980s, and a new depot was erected opening on November 8, 1992, replacing the old 54th Street Depot (also a former Fifth Avenue Coach facility) which closed the same day. In September 1998, the depot operated a pilot fleet of 10 Orion VI hybrid electric bus
A hybrid electric bus is a bus that combines a conventional internal combustion engine propulsion system with an electric propulsion system. These types of buses normally use a diesel–electric powertrain and are also known as hybrid diesel� ...
es. Also that year, it was planned to convert the depot into a compressed natural gas
Compressed natural gas (CNG) is a fuel gas mainly composed of methane (CH4), compressed to less than 1% of the volume it occupies at standard atmospheric pressure. It is stored and distributed in hard containers at a pressure of , usually in ...
(CNG) facility due to community complaints, but the plan was scrapped due to the high cost of converting such a large facility. Since 2010, Manhattanville Depot is one of the greenest bus depots in the city because it uses only Hybrid Electric Buses.
Fleet
* OBI Orion VII NG HEV
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS HEV LF40102
* 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 ...
XDE40
Routes
* Local Routes:
Michael J. Quill Depot
The Michael J. Quill Depot fills the block bounded by Eleventh Avenue, the West Side Highway
The Joe DiMaggio Highway, commonly called the West Side Highway and formerly the Miller Highway, is a mostly surface section of New York State Route 9A (NY 9A), running from 72nd Street (Manhattan), West 72nd Street along the Hudso ...
, 40th Street, and 41st Street in Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...
(), near the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, commonly known as the Javits Center, is a large convention center on Eleventh Avenue between 34th Street and 38th Street in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by architect James In ...
, Hudson Yards, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal
The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus station, bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving ab ...
. The depot was originally the New York headquarters and bus garage for Greyhound Lines
Greyhound Lines, Inc. is an American operator of Intercity bus service, intercity bus services. Greyhound operates the largest intercity bus network in the United States, and also operates charter and Amtrak Thruway services, as well as interci ...
. Ground broke on the facility on April 26, 1966. It was designed by De Leuw, Cather, and Associates and built by Turner Construction
The Turner Construction Company is an American construction company with presence in 20 countries. It is a subsidiary of the German company Hochtief. It is the largest domestic contractor in the United States as of 2020, with a revenue of $14.4 ...
. It was sold to the New York City Transit Authority in 1996. The Transit Authority renovated the facility at the cost of over $35 million. It opened for NYCT operations on March 29, 1998 as the Westside Depot, replacing the Walnut Depot and 100th Street Depot
MTA Regional Bus Operations operates local and express buses serving New York City in the United States out of 27 bus garage, bus depots. These depots are located in all five boroughs of the city, plus one located in nearby Yonkers, New York, Yo ...
(the latter since reopened),[ and was renamed after ]Michael J. Quill
Michael Joseph "Red Mike" Quill (September 18, 1905 – January 28, 1966) was an Irish-American labor leader and politician who co-founded the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), a union of subway workers in New York City that expanded ...
, one of the founders of the Transport Workers Union of America
Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. This article disc ...
, on July 13, 2000. The Michael J. Quill Bus Depot had received most of its routes from the defunct Hudson Pier Depot, which closed in 2003.
The Michael J. Quill Depot is the largest MTA depot in the city, consisting of three floors and rooftop parking for buses. It is known for a unique "drum-like" structure at the northeast corner of the site, which holds the ramps between the levels. Maintenance facilities are located on the first and second floors. It originally featured training and sleeping quarters for Greyhound drivers. The depot stores around 250 to 350 buses. It is also used for midday layovers for express buses from other boroughs, with additional layover areas nearby in Midtown. The depot was proposed to be relocated to a site on the west side between West 30th and 31st Streets, as part of a planned expansion of the Javits Center, which was slated to be completed by 2010 but never fully commenced. In 2019, Michael J. Quill became the first depot to permanently operate zero-emissions buses, with the debut of the New Flyer XE60 on the M14A/D SBS.
Fleet
* 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
* 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 ...
XE40
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS HEV LF40102
* 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 ...
XD60
The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35-foot rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are ...
* 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 ...
XE60
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF60102
Routes
* Local Routes:
* School Tripper and Supplemental Rush Hour Service: (shared with Manhattanville), M7 (shared with Mother Clara Hale)
* Articulated SBS routes: / M14D SBS, , / M34A SBS, , ,
Mother Clara Hale Depot
The site of the Mother Clara Hale Depot, formerly named the 146th Street Depot until 1993, is located at 721 Lenox Avenue, filling the block bounded by Lenox Avenue
Lenox Avenue – also named Malcolm X Boulevard; both names are officially recognized – is the primary north–south route through Harlem in the Upper Manhattan, upper portion of the New York City boroughs of New York City, borough ...
, Seventh Avenue, and 146th and 147th Streets in Harlem, Manhattan
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...
(), two blocks south of the Harlem–148th Street subway station. The three-floor structure has capacity for 150 buses. The depot is named for Harlem humanitarian Clara Hale.
The site of the depot was initially home to the Lenox Avenue Car House, a two-story car barn and power station
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...
, built by the Metropolitan Street Railway
The New York Railways Company operated street railways in Manhattan, New York City, 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 all of its rem ...
for their Lenox Avenue Line, the first line in the city to use conduit electrification. The line and depot began service on July 9, 1895. 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 ...
, which had replaced the trolley lines with bus route
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used i ...
s in 1936, began constructing a new bus garage on the site in 1938. Operations from the new depot began on July 31, 1939. It was rehabilitated in 1990. This depot had capacity for 123 buses. On September 23, 1993, it was renamed the Mother Clara Hale Depot.[
The previous depot building closed in January 2008 and was demolished in spring 2009.] To make up for the lack of storage space, the Amsterdam Depot reopened temporarily, with some routes shifted to Manhattanville and West Farms. The old depot was originally a part of the Bronx Division. A new garage was built on the site after demolition, designed as a "green depot" with solar panels and features for energy conservation and efficiency. The new depot was opened on November 20, 2014, at the cost of $262 million. The new depot, which can now house 150 buses, has replaced the 126th Street Depot
MTA Regional Bus Operations operates local and express buses serving New York City in the United States out of 27 bus depots. These depots are located in all five boroughs of the city, plus one located in nearby Yonkers in Westchester County. ...
, which lies above a historical 17th century African-American burial ground; it opened as a directly run NYCT depot in the Manhattan Division like the 126th Street Depot on January 4, 2015, though many routes are operated from other depots.
Fleet
* 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 ...
XDE40
* 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 ...
XD60
The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35-foot rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are ...
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF60102
Routes
* Local Routes:
* Articulated Local/SBS Routes:
Tuskegee Airmen Depot
The Tuskegee Airmen Depot is located at 1552 Lexington Avenue, filling the block bounded by Park Avenue
Park Avenue is a boulevard in New York City that carries north and southbound traffic in the borough (New York City), boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the wes ...
, Lexington Avenue
Lexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated as "Lex", is an avenue on the East Side (Manhattan), East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street (Manhattan), 131st Street to Gra ...
, and 99th and 100th Streets in the East Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem, or , is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, Fifth Avenue to the west, and the East and Harlem Rivers to the eas ...
neighborhood of Manhattan (), north of the 96th Street subway station, and near the 97th Street portal of the Park Avenue Tunnel. The depot had been a car barn for streetcar
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
s on the Lexington Avenue Line, built in 1895. The depot was closed in spring 1998 and was demolished, and reconstructed, while the Michael J. Quill Depot was opened to replace it.[ The depot reopened on September 7, 2003,] taking on a number of routes from the Hudson Depot.[ It became the ]Tuskegee Airmen
The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Fighter Group, 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) of th ...
Depot on March 23, 2012, in honor of the famous World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
airmen. The facility has drawn the ire of many East Harlem residents; many residents cite high asthma rates in the area and the fact that the depot is in a residential area. As of May 2021, only the M31 runs with Hybrid-Electric buses.
Fleet
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS HEV LF40102
* 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
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF60102
* 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 ...
XD60
The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35-foot rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are ...
Routes
* Local Route:
* Articulated Local Routes:
Queens Division
MTA Regional Bus Operations operate various local and express routes under New York City Transit and MTA Bus Company, with three MTA Bus Company depots located in Queens (Baisley Park, College Point & LaGuardia) being members of Transport Workers Union Local 100, the Brooklyn-based Spring Creek Depot being a member of ATU 1181, and all NYCT depots plus Far Rockaway & JFK being members of ATU Local 1056 and Local 1179 of Queens, New York
Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
. All New York City Transit Queens Division supervisors are members of Transport Workers Union Local 106.
Buses in the Queens Division may be swapped between depots on an as-needed basis, and are not reflected in the route assignments as these are short-term loans to cover services at these depots.
Baisley Park Depot (MTA Bus)
The Baisley Park Depot is located at the southeast corner of Guy R. Brewer Boulevard and Linden Boulevard
Linden Boulevard is a boulevard in New York City and Nassau County. Its western end is at Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, where Linden Boulevard travels as an eastbound-only street to Caton Avenue, where it becomes a two-way street. The boule ...
(114-15 Guy R. Brewer Boulevard) in South Jamaica, Queens
South Jamaica (also commonly known as "Southside") is a residential neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is located south of downtown Jamaica. Although a proper border has not been established, the neighborhood is a subsectio ...
(), northeast of Baisley Pond Park. It is owned by GTJ Reit Inc. (Green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
, Triboro, Jamaica
Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
Realty Investment Trust), successor to the former operators and Command Bus Company, and leased to the City of New York, and operated by MTA Bus Company for a period of 21 years.[ The brick facility was opened in 1966 and was operated by ]Jamaica Buses
Jamaica Buses, Inc., also known as Jamaica Bus Lines or the Jamaica Bus Company, was a bus company in New York City, New York (state), New York, operating local service in Queens and express service to Manhattan until January 30, 2006, when the M ...
; the company's original depot was located across the street (114-02 Guy R. Brewer Boulevard) before the land was acquired by New York State in 1958. On January 30, 2006, it was leased to the City of New York and MTA Bus. Later that year, a bus operator training center was opened at the facility. In 2016, the depot began receiving articulated buses, which are mainly used by the Guy R. Brewer Boulevard routes. During rush hours, select artics swap with the .
Fleet
* OBI Orion VII NG HEV
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF40102
* 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 ...
XD60
The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35-foot rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are ...
* Prevost X3-45
Routes
* Local Routes:
* Articulated Local Routes: [
* Express Route:
]
Queens Bus Redesign
* New Routes:
* Leaving Route:
The Q64 used to be the Q65A of Queens Surface Corporation
Queens Surface Corporation was a bus company in New York City, United States, operating local service in Queens and the Bronx and express service between Queens and Manhattan until February 27, 2005, when the MTA Bus Company took over the opera ...
, later operating from the MTA's College Point Depot until 2014. It will return to College Point when the Queens Bus Redesign begins.
Casey Stengel Depot
The Casey Stengel Depot, formerly the Flushing Depot, is located on the south side of Roosevelt Avenue
Roosevelt Avenue and Greenpoint Avenue are main thoroughfares in the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. Roosevelt Avenue begins at 48th Street and Queens Boulevard in the neighborhood of Sunnyside. West of Queens Boulevard, the ...
in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park
Flushing Meadows–Corona Park (often referred to as Flushing Meadows Park or simply Flushing Meadows or Corona Park) is a public park in the northern part of Queens in New York City, New York, U.S. It is bounded by Interstate 678 (New York), ...
in Corona, Queens
Corona is a neighborhood in the Borough (New York City), borough of Queens in New York City. It borders Flushing, Queens, Flushing and Flushing Meadows–Corona Park to the east, Jackson Heights, Queens, Jackson Heights to the west, Forest Hill ...
(), west of 126th Street and east of the New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
's Corona Yard
The New York City Transit Authority operates 24 rail yards for the New York City Subway system and one for the Staten Island Railway. There are 10 active A Division yards and 11 active B Division yards, two of which are shared between divisions ...
. The depot is named after Casey Stengel
Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel (; July 30, 1890 – September 29, 1975) was an American Major League Baseball right fielder and Manager (baseball), manager, best known as the manager of the championship New York Yankees of the 1950s and later, t ...
, former manager of the New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...
and New York Mets
The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...
, and is across the street from Citi Field
Citi Field is a baseball park, baseball stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, in the Boroughs of New York, borough of Queens, New York City, United States. Opened in 2009, Citi Field is the home of Major League Baseball's New York M ...
, where the Mets play. The original Flushing Depot was inherited from the defunct North Shore Bus Company
The North Shore Bus Company operated public buses in Queens, New York City. It was established in 1920 as the successor to the New York and North Shore Traction Company trolley system, and operated until 1947 when it went bankrupt, and its operati ...
in 1947. The depot was rebuilt by the city in the late 1940s, re-opening in 1950. This depot suffered from structural problems due to poor soil conditions. In the early 1980s, the NYCTA decided to rebuild the depot, and in 1986 a $2.2 million contract was awarded to Howard, Needles, Tamamen and Bergendoff to design the new depot, which they finished in June 1987. They developed plans for a maintenance building and a transportation building to allow buses to continue using the depot while construction was going on. The $1.3 million contract for the foundation work for the two buildings was awarded to the Pile Foundation Construction Company in April 1987, and the contract $53.5 million contract for the depot's construction was awarded to Carlin-Atlas Joint Venture in June 1997. This depot was rebuilt again in the 1990s, opening on August 16, 1992. At this time, it was renamed the Casey Stengel Depot. The depot's rebuilding cost $55 million and it consists of with 11 bus lifts. This depot has also been modified to accommodate articulated buses, with the Q44 converted as of June 2012 and the Q12 in September 2019.
Fleet
* OBI Orion VII NG HEV
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF40102
* 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
* 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 ...
XD60
The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35-foot rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are ...
Routes
* Local Routes: / Q15A, / Q20B,
* School Tripper: (shared with Jamaica)
* Articulated Local/SBS Routes:
Queens Bus Redesign
* New Routes:
* Leaving Routes:
* Discontinued Routes:
College Point Depot (MTA Bus; CNG)
The College Point Depot is located on 28th Avenue near Ulmer Street in the College Point
College Point is a working-middle-class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded to the south by Whitestone Expressway and Flushing; to the east by 138th Street and Malba/ Whitestone; to the north by the East River; a ...
section of Queens
Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
(), near the printing plant of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', the former site of Flushing Airport
Flushing Airport was an airfield in northern Queens in New York City. It was located in the neighborhood of College Point, near Flushing. The airfield operated from 1929 to 1984.
History
Flushing Airport was constructed atop of wetlands be ...
, and directly behind the headquarters of Queens Surface on land owned by New York City. The depot stores around 250 buses. Construction on the $43 million project began in 1993. The depot was supposed to be completed by spring 1996, but was delayed to October 1997 because the general contractor for the project quit the job. As of June 1996, the project was 60% completed. In August 1996, the electrical contractor stopped work on the project due to a contract dispute with the NYCDOT. The depot opened on October 31, 1997, a year ahead of a previous estimate. The depot increased the number of its wash bays from 1 to 3, and doubled the company's repair bays to 24. It was built with space for 275 buses and 400 cars. This was the first CNG fueling station to be built by and owned by the city. It is owned by 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 Departm ...
and leased to MTA Bus. It had been leased to Queens Surface Corporation
Queens Surface Corporation was a bus company in New York City, United States, operating local service in Queens and the Bronx and express service between Queens and Manhattan until February 27, 2005, when the MTA Bus Company took over the opera ...
before the lease was taken over by MTA Bus. Many buses under Queens Surface used compressed natural gas, and all local bus service from this depot operates using CNG provided by Trillium CNG. In 2006, a unified command center for MTA Bus Company was established at the depot.
Fleet
* 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 ...
C40LF CNG
* 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 (shared with LaGuardia)
* MCI D4500CL
* Prevost X3-45
Routes
* Local Routes: . The Q25, Q34, Q65, and Q66 were formerly Queens Surface routes. The rest were operated by Triboro Coach
Triboro Coach Corporation was a bus company in New York City, United States, operating local service in Queens and express routes to Manhattan until February 20, 2006, when MTA Bus took over all of its bus operations and services.
History
Salvat ...
.
* Express Routes: (P.M. rush only, shared with Eastchester)
Queens Bus Redesign
* New Routes: , Q64, Q74
* Leaving Routes:
* Discontinued Routes:
Far Rockaway/John F. Kennedy Depots (MTA Bus)
The Far Rockaway Depot and the John F. Kennedy Depot (or JFK Depot) are garages that were operated by Green Bus Lines
Green Bus Lines, also referred to as Green Lines, was a private bus company in New York City. It operated local service in Queens and express service to Manhattan until January 9, 2006, when the city-operated MTA Bus Company took over its route ...
until January 9, 2006, when MTA Bus took over and started operating the old company's bus routes. Both depots are now owned by GTJ Reit Inc (the successor to Green Lines), except for the newly built annex building at Far Rockaway which is owned by the MTA-NYCTA, and had been used by Green Bus Lines Inc. before being leased to the City of New York and operated by MTA Bus for a period of 21 years.[
The Far Rockaway Depot is situated on ]Rockaway Beach Boulevard
Rockaway Beach Boulevard, opened in 1886, was the first major east-west thoroughfare on the Rockaway Peninsula in the Borough of Queens in New York City. Much of its route parallels the Rockaway Freeway and the IND Rockaway Line above the Fre ...
and Beach 49th Street (49-19 Rockaway Beach Boulevard)[ in Arverne / ]Edgemere, Queens
Edgemere is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, extending from Beach 32nd to Beach 52nd Street on the Rockaway Peninsula. It contains Rockaway Community Park. Arverne is to the west, and Far Rockaway to the east. Edgemer ...
on the Rockaway Peninsula
The Rockaway Peninsula, commonly referred to as The Rockaways or Rockaway, is a peninsula at the southern edge of the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, New York. Relatively isolated from Manhattan and other more urban parts of t ...
(). The depot has two storage lots and a small maintenance facility. Following damage from Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...
, the facility was closed between October 2012 and February 2013, with its fleet housed at Building 78 on the grounds of John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major international airport serving New York City and its metropolitan area. JFK Airport is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay. It is ...
two blocks away from the JFK Depot. In 2014, the MTA opened a new annex building with a modern and updated maintenance facility, to expand this facility in order to maintain and support more buses. The project to fully restore the depot was scheduled to begin in 2015, but has yet to begin as of 2016. It has also been proposed to partially power the facility using wind turbines.
The JFK Depot is located in Springfield Gardens
Springfield Gardens is a neighborhood in the southeastern area of the New York City borough of Queens, bounded to the north by St. Albans, to the east by Laurelton and Rosedale, to the south by John F. Kennedy International Airport, and to th ...
at 147th Avenue and Rockaway Boulevard
Rockaway Boulevard is a major road in the New York City borough of Queens. Unlike the similarly named Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Rockaway Freeway, it serves mainland Queens and does not enter the Rockaways.
Route description
It begins as ...
(165-25 147th Avenue)[ near ]JFK Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major international airport serving New York City and its metropolitan area. JFK Airport is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay. It is t ...
(). It was the primary storage and maintenance facility for Green Bus Lines prior to MTA Bus takeover. The depot was built from 1951 to 1952 at the cost of $500,000. It was also modified to accommodate articulated buses, with the Q10 converted as of May 2013. At this time the Q52 also ran artics occasionally, until permanent conversion in October 2017.
Fleet
All buses are assigned to JFK and loaned to Far Rockaway, unless specified below:
* OBI Orion VII NG HEV
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF40102
* 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
* 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 ...
XD60
The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35-foot rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are ...
(JFK only)
* Prevost X3-45 (Far Rockaway only)
Routes
All routes used to be part of Green Bus Lines, except the Q52:
* Far Rockaway Local Routes:
* JFK Local Routes:
* JFK School Trippers:
* JFK Articulated Routes:
* Far Rockaway Express Routes:
Queens Bus Redesign
* New Far Rockaway Route:
* New JFK Routes:
* Discontinued Route:
Jamaica Depot
The Jamaica Depot is located on the west side of Merrick Boulevard
Merrick Road is an east–west urban arterial in Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk counties in New York, United States. It is known as Merrick Boulevard or Floyd H. Flake Boulevard in Queens, within New York City.
Merrick Road runs east from the Quee ...
just south of Liberty Avenue in Jamaica, Queens
Jamaica is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It has a popular large commercial and retail area, though part of the neighborhood is also residential. Jamaica is bordered by Hollis, St Albans, and Cambria Heights to the ea ...
(). The depot lies between Merrick Boulevard to the east and 165th Street to the west, and spans about three blocks north-to-south between Tuskegee Airmen Way (South Road) and 107th Avenue, located across from the campus of York College. The depot was opened by the North Shore Bus Company
The North Shore Bus Company operated public buses in Queens, New York City. It was established in 1920 as the successor to the New York and North Shore Traction Company trolley system, and operated until 1947 when it went bankrupt, and its operati ...
in August 1940[ and inherited by the Board of Transportation in 1947.] An addition was constructed in 1950, adding additional storage and a bus washing area. The depot was expanded again in 1968, and from 1993 to 1994.
The 58,000 square foot depot is the oldest existing New York City Transit Depot. It holds 150 buses at capacity, but is assigned 208 buses, many of which are parked on the surrounding streets.[ Due to its age and capacity issues and to accommodate articulated buses, the MTA plans to demolish the existing structure and build a new and expanded depot on the same site, as well as on 50,000 square feet of adjacent property purchased in April 2014. At this time, construction was anticipated to begin in 2018, with all of its buses, and local routes temporarily sent to other depots.][ In December 2021, the MTA announced a redevelopment project for the Jamaica Depot, to be completed by 2026. As part of the project, the depot would be modified to support up to 60 electric-powered buses. The MTA has finished construction of a temporary lot at the York College property on the corner of 165th Street and Tuskegee Airmen Way. It can hold up to 168 buses still under capacity.]
Fleet
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF40102
* 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
Routes
* Local Routes:
Queens Bus Redesign
* New Routes:
LaGuardia Depot (MTA Bus)
LaGuardia Depot is located on a two-block long structure (85-01 24th Avenue) bound by 85th and 87th Street, and 23rd and 24th Avenues in the East Elmhurst
East Elmhurst is a residential neighborhood in the northwest section of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded to the south by Jackson Heights and Corona, to the north and east by Bowery Bay, and to the west by Woodside and Ditmar ...
& Jackson Heights
Jackson Heights is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the borough of Queens in New York City. Jackson Heights is neighbored by North Corona to the east, Elmhurst to the south, Woodside to the west, and today northern Astoria ( Ditm ...
neighborhoods near LaGuardia Airport
LaGuardia Airport ( ) – colloquially known as LaGuardia or simply LGA – is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, situated on the North Shore (Long Island), northwestern shore of Long Island, bord ...
(). The depot was opened on January 15, 1954, is owned by GTJ Reit Inc,[ and was operated by ]Triboro Coach Corporation
Triboro Coach Corporation was a bus company in New York City, United States, operating local service in Queens and express routes to Manhattan until February 20, 2006, when MTA Bus took over all of its bus operations and services.
History
Salvat ...
before being leased to the City of New York and operated by MTA Bus Company
MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the bus operations division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City. The MTA operates local, limited-stop, express, and Select Bus Service ( bus rapid transit) services across the city o ...
on February 20, 2006, for a period of 21 years. In 1989, a methanol fuel
Methanol fuel is an alternative biofuel for internal combustion and other engines, either in combination with gasoline or independently. Methanol (CH3OH) is less expensive to sustainably produce than ethanol fuel, although it is more toxic than ...
station was installed at the facility for six General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
-built RTS methanol buses. It was later used in the early 1990s to fuel an NYCT demonstration bus from the Casey Stengel Depot[ and three new Triboro-operated RTS buses fitted with special ]Detroit Diesel
Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC) is an American diesel engine manufacturer headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. It is a subsidiary of Daimler Truck North America, which is itself a wholly owned subsidiary of the multinational Daimler Truck AG. ...
Series 92 engines. Beginning in 1994, the facility dispatched compressed natural gas (CNG) buses in addition to its diesel fleet. The depot was decommissioned from CNG operations in 2006 due to not meeting the MTA's safety and environmental standards. On April 10, 2006, while workers from KeySpan were removing CNG from tanks and a private contractor was conducting construction near the depot, a gas compressor station exploded leading to a large fire at the depot. One bus was destroyed and 12 were damaged. Work to modify this depot to accommodate articulated buses was completed in the 2010s, with the Q53 converted in October 2017 and the Q70 in June 2020.
Fleet
* OBI Orion VII NG HEV
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF40102
* 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 (shared with College Point)
* 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 ...
XD60
The New Flyer Xcelsior is a line of transit buses available in 35-foot rigid, 40-foot rigid, and 60-foot articulated nominal lengths manufactured by New Flyer Industries since 2008. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses are ...
* Prevost X3-45
Routes
Many of these routes used to be part of Triboro Coach. Several had been Queens Surface Corporation
Queens Surface Corporation was a bus company in New York City, United States, operating local service in Queens and the Bronx and express service between Queens and Manhattan until February 27, 2005, when the MTA Bus Company took over the opera ...
routes that operate in western Queens, which were closer to the LaGuardia Depot than their former Queens Surface Depot in College Point.
* Local Routes:
* Articulated SBS Routes:
* Express Routes:
Queens Bus Redesign
* New Routes:
* Leaving Routes:
Queens Village Depot
The Queens Village Depot is located on 97-11 222nd Street between 97th and 99th Avenues in Queens Village
Queens Village is a mostly residential middle class neighborhood in the eastern part of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bound by Hollis to the west, Cambria Heights to the south, Bellerose, Queens and Elmont, Nassau County to the ...
(), across to the west from Belmont Park
Belmont Park is a thoroughbred racing, thoroughbred horse racetrack in Elmont, New York, just east of New York City limits best known for hosting the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the American Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United Stat ...
. The MTA began acquiring land for the depot in 1968. The depot was opened on September 8, 1974, and it is on the site of what was Dugan's Bakery. Upon opening, the depot received many former North Shore Bus Company
The North Shore Bus Company operated public buses in Queens, New York City. It was established in 1920 as the successor to the New York and North Shore Traction Company trolley system, and operated until 1947 when it went bankrupt, and its operati ...
routes from the existing Casey Stengel
Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel (; July 30, 1890 – September 29, 1975) was an American Major League Baseball right fielder and Manager (baseball), manager, best known as the manager of the championship New York Yankees of the 1950s and later, t ...
and Jamaica Depots, and relieved overcrowding at those depots. In 1979, the buses from the depot tested a radio-based real-time information system called the "Radio-Data-Locator System", precursor to MTA Bus Time
MTA Bus Time, stylized as BusTime, is a Service Interface for Real Time Information, automatic vehicle location (AVL), and passenger information system provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York City for customers ...
. The depot was renovated in 1987, stores around 250 buses, and has of space. The Queens Village Depot building won an Award Honor for engineering excellence from the New York Association of Consulting Engineers.
Fleet
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF40102
* MCI D4500CT
Routes
* Local Routes:
* School Trippers: (shared with Casey Stengel)
* Express Routes: (Prefix will change to QM with the Redesign)
Queens Bus Redesign
* New Routes: Q45, Q48,
Spring Creek Depot (MTA Bus; CNG)
The Spring Creek Depot is located on Flatlands Avenue
Flatlands Avenue is a major street in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It runs approximately east to west; from Avenue N and East 35th Street in Marine Park in the west, to Forbell Street, east of Fountain Avenue in East New York, near t ...
east of Crescent Street in Brooklyn's East New York
East New York is a residential neighborhood in the eastern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are roughly the Cemetery Belt and the Queens borough line to the north; ...
neighborhood (), adjacent to the Brooklyn General Mail Facility, and several blocks northeast of the Gateway Center. Despite the location, the depot is part of the Queens Division. It was built by and owned by 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 Departm ...
[ in 1996, and leased to the Command Bus Company.] It was sold to MTA Bus in early 2009. Command's previous depot was several blocks to the northwest on Montauk Avenue and Wortman Avenue (612/626 Wortman Avenue), which now houses the school bus operations of the successor company Varsity Bus Company
Varsity Bus Company is a former school bus operator in New York City. This company was established in 2003 when it acquired some of the school bus routes that had been operated by Varsity Transit, a sister company that had operated from 1965 to ...
.
In 1988, two Orion I
The Orion I was a line of rigid high-floor transit buses made in 30-, 35-, and 40-foot lengths by Ontario Bus & Truck (renamed to Ontario Bus Industries (OBI) in 1977) between 1976 and 1993 for the Canadian and United States mass transportation ...
Command buses were fitted by the Brooklyn Union Gas Company with engines that operated on compressed natural gas (CNG). A compressor station was installed at the Wortman Avenue depot. By the mid-1990s, many of the buses operated by Command ran on CNG. Local buses out of this depot continue to operate on compressed natural gas under the MTA.
Fleet
* 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 ...
C40LF CNG
* MCI D4500CL
* MCI D4500CT
* Prevost X3-45
Routes
Spring Creek is the only bus depot to not operate any routes with the matching borough of its division.
* Local Routes:
* Express Routes:
Staten Island Division
All Staten Island division bus depots are the members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 726 of Staten Island, New York
Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...
and are all operated by New York City Transit.
Buses in the Staten Island Division may be swapped between depots on an as-needed basis, and are not reflected in the route assignments as these are short-term loans to cover services at these depots.
Castleton Depot
Castleton Depot, also called Castleton Avenue Depot, is located on 1390 Castleton Avenue and fills the block bounded by Jewett Avenue, Hurst Street, Castleton Avenue, and Rector Street in Port Richmond ().[ A large parking lot on the east side of Rector Street is also used for bus storage. The depot was constructed in the late 1940s to provide urgently needed storage space for city-owned buses on Staten Island.] When Isle Transportation went bankrupt in 1947, the city's Board of Transportation (predecessor of NYC Transit) took control of the majority of Staten Island bus operations.[ It was built to hold 135 buses,] and can now store about 340 buses.[
Following the closure of the Brook Street Depot, Isle Transportation's original facility, in 1958,] Castleton Depot was the only city-owned depot on Staten Island and was known as Staten Island Depot. The next permanent depot to open in the borough was Yukon Depot, opened in 1981.
Fleet
* OBI Orion VII 3G
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF40102
* MCI D4500CT
* Prevost X3-45
Routes
* Local Routes:
* School Trippers: (shared with Yukon), (A.M. only, shared with Charleston), (shared with both; plus one P.M. S74 trip out of this depot)
* Express Routes: & (shared with Yukon)
* Supplement Express Route: (shared with Charleston, Yukon)
Charleston Depot
The Charleston Depot is located at 4700 Arthur Kill Road near the Outerbridge Crossing
The Outerbridge Crossing, also known as the Outerbridge, is a cantilever bridge that spans the Arthur Kill between Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and Staten Island, New York (state), New York, United States. It carries New Yor ...
in Charleston (). The facility includes a two-story building, with enough room to service and maintain 220 buses, but also includes outdoor parking for buses and employees. The site was selected in 2000. The depot was announced in September 2005 as part of the MTA's 2000-2004 Capital Plan, to relieve the overcrowding and maintenance and storage pressure's between the Castleton and Yukon bus depots, both of which had limited bus storage space. The depot was also intended to help expand express bus service in Staten Island, and improve service for then-36,000 Staten Islanders who used express buses. A new depot had been planned for around 30 years, and attempts to secure funding lasted around a decade.[ After delays due to lack of funding, construction on the depot (then called the Charleston Bus Annex)][ began on February 15, 2008.] The depot opened on December 6, 2010.
Fleet
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF40102
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFSe+ LF40102
* 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 ...
XE40
* MCI D4500CT
* Prevost X3-45
Routes
* Local Routes:
* Express Routes:
* Supplement Express Routes: (shared with Yukon), (shared with Castleton, Yukon)
Yukon Depot
The Yukon Depot is located on 40 Yukon Avenue between Richmond Avenue
Richmond Avenue is a major north-south thoroughfare on Staten Island, New York. Measuring approximately , the road runs from the South Shore community of Eltingville to the North Shore community of Graniteville.
Street description
Richm ...
and Forest Hill Road in New Springville in the center of Staten Island, adjacent to the Staten Island Mall
Staten Island Mall is a shopping mall in New Springville, Staten Island, New York City, opened in 1973. It is the only indoor shopping mall in the borough. It is the largest retail center on the island and is the site of the island's third-large ...
near Freshkills Park
Freshkills Park is a public park being built atop a former landfill on Staten Island. At about , it will be the largest park developed in New York City since the 19th century. Its construction began in October 2008 and is slated to continue in ...
(). Ground broke on the depot on January 23, 1978. The depot opened on September 13, 1981, relieving overcrowding at the Castleton Depot, and replacing the Edgewater Depot. It was built to store 250 buses, and can now store around 400.
Fleet
* Nova Bus
Nova Bus is a Canadian transit bus manufacturer headquartered in Saint-Eustache, Quebec. Nova is owned by the Volvo Group.
The company has roots in the General Motors Diesel Division, which opened in 1979. Nova Bus was established in 1993, by ...
LFS LF40102
* Prevost X3-45
Routes
* Local/SBS Routes: , S79 SBS,
* School Trippers: (shared with Charleston, Castleton A.M. only), (shared with both)
* Express Routes: & (shared with Castleton)
Former depots
Below are the depots formerly used by the MTA and its predecessors for municipal bus operations, excluding facilities inherited by the city but not used for city-operated buses. Many of the depots were demolished or abandoned following their closure. Some have been converted for other uses by the MTA or other organizations. One depot, the 54th Street Depot, was demolished to make room for a new MTA facility outside of bus operations.
West 5th Street Depot
The West 5th Street Depot was located at the northwest corner of West 5th Street and Surf Avenue in Coney Island
Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to ...
, Brooklyn (), adjacent to the Brighton Beach
Brighton Beach is a List of Brooklyn neighborhoods, neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach ...
neighborhood, and across from the current New York Aquarium
The New York Aquarium is the oldest continually operating Public aquarium, aquarium in the United States, located on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It was founded at Castle Garden in Battery Park, Manhattan, i ...
, as well as near the former Luna Park
Luna Park is a name shared by dozens of currently operating and defunct amusement parks. They are named after, and partly based on, the first Luna Park (Coney Island, 1903), Luna Park, which opened in 1903 during the heyday of large Coney Islan ...
amusement park. It was originally the site of a railroad and trolley terminal called the Culver Depot
Culver Depot, also called Culver Terminal or Culver Plaza, was a railroad and streetcar terminal in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City, United States, located on the northern side of Surf Avenue near West 5th Street. Plan of the New Terminal ...
, built by the Prospect Park and Coney Island Railroad, operators of the Culver surface line along present-day McDonald Avenue in 1875. This depot was built on Surf Avenue between West 5th Street and West 8th Street, serving surface railroad and later Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
and Culver elevated trains, as well as streetcars.[ Plan of the New Terminal Yard Arrangement For The Culver Terminal At Coney Island−Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, ''Street Railway Journal'', 1904.] The terminal also served the streetcar lines of the competing Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad
The B68 is a bus route that constitutes a public transit line operating in Brooklyn, New York City. The B68 is operated by the MTA New York City Transit Authority. Its precursor was a streetcar line that began operation in June 1862, and wa ...
, including its Smith Street Line. A second adjacent facility on West 5th Street, also known as the Smith Street Trolley Depot, was built by the Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad in 1912 exclusively for streetcars. Both streetcar companies as well as the Culver and Brighton lines would become part of the BRT by middle of the decade. By 1920, all elevated trains were moved west to the BRT's West End Depot, and the original Culver terminal was razed in 1923, with all streetcar service going to the West 5th Street Depot. As a streetcar facility, it featured a concrete storage garage at its north end, and a two-floor passenger terminal building at its south end facing Surf Avenue, with seven track loops in the center of the complex for terminating streetcars. The passenger concourse featured a restaurant, and a carousel which would later be moved to Manhattan to become the Central Park Carousel. The depot would be absorbed into municipal operations during unification in 1940.
On October 30, 1956, the last streetcars operated to the depot along McDonald Avenue, at which point it was likely converted for bus service. The bus depot was closed on July 27, 1960, replaced by the Fresh Pond Depot in Queens.[ The depot was closed due to traffic congestion in Coney Island.][ By 1962, the site of the depot and former terminal was cleared. It is now the site of the Brightwater Towers apartment complex,] built in the 1960s shortly after the depot was demolished.
12th Street Depot
The 12th Street Depot was located at East 12th Street between 1st Avenue & Avenue A in Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...
. It used to be a taxi garage. It was acquired from 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. I ...
in 1962. As a bus depot, the facility could only house 50-60 buses, which were assigned to Lower Manhattan routes such as the M12 (discontinued in 1979), M13, and M14A/M14D. The remaining buses on the routes came from depots in Midtown and Upper Manhattan, or were stored on the street. The depot was closed and replaced by the Hudson Pier Depot in 1971.
37th Street Depot
The 37th Street Depot or 39th Street Depot was located west of Second Avenue between 37th and 39th Streets along the Gowanus Bay portion of the Upper New York Bay
New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States.
New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay ...
in the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Greenwood, Brooklyn (). Located across from many former Bush Terminal
Industry City (also Bush Terminal) is a historic Intermodal freight transport, intermodal shipping, warehousing, and manufacturing complex on the Upper New York Bay waterfront in the Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn ...
buildings, it was adjacent to the coastal yard of the South Brooklyn Railway
The South Brooklyn Railway is a railroad in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is owned by the government of New York City and operated by the New York City Transit Authority. Its original main line ran parallel to 38th Street from th ...
, and west of the current Jackie Gleason Depot and 36th–38th Street Yard. The site consisted of two buildings purchased from the Department of Marine and Aviation in 1948, storing 200 buses.
The depot was near the former 39th Street Ferry Terminal, served by Church Avenue Line streetcars until 1956.
54th Street Depot
The 54th Street Depot was located on Ninth Avenue, between 53rd Street, and 54th Street streets in Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...
(). The address was 806 Ninth Avenue. It was built as the Ninth Ave. car barn of the Ninth Avenue Railroad in the late 1800s. The streetcar line was replaced by 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. I ...
buses on November 12, 1935, and the facility became a bus depot for the company. In March 1962, it fell under municipal operations. This depot was closed in 1992 and replaced by the newly rebuilt Manhattanville Depot, and was demolished between 1996 and 1997, and replaced by the Rapid Transit Division's Rail Command Control Center, at 354 West 54th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. Before it closed in 1992, it operated the following Manhattan bus routes, M6, M7, M11, M42, M27/M50, M57, M72, and M79.
The contract for the command center was awarded in November 1997, with the intent of creating a central control room for the New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
that would implement automation of the system, including automatic train protection
Automatic train protection (ATP) is the generic term for train protection systems that continually check that the speed of a train is compatible with the permitted speed allowed by signalling, including automatic stop at certain signal aspects ...
. The use of non-union labor by the construction contractor led to a protest by thousands of union members at the site and at the MTA's midtown headquarters in June 1998. Adjacent to the control center is an NYCT parking lot on the east side of Ninth Avenue. The parking lot is planned to be redeveloped into affordable housing as part of the "Western Rail Yard" project, which would redevelop this site and the West Side Yard
The West Side Yard (officially the John D. Caemmerer West Side Yard) is a rail yard of 30 tracks owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on the west side of Manhattan in New York City. Used to store commuter rail trains operated by t ...
on West 33rd Street.
126th Street Depot
The 126th Street Depot fills the city block bounded by First Avenue, Second Avenue, and 126th and 127th Streets, near the Harlem River Drive
Harlem River Drive is a 4.20-mile (6.76 km) controlled-access highway, controlled-access Parkways in New York, parkway in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs along the west bank of the Harlem River from the Triborough Bridge in ...
, Triborough Bridge
The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (RFK Bridge; also known by its previous name, the Triborough Bridge) is a complex of bridges and elevated expressway viaducts in New York City. The bridges link the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. Th ...
, and Willis Avenue Bridge
The Willis Avenue Bridge is a swing bridge that carries road traffic northbound (and bicycles and pedestrians both ways) over the Harlem River between the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx, United States. It connects First Aven ...
in East Harlem, Manhattan
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem, or , is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, Fifth Avenue to the west, and the East and Harlem Rivers to the east ...
. The address is 2460 Second Avenue (), and the depot's decal has "126" in Roman numerals
Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...
(CXXVI). A former trolley yard, the site was opened as a Central Bronx bus depot in 1947 by Surface Transit Inc., the successor to the streetcars of the Third Avenue Railway
The Third Avenue Railway System (TARS), founded 1852, was a streetcar system serving the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx along with lower Westchester County. For a brief period of time, TARS also operated the Steinway Lines i ...
.[ It would later be used 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 ...
until 1962, when it would be taken over by the Transit Authority (as opposed to its MaBSTOA subsidiary) when its parent company Fifth Avenue Coach folded. It housed the buses (and served as a northern terminal) for the M15 and M15 SBS, the second busiest bus route in the United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and the busiest in the city[ carrying over 60,000 passengers a day. Before it closed for the first time in 2015, it operated four additional local lines: M31, M35, M60 SBS, and M116. It was briefly reactivated in 2021 to temporarily store malfunctioning new Nova LFS hybrid buses.
Several structures have occupied the site since the beginning of European settlement of the area.] In the late 19th century, an amusement park and dance hall were erected on the site. It then was used by the Cosmopolitan Productions
Cosmopolitan Productions, also often referred to as Cosmopolitan Pictures, was an American film company based in New York City from 1918 to 1923 and Hollywood until 1938.
History
Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst formed Cosmopolitan in c ...
studio owned by William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...
until 1923. In 2008, a historical 17th century African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
burial ground used by the Low Dutch Reformed Church of Harlem, the first church in Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...
, and its successor the Elmendorf Reformed Church, was discovered at the site. The MTA consequently agreed to move most of the depot's routes to the reopened Mother Clara Hale Depot. The 126th Street Depot closed on January 4, 2015, with the land returned to the city; it was slated to be demolished.
Two outdoor annexes are located near the depot, one across of Second Avenue, and one two blocks north on East 128th Street, adjacent to Harlem River Park. The lot on 126th Street is used for bus storage and employee parking.[ The 128th Street facility is used to store express buses during midday hours.] These facilities were added in 1989 and 1991, and in the mid 2000s. The 128th Street annex is on the former site of the storage yard for the 129th Street Station of the Second
The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...
and Third Avenue
Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Square ...
elevated lines.
Bergen Street Depot
The Bergen Street Shop is located at 1415 Bergen Street/1504 Dean Street between Albany and Troy Avenues in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. Crown Heights is bounded by Washington Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue (New York City), Atlantic Avenue to the north, ...
(). The facility is bound by Dean Street at its north end and Bergen Street at its south end. It currently serves as the New York City Transit Sign Shop (also called the Bergen Sign Shop or Bergen Street Sign Shop), producing numerous signs for the Transit Authority, particularly those used in the New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
. It was originally the Bergen Street Trolley Coach Depot, operated as a streetcar barn by the Brooklyn, Queens County and Suburban Railroad
The Brooklyn, Queens County and Suburban Railroad (BQC&S) was a street railway company in Brooklyn and Queens, New York (state), New York, United States. It originated as a horsecar line until it was acquired by the Long Island Traction Company o ...
, and later under the BRT/BMT system until unification in 1940. It was reconstructed and enlarged under city operations between 1947 and 1948, and reopened on September 16, 1948, as a trolleybus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
(trolley coach) depot. The depot served the Bergen Street Line (), Lorimer Street Line
The B48 bus route constitutes a public transit line in Brooklyn, New York City, running along Lorimer Street, Franklin Avenue, and Classon Avenue between Flatbush and Greenpoint. Originally the Lorimer Street streetcar line, it is now a bus rout ...
(), St. Johns Place Line
The B45 is a bus route that constitutes a public transit line operating in Brooklyn, New York City, mainly along Atlantic Avenue (New York City), Atlantic Avenue, Washington Avenue, Sterling Place, and St. Johns Place between Downtown Brooklyn a ...
(), Graham Avenue Line and Tompkins Avenue Line (), and Flushing Avenue Line (). The depot stored 122 trolley coaches, and may have also stored diesel buses. The building was converted into the current sign shop when trolleybus service ended on July 27, 1960, replaced by the Fresh Pond Depot in Queens.[
]
Brook Street Depot
Brook Street Depot is located at 100 Brook Street/539 Jersey Street in Tompkinsville, Staten Island
Tompkinsville is a List of Staten Island neighborhoods, neighborhood in northeastern Staten Island in New York City. Named for Daniel D. Tompkins, sixth Vice President of the United States (1817–1825), the neighborhood sits on the island's ea ...
(). The site is bound by Brook Street to the north, Victory Boulevard to the south, Pike Street to the east, and Jersey Street and Castleton Avenue to the west. It was originally a streetcar barn built around 1902 for the Richmond Light and Railroad Company, which became Richmond Railways in 1927. The barn became a bus depot for the successor Staten Island Coach Company between 1934 and 1937. The depot was taken over by Isle Transportation in 1946. It was acquired by the city Board of Transportation in 1947, and was rebuilt in the late 1940s for municipal bus operations. The new depot was designed to store 100 buses. In 1958 the depot, now under the control of 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 New York state public-benefit corporations, public-benefit corporation in the U.S. state of New York (state), New ...
, was turned over to the New York City Board of Estimate
The New York City Board of Estimate was a governmental body in New York City responsible for numerous areas of municipal policy and decisions, including the city budget, land-use, contracts, franchises, and water rates. Under the amendments eff ...
. That year, it was converted into a garage for the New York City Department of Sanitation
The New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for garbage collection, recycling collection, street cleaning, and snow removal. The DSNY is the primary operator of the New York ...
(DSNY). In response to local community opposition of the site, the city plans to replace the depot with a new DSNY garage on the West Shore near the former Fresh Kills Landfill
The Fresh Kills Landfill was a landfill covering in the borough of Staten Island in New York City, United States. The name comes from the landfill's location along the banks of the Fresh Kills estuary in western Staten Island.
The landfill op ...
, while the old depot is planned to be replaced with a residential development.
Crosstown Depot
The Crosstown Depot, also referred to as the Crosstown Annex Facility or Crosstown Paint Shop, is located at 55/65 Commercial Street near the intersection of Commercial and Box Streets in the neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn
Greenpoint is the northernmost neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bordered on the southwest by Williamsburg at Bushwick Inlet Park and McCarren Park; on the southeast by the Brooklyn–Queens Expressway and East ...
, on the southern shore of Newtown Creek
Newtown Creek, a long tributary of the East River, is an estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City. River engineering#Channelization, Channelization made it one of the most heavily-use ...
().
The first Crosstown Depot was opened in 1885 as a streetcar depot by the Brooklyn Heights Railroad, located at Manhattan Avenue between Box and Clay Streets. It later become part of the BRT/BMT system under the Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation (B&QT). The original depot consisted of a two-story brick building, with trolley loops at ground level used for turning trolleys. Around 1945, the depot was no longer used for streetcar operations. In September 1951, the old Crosstown Depot was sold by the Board of Transportation and used as a warehouse for a box manufacturer. On June 30, 1952, the depot was the origin point of an eight-alarm fire that killed at least one person and destroyed 15 buildings including the depot.
The site on Commercial Street was originally a refinery for the American Sugar Refining Company
The American Sugar Refining Company (ASR) was the most significant American business unit in the sugar refining industry in the early 1900s. It had interests in Puerto Rico and other Caribbean locations and operated one of the world's largest s ...
(predecessor to Domino Sugar
Domino Foods, Inc. (also known as DFI and formerly known as W. & F.C. Havemeyer Company, Havemeyer, Townsend & Co. Refinery, and Domino Sugar) is a privately held sugar marketing and sales company based in Yonkers, New York, United States, tha ...
) opened in 1868, and later became a trolley storage yard and washing facility for the B&QT. In 1946 the Board of Transportation began constructing a new facility on this site, opened in July 1949 as the Crosstown Trolley Coach and Car Depot to serve 78 trolley coaches and 60 trolley cars. It was fully converted into a bus depot in 1954. The current depot consists of a two-story brick administration building facing Commercial Street, and shop for repairs, inspection and washing facing Newtown Creek, along with a large storage lot for buses. The depot holds around 120 buses at capacity. At one time, it operated ten lines: B18 (discontinued), B24, B29 (now part of the B24), B30 (discontinued), B39 (discontinued/reestablished 2013), B48, B59 (now Q59), B60, B61 (originally the Crosstown Line, since split into a new B61 and B62), and B62 (now part of the B43). The B62's northern terminal was located one block away from the depot at Manhattan Avenue and Box Street. The depot operations ended on November 7, 1981, because of service reductions and operating cost. It later stored several new General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
-built RTS-04 buses awaiting entry into revenue service in 1982.
The Crosstown Depot has since been converted to a paint shop and road service operations facility, located in the former repair shop. The facility contains three paint booths to paint MTA buses, the third of which was installed in 2001. The paint shop operations were consolidated into those of the Grand Avenue Facility when the latter opened in 2008. The site also houses the New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
's Department of Emergency Response in the former administration building, and an Access-A-Ride
The physical accessibility of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s public transit network, serving the New York metropolitan area, is incomplete. Although all MTA Regional Bus Operations, buses are wheelchair-accessible in complian ...
storage facility utilizing the former bus storage area. The site is planned for redevelopment into a waterfront park, called "Box Street Park".
DeKalb Depot
The DeKalb Depot, also known as the DeKalb Avenue Depot or DeKalb Avenue Shops, was located on the east side of DeKalb Avenue
At Fort Greene Park
DeKalb Avenue ( , ) is a thoroughfare in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, with the majority of its length in Brooklyn.
It runs from Woodward Avenue (Linden Hill Cemetery) in Ridgewood, Queens to Downtown ...
between Onderdonk and Seneca Avenues in Ridgewood, Queens
Ridgewood is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It borders the Queens neighborhoods of Maspeth to the north, Middle Village to the east, and Glendale to the southeast, as well as the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Bushwick to ...
. It was built as a trolley barn by the Brooklyn City Railroad
The Brooklyn City Railroad (BCRR) was the oldest and one of the largest operators of streetcars (horsecars and later trolleys) in the City of Brooklyn, New York, continuing in that role when Brooklyn became a borough of New York City in 1898.
In ...
in the early 20th century, later becoming part of the BRT/BMT system. It served several streetcar lines, including the DeKalb Avenue Line (today's ), while its shops performed heavy maintenance. The facility was absorbed into municipal operations in 1940, and was converted into a trolley coach repair shop in April 1949. The site is now occupied by a supermarket, sitting across from the athletic field of Grover Cleveland High School.
Edgewater Depot
The Edgewater Depot, also called Edgewater Pier, was located at 60/171 Edgewater Street on the coastline of Rosebank, Staten Island
Rosebank is a neighborhood in northeastern Staten Island, one of New York City's five boroughs. It borders Clifton to the north, Arrochar to the south, and the Upper New York Bay to the east.
History
Originally called Peterstown, then Clifto ...
(), the former area of the Pouch Terminal (Piers 20 and 21). It was leased from Pouch Terminal, Inc. in 1977, and used to relieve overcrowding at the Staten Island Depot (now Castleton Avenue Depot), which had been the only bus depot in the borough. It was later discovered that the terminal was about to be foreclosed, and could have been acquired by the city at no cost. A fire destroyed Pier 20 in 1978, rendering the depot useless until 1983. During that time, the depot stored several new General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
-built RTS-04 buses awaiting entry into revenue service in 1982. On February 18, 1983, two GMC fishbowl buses on loan from Washington DC's Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA ), commonly referred to as Metro, is a tri-jurisdictional public transit agency that operates transit services in the Washington metropolitan area. WMATA provides rapid transit servic ...
(WMATA) fell into the Narrows
The Narrows is the tidal strait separating the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City. It connects the Upper New York Bay and Lower New York Bay (of larger New York Bay) and forms the principal channel by which the Hudson Ri ...
after one of its piers collapsed. Although the TA initially planned to rehabilitate the depot, Edgewater was permanently abandoned in 1985 when it was found to be structurally unsafe for use as a bus depot.
An office building is located near the site, at 1 Edgewater Street or 1 Edgewater Plaza, used by the MTA, Staten Island Community Board 1, and other organizations. It was originally a Pouch Terminal warehouse, re-purposed for office use from 1973 to the 1980s.
Hudson Depot
The Hudson Depot or Hudson Pier Depot was located on Hudson River
The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...
Pier 57
Pier 57 is a long pier located in the Hudson River on the West Side (Manhattan), West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Opened in December 1954, it sits at the end of West 15th Street (Manhattan), 15th Street on Eleventh Avenue (Manhattan), ...
at 15th Street 15th Street may refer to:
* 15th Street station (SEPTA), an American rapid transit station in Philadelphia
* 15th Street – Prospect Park (IND Culver Line), a local station on the IND Culver Line of the New York City Subway
* Fifteenth Street, a ...
in the present Hudson River Park
Hudson River Park is a waterfront park on the North River (Hudson River) that extends from 59th Street south to Battery Park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The park, a component of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, stretches and ...
in Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side (Manhattan), West Side of the Boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. The area's boundaries are roughly 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the south, the Hudson River an ...
(). The address was 11 11th Avenue. This depot was built from 1950 to 1954 as a shipping pier. The pier was abandoned in 1967 by Grace Line and remained unused for several years. In December 1971, the New York City Transit Authority took possession of the vacant building, and upgraded it to facilitate bus fueling and storage. This was opposed by the International Longshoremen's Association
The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) is a North American labor union representing longshore workers along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, and inland waterways; on the W ...
, who desired the facility to be reactivated for maritime operations, and by local civic organizations. The depot opened on September 11, 1972, replacing the 12th Street Depot, and providing indoor storage for over 200 buses previously parked on city streets. It held up to 165 buses.[ The Hudson Depot was intended to be temporary, but was kept in service when plans to construct new depots failed, and due to the closure of the 54th Street Depot.] The depot was closed on September 7, 2003, the same day the 100th Street Depot
MTA Regional Bus Operations operates local and express buses serving New York City in the United States out of 27 bus garage, bus depots. These depots are located in all five boroughs of the city, plus one located in nearby Yonkers, New York, Yo ...
reopened,[ and its routes such as the M6, M8, M9, M11, M14A/M14D, M21, M22, M16/M34, and half of the Q32 were transferred to the Michael J. Quill Depot (except the M11, which was transferred to Manhattanville, and later some M11 runs were shared with Michael J. Quill Depot in an effort to ease the severe overcrowding at Manhattanville Depot, where many of their buses are stored on the local streets during nighttime hours).][Testimony by State Senator José M. Serrano given before the City Council Transportation Committee Hearing on MTA Environmental Practices]
, October 18, 2006[David W. Chen]
''The New York Times'', October 15, 2003, section B, page 6
Meredith Avenue Depot
The Meredith Avenue Depot or Meredith Depot was located at 280 and 336 Meredith Avenue, at the intersection of Meredith Avenue and South Avenue (formerly Chelsea Road) near the shoreline of Arthur Kill
The Arthur Kill (sometimes referred to as the Staten Island Sound) is a tidal strait in the New York–New Jersey Harbor Estuary between Staten Island (also known as Richmond County), New York, and Union and Middlesex counties, New Jersey. It ...
and Prall's Island
Prall's Island is an uninhabited island in the Arthur Kill between Staten Island, New York, and Linden, New Jersey, in the United States. The island is one of the minor islands that are part of the borough of Staten Island in New York City.
T ...
in Chelsea (). This depot was constructed in 2009 to expand storage capacity in the borough, with the MTA operating the site on a 15-year lease. The depot was built on largely vacant land, with the exception of an 1890s-era house. It had space for 80 buses, and light maintenance facilities. It used to operate only from Monday to Friday, and used to only house exclusively express buses, which were rotated from the other Staten Island depots. Meredith Avenue Depot was closed due to damage from Hurricane Sandy, and reopened. The depot would later close permanently on January 3, 2025. The following routes were operated by this depot, many of which were shared with other Staten Island depots: .
Walnut Depot
The Walnut Depot or Walnut Avenue Depot was located on the south side of 132nd Street at Walnut Avenue east of the Hell Gate Bridge
The Hell Gate Bridge (originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge) is a railroad bridge in New York City. The bridge carries two tracks of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and one freight track between Astoria, Queens, and Port Morris, Bron ...
in Port Morris, Bronx
Port Morris is a neighborhood geographically located in the southwest corner of the Bronx, New York City. The neighborhood is part of Bronx Community Board 1. Its boundaries are the Major Deegan Expressway and Bruckner Expressway to the nort ...
, on the coastline of the East River
The East River is a saltwater Estuary, tidal estuary or strait in New York City. The waterway, which is 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 Long Island, ...
and the mouth of the Bronx Kill
The Bronx Kill is a narrow strait in New York City delineating the southernmost extent of the Bronx. It separates the Bronx from Randalls Island. It connects the Harlem River to the East River.
History
Originally, the Bronx Kill was a sizeab ...
(). The address was 900 East 132nd Street. NYCTA bought the former warehouse from the F. W. Woolworth Company
The F. W. Woolworth Company (often referred to as Woolworth's or simply Woolworth) was a retail company and one of the pioneers of the five-and-dime store. It was among the most successful American and international five-and-dime businesses, se ...
for $1.8 million in 1979, and rebuilt it into an operating bus depot, and opened it to buses on April 3, 1983, replacing the old and dilapidated West Farms Depot which was closed on the same date, and also to relieve overcrowding at the existing Coliseum
The Colosseum ( ; , ultimately from Ancient Greek word "kolossos" meaning a large statue or giant) is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ...
and Kingsbridge Depots. On February 21, 1993, the Walnut depot closed for rehabilation and was replaced by the current Kingsbridge Depot which reopened that same day after undergoing reconstruction. Walnut reopened in 1995 and replaced the Coliseum Depot, which by then closed for rehabilitation as well. The depot was planned to be closed around 2000, but was abruptly sold in early 1998 to the Empire State Development Corporation
Empire State Development (ESD) is the umbrella organization for New York's two principal economic development public-benefit corporations, the New York State Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the New York Job Development Authority (JDA). ...
and later the Galesi Group for the construction of a new printing plant
In publishing, printers are both companies providing printing services and individuals who directly operate printing presses.
Origins of printing
The history of printers in publishing in Western Europe dates back to the mid-15th century wit ...
for the ''New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative
daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
''.[''The New York Times'']
M.T.A. Approves Sale of a Bronx Bus Depot to The Post for a Printing Plant
March 27, 1998, section B, page 10 Walnut Depot permanently closed in spring 1998, replaced by the Michael J. Quill Depot.[ At the time of its closure, it housed 220 buses, and operated the following Bronx routes: Bx4, Bx5, Bx6, Bx11, Bx13, Bx15, Bx17, Bx19, Bx21, Bx27, Bx32, Bx35, and Bx36.] The depot was demolished in order to construct the ''Post'' printing plant.
West Farms Depot (old)
The West Farms Depot was located at 1857 Boston Road, just north of the 174th Street subway station in the Crotona Park East section of the Bronx
The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
(). The site consisted of two maintenance buildings, one on a triangular plot bound by East 175th Street, Southern Boulevard, and Boston Road, and the second on the north side of 175th Street and the Cross Bronx Expressway on the east. Built in 1894 by the Union Railway as a car barn,[ it was used to store and maintain buses until April 3, 1983, when it was closed and replaced by the Walnut Depot, and later the Gun Hill Depot.] Before it closed in early 1983, it serviced the following Bronx Local Routes; Bx3 Prospect/Crotona Av's (now Bx17), Bx11 170 Street/Claremont Pkwy. Crosstown, Bx25 Morris/Jerome Av's (now Bx32), Bx26 Boston Road/Morris Park Av (now Bx21), Bx28 Williamsbridge (now Bx39), Bx29 125 Street X-Town & Willis/Third Av's (now Bx15 & Bx15 LTD), Bx31 145/149 Street X-Town & Southern Blvd (now Bx19), Bx32 Saint Ann's Avenue (discontinued in 1984), Bx34 155/163 Street Crosstown & Hunts Point Av (now Bx6), Bx35 167/169 Street's Crosstown, Bx41 Webster Av-White Plains Road, Bx42 Westchester Avenue (now Bx4/Bx4A), and Bx49 Highbridge (discontinued and combined with Bx13). The buildings continued to stand as recently as 2002, decaying and becoming havens for crime. The depot has since been demolished, replaced by housing developments and a self storage
Self storage (a shorthand for "self-service storage") is an industry that renting, rents storage space (such as rooms, lockers, Shipping container, shipping containers, and/or outdoor space), also known as "storage units," to tenants, usuall ...
facility. The nearby Coliseum Depot was renamed the West Farms Depot when it reopened in 2003.[
]
Notes
References
External links
*
{{BMT companies
Bus garages
Depots New York City Transit Authority
Garages (parking) in the United States