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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) operates a number of bus routes in Brooklyn, New York, United States; one minor route is privately operated under a city franchise. Many of them are the direct descendants of streetcar lines (see list of streetcar lines in Brooklyn); the ones that started out as bus routes were almost all operated by the Brooklyn Bus Corporation, a subsidiary of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, until the New York City Board of Transportation took over on June 5, 1940. Of the 55 local Brooklyn routes operated by the New York City Transit Authority, roughly 35 are the direct descendants of one or more streetcar lines, and most of the others were introduced in full or in part as new bus routes by the 1930s. Only the eastern section of the B82 (then the B50), the B83, and the B84 were created by New York City Transit from scratch, in 1978, 1966, and 2013, respectively.
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List of routes
This table gives details for the routes prefixed with "B" - in other words, those considered to run primarily in Brooklyn by the MTA. For details on routes with other prefixes, see the following articles:
Service operation
Routes that operate at all times: B1, B3, B6, B8, B12, B14, B15, B17, B25, B26, B35, B36, B38, B41, B42, B43, B44, B46, B47, B48, B52, B54, B60, B61, B62, B63, B68, B82
Routes B1 to B26
All routes in this section are local service except routes B6, which has local and limited-stop services.
Routes B31 to B49
All routes in this section are local service except routes B35, B38, B41, B49 which have local and limited-stop services. Also, the B44 and B46 route have local and Select Bus Service (SBS).
Routes B52 to B84
All routes in this section are local service except route B82 which has local and limited-stop services.
Routes B100 and B103
These routes were formerly operated by the Command Bus Company until MTA takeover in December 2005. The routes are currently operated under MTA Bus.
Route B110
This route is operated by Private Transportation Corporation under a franchise with the City of New York, and is the lone unsubsidized route operating in Brooklyn. MetroCard is not accepted for payment of fare on this line, which has a one-way exact change fare of US$3.25.
In October 2011, the B110 was reported in several New York newspapers to have signs requiring female passengers to sit in the back to avoid possible contact with men, as is considered necessary by some Hassidic Jewish groups in the area it serves. The story was reported internationally. On October 20, the New York City Department of Transportation said it would shut down the line if the gender separation was not discontinued, but six days later, Private Transportation Corporation agreed to end this practice.
Currently, Private Transportation Corp. no longer enforces the Hasidic custom that men and women sit apart in social situations. But still most Hasidic men and women riders choose to sit apart each other and do not complain about segregation.
Dollar vans
When the MTA discontinued some routes on June 27, 2010, operators of commuter vans, also known as dollar vans, were allowed to take over certain discontinued routes. In Brooklyn, these routes were the B23, B39 (which has since been restored), and B71. There are also dollar vans that operate to areas with little mass transit service, or provide an alternative mode of transportation to certain bus routes such as the B41 and B46. The vans, some licensed by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission and some unlicensed, charge a fare of $2.00, lower than the $2.75 fare for MTA-operated local buses, but without free transfers.
Former routes
Note that the "B" prefix was not added until the mid-1970s, and, on December 11, 1988, some of the Brooklyn "B" routes primarily in Queens were redesignated as "Q" routes.