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Posted by
W.B.
on Mon Jan 14 08:07:00 2019
January 14, 1966 - The Book of Route Modifications, Adjustments and Service Changes
Manhattan, New York
Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority
New York City Transit Authority - Manhattan Bus Division
In the last major series of one-way traffic conversions as had occurred over the past nearly two decades, Fifth Avenue between 138th Street and Washington Square North, and the last remaining unconverted stretch of Broadway between 23rd and 14th Streets, are converted to one-way southbound, while Madison Avenue between 23rd and 135th Streets become one-way northbound. (The changes, announced the prior May, were originally intended to take effect March 1, then March 6 as of December 5, 1965, but were moved up three days before this date on account of the transit strike which had just ended the day before.) Several bus routes along both avenues are affected (with a few routes' original pedigree mentioned in parentheses, and all routes' descriptions from side roll signs of the buses on which these routes traveled), as follows:
- 1 (ex-NYCO) Madison Avenue via 135th Street: Southbound buses moved to Fifth Avenue between 135th and 40th Streets, except for a brief detour around Mount Morris Park between 124th and 120th Streets; then running east on 40th Street to Park Avenue. The description of this route is hereby changed to "Fifth and Madison Avenues via 135th Street."
- 2 (ex-NYCO) Madison Avenue via 116th Street: Southbound buses moved to Fifth Avenue between 116th and 8th Streets, then travel east on 8th Street to its Fourth Avenue terminus. The new route description becomes "Fifth and Madison Avenues via Lenox Avenue."
- 2 (ex-FACCo) Fifth and Seventh Avenues: Northbound buses moved to Madison Avenue. The route taken, north of 8th Street and Fourth Avenue, is usually as follows: one block north on Fourth Avenue to 9th Street, west on 9th Street, north on University Place, east on 14th Street, north on Union Square East and Park Avenue South, west on 25th Street, and north on Madison Avenue to 110th Street. (By contrast, between 9th and 14th Streets, ex-NYCO 2, like 1, mainly runs straight north on Fourth Avenue; but apparently at the outset MaBSTOA intended for both this and the ex-NYCO route to alternate the path between 9th and 14th.) Some runs that terminate east of Fifth Avenue travel one block east on 8th Street, then all the way north on University Place to 14th Street. The route number is modified, and its description changed, to "2A - Fifth and Madison Avenues via Seventh Avenue"; it will retain the 2A designation through 1974 (though it will take a while until this is reflected in bus stop signs and bus roll signs).
- 3 - Fifth, St. Nicholas and Convent Avenues: Northbound buses moved to Madison Avenue, traveling the same path as 2A.
- 4 - Fifth and Fort Washington Avenues: Northbound buses moved to Madison Avenue between 32nd and 110th Streets.
- 5 - Fifth Avenue-Riverside Drive: Northbound buses - already traveling northbound on Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) between Houston and 8th Streets since the November 10, 1963 move of its south end to Houston Street and West Broadway - are shifted to the rest of Sixth, from Houston up to 57th Street.
- 15 - Fifth Avenue-Queensboro Bridge-Jackson Heights: Southern terminus cut back to 25th Street and Fifth Avenue, and northbound buses moved to Madison Avenue between 23rd and 57th Streets.
In addition, the following crosstown bus routes that travel along or around Central Park are affected by the one-way conversions of Fifth and Madison:
- 6 (ex-FACCo) 72nd Street Crosstown: Eastbound buses rerouted northbound on Madison Avenue between 57th and 72nd Streets.
- M-7 (NYCTA) 65th Street Crosstown: Eastbound buses rerouted northbound on Madison Avenue between 65th and 68th Streets.
- 18 - 86th Street Crosstown: Eastbound buses rerouted northbound on Madison Avenue between 84th and 86th Streets.
- 19 - 96th Street Crosstown: Westbound buses rerouted northbound on Madison Avenue between 96th and 97th Streets.
(Sources: "Fifth and Madison Will Go One Way Early Next Year" by Joseph C. Ingraham, The New York Times, May 12, 1965; "Fifth Ave. Will Go One Way March 6" by Joseph C. Ingraham, The New York Times, December 6, 1965; "5th and Madison Avenues Become One-Way Friday" by Peter Kihss, The New York Times, January 12, 1966; "Normal Service to Take 12 Hours," The New York Times, January 13, 1966; "How Buses Go Up Mad, Down 5th" by Harry Schlegel, Daily News (New York), January 14, 1966; "Barnes Suggests Express Bus Runs" by Farnsworth Fowle, The New York Times, January 17, 1966; Proceedings of the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority - Relating to Matters Other Than Operation and Control (Volume III), transcript(s) dated February 10, 1966; Manhattan bus maps issued by Bloomingdale's in conjunction with the World's Fair in 1964 and 1965; Manhattan bus and subway map issued by The Chase Manhattan Bank, 1966; Manhattan bus dispatcher's map for NYCTA and MaBSTOA, issued April 1968; "Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority: The First Ten Years," Motor Coach Age, May 1972.)
NOTE: While the 2 and 2A may appear to continue to be separate, distinct routes, in fact as far as MaBSTOA was concerned, the agency had merged the NYCO and FACCo 2's into, and treated them operationally (at least initially) as, one singular route with two different branches - the Seventh Avenue branch (2A) which consisted of 9.48 one-way route miles, and the Lenox Avenue branch (2) which comprised 7.5 route miles (confirmed by transcripts of MaBSTOA proceedings of the period). A late 1960's photo of a southbound 2A run (one of the 1964 GMC buses built for MaBSTOA was behind an old FACCo Queen Mary which was running excursions on behalf of the Washington Square Inn at the time) near St. Patrick's Cathedral clearly showed the front roll sign as "2A to 8 St via 7 Ave." (Had it been the 2 - Fifth-Madison-Lenox, its front sign would have read "2 to 8 St via Lenox.") Thus, the description of this route as "Fifth and Madison Avenues via Seventh and Lenox Avenues" as quoted in Farnsworth Fowle's January 17 Times article cited above, was directly from MaBSTOA documents; and signified the same as, for example, Rt. 3 as "via St. Nicholas and Convent Avenues" and Rt. 14 as "via Avenues A and D." As well, the January 14 Daily News article had the Fifth-Madison-Seventh "branch" as "2A" from the day these one-way conversions took effect; and this route was transferred on the day of same from their prior depot at 132nd Street to 146th Street where the ex-NYCO 2 had been assigned since 1964.
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