Jackie Gleason Bus Depot

MTA Regional Bus Operations operates local and express buses serving New York City in the United States out of 29 bus depots. These depots are located in all five boroughs of the city, with the exception of one located in nearby Yonkers in Westchester County. 21 of these depots serve MTA New York City Transit (NYCT)'s bus operations, while the remaining eight serve the MTA Bus Company (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 fareboxes. Several of these depots were once car barns for streetcars, 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 (TWU), particularly the TWU Local 100 and 101, or of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU)'s Local's 726 for all depots in Staten Island, 1056 for Casey Stengel, Jamaica, and Queens Village Depots, and 1179 for JFK & Far Rockaway Depots.

History

On June 1, 1940, the New York City Board of Transportation (BOT) took over the streetcar operations of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT), as part of the unification of the city's transit system under municipal operations. The streetcar lines would be motorized into diesel bus routes or trolleybus routes over the next two decades. In 1947, the BOT took over the North Shore Bus Company 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. 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 (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 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 (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 in Maspeth, Queens, and the Zerega Avenue Central Maintenance Facility is located at 750 Zerega Avenue in the Bronx. 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 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. 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 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. The facility includes paint booths for MTA buses, and was designed to maintain compressed natural gas (CNG) equipment. It also features numerous classrooms and a driving simulator 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, with the others in Inwood, Manhattan and the suburb of Yonkers.

Eastchester Depot

The Eastchester Depot is located on Tillotson Avenue near Conner Street () off the New England Thruway ( Interstate 95) in the Eastchester and Co-op City neighborhoods of the Bronx. It was built in 1970, and is owned by Edward Arrigoni, former president of New York Bus Service (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

* OBI Orion VII NG HEV
* MCI D4500CL
* Prevost X3-45

Routes

* Local Routes: (split from the former Queens Surface route QBx1 in 2010)
* Express Routes: (all former NYBS routes)
* Rush hour-only Express Routes: (shared with College Point Depot)

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) in the Baychester neighborhood of the Bronx near the Co-Op City, 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 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 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 panels 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

* Nova Bus LFS LF40102
* Nova Bus LFS HEV LF40102
* Nova Bus LFS LF60102

Routes

* Local Routes:
*Articulated Local Routes: / Bx4A, / Bx12 SBS, / Bx41 SBS,

Kingsbridge Depot

The Kingsbridge Depot is located in at 4055-4060 Ninth Avenue in Inwood, Manhattan () 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 buses 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 in 1897. This was a one-story brick structure with a basement and steel frame designed in Roman renaissance style with terracotta features. Among its designers included Isaac A. Hopper, who constructed Carnegie Hall. 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 and by Hopper, with similar brick and terracotta features.

The facility became the location of the company's central repair shop in 1947 when the 65th Street Shops closed. In 1948, Third Avenue's central repair shop was moved again to a facility in Yonkers, 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

* OBI Orion VII NG HEV
* Nova Bus LFS LF40102
* Nova Bus LFS HEV LF40102
* Nova Bus LFS LF60102

Routes

* Local Routes:
* Articulated Local Routes:

West Farms Depot

The West Farms Depot is located along East 177th Street and next to the north end of the Sheridan Expressway at its interchange with the Cross Bronx Expressway (), in the West Farms section of the Bronx. 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 (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).

Original the site was an amusement park called Starlight Park, 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 in Philadelphia, which became the New York Coliseum. The coliseum and park went into receivership in 1940, and the coliseum was used as a vehicle maintenance center for the United States Army during World War II. It was acquired by the Third Avenue Railway in April 1946, and was converted into a bus depot and repair shop for the successor Surface Transportation Corporation 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 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.

Fleet

* New Flyer C40LF CNG
* New Flyer XN40 CNG
* New Flyer XN60 CNG
* Nova Bus LFS LF60102

Routes

* Local Routes:
* Articulated Local/SBS Routes: / Bx6 SBS,

Yonkers Depot

The Yonkers Depot is located at 59 Babcock Place at the foot of Alexander Street in the Getty Square section of Yonkers, New York (), 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 depot was originally built by Gray Lines Tours for Riverdale Transit Corp, which later became a part of the Liberty Lines Express 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 Brooklyn local and Brooklyn express routes are operated by either the New York City Transit brand or the MTA Bus brand, although most are branded with the former; only the B100 and B103 local routes, and the BM- express routes, are operated by MTA Bus. All Brooklyn NYCT depots are represented by TWU local 100. Spring Creek Depot, operated under the MTA Bus Company, is now represented by TWU local 101, which replaced ATU local 1181 in early 2018.

East New York Depot

The East New York Depot, also called the East New York Base Shops, is located at One Jamaica Avenue/25 Jamaica Avenue at Bushwick Avenue in the Broadway Junction area of East New York, Brooklyn (), just east of the New York City Subway's East New York Yard. 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 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, 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 XD40
* New Flyer XDE40

Routes

* Local Routes: /

Flatbush Depot

The Flatbush Depot is located at 4901 Fillmore Avenue in Flatlands, Brooklyn (), near the Kings Plaza shopping center, where a number of bus routes terminate. The depot occupies two blocks just off Flatbush Avenue, bounded by Fillmore Avenue, East 49th Street, Avenue N, and Utica Avenue.

The Brooklyn Heights Railroad (part of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company) 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 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 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 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.

Fleet

* OBI Orion VII NG HEV
* New Flyer XD40
* New Flyer XD60
* Nova Bus 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 (), adjacent to the west of the Fresh Pond Yard of the New York City Subway. 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 (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 (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 was built by the Transit Authority following the motorization of trolley service. Construction began in March 1959. In June 1959, a contract was awarded to rebuild the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line 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.

Fleet

* OBI Orion VII NG HEV
* New Flyer XD40

Routes

* Local Routes:

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 (), on the former site of a car rental business, and near the south end of the Newtown Creek. 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

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