Garage Kingsbridge Depot Locale The Bronx | Began service 1921 | |
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System MTA Regional Bus Operations Operator Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA)
New York City Transit Authority (NYCT) Vehicle New Flyer D60 Galaxy
New Flyer XD60 "Xcelsior"
Nova Bus LFS articulated | ||
The Bx1 and Bx2 are two bus routes that run on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, New York City, United States. The routes, which are operated by the MTA Regional Bus Operations, also follow Sedgwick Avenue and Mosholu Parkway for a short distance at their northern end. As the numbers suggest, these were the first two bus franchises in the Bronx.
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Route description and service
Except at their extreme northern and southern ends, the Bx1 and Bx2 share the same aligmnent. The only differences are:
The Bx1 and Bx2 bus routes share the majority of their alignment from the Grand Concourse and 149th Street north along the Concourse and Mosholu Parkway and west along Sedgwick Avenue to Heath Avenue on the west side of the Jerome Park Reservoir. At their ends, a divergence occurs as noted above.
Until August 2008, when permanent traffic reconfigurations were done in Mott Haven at 149th Street, Melrose/Willis Avenues, and Third Avenue, the Bx2 turned east off of the Grand Concourse at 165th Street and ran down Melrose Avenue to 149th Street.
Along the way, connections to the subway can be made at Third Avenue–138th Street, 138th Street–Grand Concourse (Bx1 only), 149th Street–Grand Concourse, Third Avenue–149th Street (Bx2 only), 161st Street–Yankee Stadium, Bedford Park Boulevard, Mosholu Parkway, and 231st Street (Bx1 all times, Bx2 Weekday [S/B only] and Sunday mornings only). As of September 2010, the Bx1 operates as a limited-stop service during the daytime on weekdays and Saturdays, while the Bx2 serves as the local. Before September 2010, both routes had a limited-stop variant.
History
Concourse Bus Line, Inc. was incorporated in early July 1921 by Major Emit Leindorf, deputy police commissioner in charge of motor transport under Mayor Hylan. The company soon began operating on the Grand Concourse as part of Hylan's "emergency bus lines". The Third Avenue Railway obtained an injunction against the operation on early March 1923, leading the city to assign two franchises to the company in mid-April, from Grand Concourse and Mosholu Parkway south to Fifth Avenue (Harlem, Manhattan) and Melrose Avenue and 150th Street (The Hub, Bronx). Along with a route to the Rockaways, the Concourse service was one of only two of Hylan's lines unaffected by a July 1923 injunction, since they had franchises, but were discontinued anyway by September 1924 due to the failure of the five-cent fare to pay the costs.
The franchises were reassigned to the Fifth Avenue Coach Company, which began operating the routes on October 11, 1924, for ten cents. (The Manhattan line had been truncated to 138th Street in the Bronx.) On September 14, 1927, the routes (Bx1 and Bx2 respectively) were again reassigned to the Surface Transportation Corporation, the bus subsidiary of the Third Avenue Railway, as two of its initial twelve routes. The bankrupt Surface Transportation Corporation's routes were taken over by Fifth Avenue Coach Lines in 1956, and the New York City Transit Authority subsidiary Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority acquired all of the Fifth Avenue Coach routes in 1962.
In January 1993, limited-stop service was implemented on the Bx1.