Bus depots of MTA Regional Bus Operations
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 one located in nearby Yonkers in Westchester County. 21 of these depots serve MTA New York City Transit 's bus operations, while the remaining eight serve the MTA Bus Company. 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, particularly the TWU Local 100 and 101, or of the Amalgamated Transit Union '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 took over the streetcar operations of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, 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 and its subsidiary Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority 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.Central Maintenance Depots
The MTA has two major "central maintenance facilities" 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 equipment. It also features numerous classrooms and a driving simulator to train MTA bus operators.The Bronx Division
The Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority, 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 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, 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.
This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Local routes:
- Express routes: , and
- Rush hour-only express routes:
Gun Hill Depot
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.
The depot stores around 240 buses, used on the following routes:
- Local routes:
- Articulated local routes: /,, /,
Kingsbridge Depot
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.
The depot was built to house 242 buses, and currently serves the following routes:
- Local Routes:
- Articulated Local Routes: /,
West Farms Depot
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.
This depot houses the 324 buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes:
- Articulated Local/SBS Routes: /,,,,
Yonkers Depot
This depot houses the buses used on the and 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 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.
This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes: , / Rush hour Trippers
Flatbush Depot
The Brooklyn Heights Railroad opened the depot in mid-1902 along its Flatbush Avenue Line 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.
This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes:
- Articulated SBS Routes:,
Fresh Pond Depot
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. This depot houses the buses used on the following local routes, several of which operated from the Fresh Pond barn as streetcar lines:,,,.
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. The facility partially opened in 2007 housing 19 buses, and fully opened on January 6, 2008. 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 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 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 to articulated buses as of September 1, 2019, and for electrically powered buses is currently underway for future use.
This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes:,.
- Articulated Local Routes/SBS routes:
Jackie Gleason Depot
The depot facilitated the first testing of compressed natural gas 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. In November 1995, the NYCTA installed a fueling station at the cost of $1.6 million for several Transportation Manufacturing Corporation RTS-06 CNG demonstration model buses. 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 to articulated buses as of September 1, 2018.
This depot houses the buses used on the, and local routes.
- Articulated Local Routes/SBS routes:
Spring Creek Depot
In 1988, two Orion I Command buses were fitted by the Brooklyn Union Gas Company with engines that operated on compressed natural gas. 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.
This depot houses the buses used on the following routes, all of which used to be Command routes:
- Local Routes:
- Express Routes:
Ulmer Park Depot
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.
This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes:
- Express Routes:
- Articulated Local Route:
Manhattan Division
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, several blocks south of the City College of New York. It was built in 1882 as a trolley depot for the Third Avenue Railway. 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 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 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. 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, Riverside Drive, and 132nd and 133rd Streets in Manhattanville, Manhattan. The depot is viewable from the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line between 125th Street and 137th Street – City College. 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, 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] which closed the same day. In September 1998, the depot operated a pilot fleet of 10 Orion VI hybrid electric buses. Also that year, it was planned to convert the depot into a compressed natural gas facility due to community complaints, but the plan was scrapped due to the high cost of converting such a large facility.This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes: ,
Michael J. Quill Depot
The 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.
This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes: , .
- Articulated SBS routes:
Mother Clara Hale Depot
The site of the depot was initially home to the Lenox Avenue Car House, a two-story car barn and power station, built by the Metropolitan Street Railway 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, which had replaced the trolley lines with bus routes 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, 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.
This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes:
- Articulated Local Routes:
Tuskegee Airmen Depot
This depot houses the buses used on the, ,,, and articulated routes, as well as one standard local route the. The depot is also used for midday layovers of express buses from other boroughs.
Queens Division
MTA Regional Bus Operations operate various local and express routes under New York City Transit and MTA Bus Company, with three Queens MTA Bus Company depots being members of Transport Workers Union Local 100 and all Queens NYCT depots, Far Rockaway Depot & JFK Depot being members of ATU Local 1056 and Local 1179 of Queens, New York. All New York City Transit Queens Division supervisors are members of Transport Workers Union Local 106.Note; 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
The Baisley Park Depot is located at the southeast corner of Guy R. Brewer Boulevard and Linden Boulevard in South Jamaica, Queens, northeast of Baisley Pond Park. It is owned by GTJ Reit Inc. Realty Investment Trust, Inc., 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; the company's original depot was located across the street 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. These buses are mainly used by the Guy R. Brewer Boulevard routes.As of summer 2016, this depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes:
- Articulated Local Routes:
- Express Routes: QM21
Casey Stengel Depot
The Casey Stengel Depot, formerly the Flushing Depot, is located on the south side of Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, west of 126th Street and east of the New York City Subway's Corona Yard. The depot is named after Casey Stengel, former manager of the New York Yankees and New York Mets, and is across the street from Citi Field, where the Mets play. The original Flushing Depot was inherited from the defunct North Shore Bus Company 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 contrution 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. The depot, which consists of, has 11 bus lifts. This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:- Local Routes: (shared with Jamaica
College Point Depot
In 2015, this depot housed the buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes:. The Q25, Q34, Q65, and Q66 had been Queens Surface routes, while the Q19, Q23 and Q38 had operated from the LaGuardia Depot.
- Express Routes: , , ,
Far Rockaway Depot
This depot houses the buses used on the following routes, all of which were descended from former Green Lines routes:
- Local Routes:
- Express Routes:
Jamaica Depot
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. Construction was anticipated to begin in 2018, and be complete by 2022, with all of its buses, and local routes temporarily sent to other depots.
This depot houses the buses used on the ,, and local routes.
John F. Kennedy Depot
John F. Kennedy Bus Depot or JFK Depot, along with Far Rockaway Depot, is an MTA Bus garage that used to be operated by Green Bus Lines and was assumed by MTA Bus on January 9, 2006. It was the primary storage and maintenance facility for the company. The depot was built from 1951 to 1952 at the cost of $500,000. It is owned by GTJ Reit Inc and is leased to the City of New York and operated by MTA Bus for a period of 21 years. JFK Depot is located in Springfield Gardens at 147th Avenue and Rockaway Boulevard near JFK Airport.This depot houses the buses used on the following routes, all of which used to be Green Lines routes:
- Local Routes:
- Articulated Local Routes:
LaGuardia Depot
This depot houses the following bus routes. Many of these used to be Triboro Routes. Several had been Queens Surface Corporation 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 Village Depot
This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes: /,, ,,
- Express Routes:
Staten Island Division
Note; 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 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. This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes:
- Express Routes: , , , .
Charleston Depot
This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Local Routes:
- Express Routes: , , , , , ,
Meredith Avenue Depot
This depot houses the buses used on the following routes:
- Express Routes: , , , .
Yukon Depot
- Local Routes:
- Express Routes: , , , , .
Former depots
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, Brooklyn, adjacent to the Brighton Beach neighborhood, and across from the current New York Aquarium, as well as near the former Luna Park amusement park. It was originally the site of a railroad and trolley terminal called the Culver Depot, 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 and Culver elevated trains, as well as streetcars. The terminal also served the streetcar lines of the competing Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad, 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. It used to be a taxi garage. It was acquired from the Fifth Avenue Coach Company 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, 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 in the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal in Greenwood, Brooklyn. Located across from many former Bush Terminal buildings, it was adjacent to the coastal yard of the South Brooklyn Railway, 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. 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 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 that would implement automation of the system, including automatic train protection. 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 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, Triborough Bridge, and Willis Avenue Bridge in East Harlem, Manhattan. The address is 2460 Second Avenue, and the depot's decal has "126" in Roman numerals. A former trolley yard, the site was opened as a bus depot in 1947 by Surface transit Inc., the successor to the streetcars of the Third Avenue Railway. It would later be used by the New York City Omnibus Corporation until 1962, when it would be taken over by the Transit Authority when its parent company Fifth Avenue Coach folded. It housed the buses for the M15 SBS and M15, the second busiest bus route in the United States 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.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 studio owned by William Randolph Hearst until 1923. In 2008, a historical 17th century African American burial ground used by the Low Dutch Reformed Church of Harlem, the first church in Harlem, 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 5, 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 and Third Avenue 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. 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, producing numerous signs for the Transit Authority, particularly those used in the New York City Subway. It was originally the Bergen Street Trolley Coach Depot, operated as a streetcar barn by the Brooklyn, Queens County and Suburban Railroad, 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 depot. The depot served the Bergen Street Line, Lorimer Street Line, St. Johns Place Line, 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. 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, was turned over to the New York City Board of Estimate. That year, it was converted into a garage for the New York City Department of Sanitation. 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, 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, on the southern shore of Newtown Creek.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. 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 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, B24, B29, B30, B39, B48, B59, B60, B61, and B62. 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-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's Department of Emergency Response in the former administration building, and an Access-A-Ride 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 between Onderdonk and Seneca Avenues in Ridgewood, Queens. It was built as a trolley barn by the Brooklyn City Railroad in the early 20th century, later becoming part of the BRT/BMT system. It served several streetcar lines, including the DeKalb Avenue Line, 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, the former area of the Pouch Terminal. It was leased from Pouch Terminal, Inc. in 1977, and used to relieve overcrowding at the Staten Island 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-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 fell into the Narrows 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.