Parent See the article Service type Local bus transit Founded 1896 | Locale Greater New York Headquarters New York City Defunct 1962 | |
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Slogan See New York - The Motor Coach Way Service area | ||
The Fifth Avenue Coach Company was a bus operator in Manhattan, The Bronx, and Westchester County, New York, providing public transit between 1896 and 1954 after which services were taken over by the New York City Omnibus Corporation. It succeeded the Fifth Avenue Transportation Company.
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History
The company was founded in 1896 when it succeeded the bankrupt Fifth Avenue Transportation Company. It initially operated existing horse-and-omnibus transit along Fifth Avenue, with a route running from 89th Street to Bleecker Street. Fifth Avenue is the only avenue in Manhattan never to see streetcar service due to the opposition of residents to the installation of railway track for streetcars. The company introduced electric buses two years later and was acquired by the newly formed New York Transportation Company in 1899.
They introduced a fleet of 15 of their own motorbuses in 1907 that operated along Fifth Avenue and on some crosstown routes. The company became independent of the New York Transportation Company in 1912.
In 1925, the year that they came under control of The Omnibus Corporation, the company purchased a majority share in the New York Railways Corporation.
When the New York Railways Corporation started converting streetcar lines to buses in 1935–36, the new replacement bus services were operated by the New York City Omnibus Corporation, which had been formed in 1926 and had shared management with The Omnibus Corporation. New York Railways Corporation was dissolved in 1936.
The New York and Harlem Railroad trolleys were replaced by Madison Avenue Coach Company buses, and the Eighth and Ninth Avenue Railway trolleys by Eighth Avenue Coach Company buses, both companies owned by Fifth Avenue Coach. (Fourth and Madison Avenues; 86th Street Crosstown was not replaced with buses).
In 1954 The Omnibus Corporation sold the Fifth Avenue Coach Company to the New York City Omnibus Corporation which changed its name to Fifth Avenue Coach Lines two years later. After a strike in 1962, and a fight for control with financier Harry Weinberg, bus operations were taken over by the city.
Routes
The routes that were operated by the Fifth Avenue Coach Company are listed below.