|
|
| Re: MaBSTOA... (49337) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > BusChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
Re: MaBSTOA... |
|
|
Posted by andy on Sun Mar 11 11:53:47 2007, in response to Re: MaBSTOA..., posted by Gotham Bus Co. on Sun Mar 11 10:20:15 2007. Some additional historical information should be added to this post:The MTA Bus takeover of the NYC private bus companies was long-planned and phased in over a fourteen month period. MABSTOA is similar only in that it also the public takeover of two (not one) previously-private bus companies. But that's where the similarity ends. The MABSTOA takeover occurred very quickly over a three week period after a strike against the private operators. While Fifth Avenue Coach was the corporate owner of the entire operation folded into MABSTOA, it was actually two companies: * Fifth Ave. Coach itself comprised the vast majority of today's Manhattan bus routes, all except today's M15, M22, M31, and M50 (which were NYCTA routes), and today's M100, M101, M104, and M42 (see below). *A Fifth Ave. Coach subsidiary, Surface Transit, was the successor the Third Ave. Railway's streetcar lines in The Bronx and Manhattan. It was taken over by Fifth Ave. Coach in 1956 but was kept operationally separate - different buses, garages, union agreements, etc (although both sets of workers were TWU Local 100). Surface Transit encompassed all Bronx-based bus routes (except today's Q44 and QBX1) and a few Manattan lines - today's M100, M101, M104, and M42. Surface Transit also operated a number of lines in Southern Westchester County (part of today's Bee Line) called Westchester Street Transportation Company that did not become part of the MABSTOA takeover. *New owners took control of the Fifth Avenue/Surface Transit operation in early 1962 and announced plans to cut jobs, night and weekend service, and raise fares. Both NY City and the TWU expressed outrage but the new owners persisted anyway and on March 1, 1962 dismissed a group of about thirty older workers (disabled former bus drivers who worked as street fare collectors at busy Manhattan stops. The TWU promptly went on strike and shut down the entire Fifth Ave./Surface operation, effectively leaving Manhattan and The Bronx without bus service. NY City and State governments promptly passed legislation allowing NY City to acquire Fifth Ave/Surface properties by condemnation in order to restore service, and set up MABSTOA as a separate subsidiary to NYCTA in order to operate the buses. Amazingly the buses were back on the streets on March 24, and Fifth Ave. Coach/Surface never again operated buses entirely within New York City. |
|
|
|