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Andy's Almanac - March 23

Posted by andy on Sat Mar 23 11:27:18 2019

March 23, 1962:

After a three-week strike, partial bus service resumes on the Manhattan and Bronx routes formerly operated by Fifth Avenue Coach and Surface Transit. In February 1962 a new ownership group had taken control of Fifth Avenue/Surface, and promptly provoked a strike by laying off 29 light duty employees in violation of the existing contract between the Transport Workers Union and the bus company. NYC’s government, which was opposed to the new ownership group, responded by seizing the buses and garages by condemnation, and creating (with NYS help) a new public agency, MABSTOA, to operate the bus lines.

By a week later, March 30, service was running normally on all but two of the former Fifth Avenue/Surface routes that became MABSTOA.

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Re: Andy's Almanac - March 23

Posted by W.B. on Sat Mar 23 18:57:14 2019, in response to Andy's Almanac - March 23, posted by andy on Sat Mar 23 11:27:18 2019.

Of the FACO Division routes, 15 - Jackson Heights, 16 - Elmhurst Crosstown and 20 - 57th Street Crosstown were resumed March 28, and 3 - Fifth, St. Nicholas and Convent Avenues, 4 - Fifth and Fort Washington Avenues and 5 - Fifth Avenue-Riverside Drive were resumed on the 29th. (Disappearing forever would be the 1 - Fifth Avenue and 19 - Fifth Avenue-Riverside Drive.) The last two FACO Division routes (2 - Fifth and Seventh Avenues and 6 - 72nd Street Crosstown) wouldn't be back on the roads until July 1.

All those resumed on this date (the 23rd) were of the NYCO Division as well as Surface Transit.

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Re: Andy's Almanac - March 23

Posted by andy on Sat Mar 23 19:28:44 2019, in response to Re: Andy's Almanac - March 23, posted by W.B. on Sat Mar 23 18:57:14 2019.

Correct about all of those points. The following day, Saturday March 24, saw full service on all NYC Division and Surface Transit routes.

Should note that the old #19 came back around 1965 as a rush-hour variant of the #5 route and continued as such until the 1980s.

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Re: Andy's Almanac - March 23

Posted by W.B. on Sun Mar 24 08:54:43 2019, in response to Re: Andy's Almanac - March 23, posted by andy on Sat Mar 23 19:28:44 2019.

And Wikipedia insists that the FACO and NYCO #1's were merged when Fifth and Madison became one-way - yet if ever that took place (irrespective of FACO #1 having ceased operations in 1962), the former would have been totally folded for both operational and legal reasons into the latter, being that despite running down Fifth (only up to 40th Street until the 2010 service cutbacks) it was still operationally the NYCO-derived #1.

And "around" 1965? The May 1972 Motor Coach Age article on MaBSTOA's first ten years has the 19 being "revived" as a rush-hours branch of the 5 on exactly December 6, 1965 - 23 years to the day after the 19 was reduced to rush hours only due to ODT restrictions.

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Re: Andy's Almanac - March 23

Posted by Spider-Pig on Sun Mar 24 09:01:57 2019, in response to Re: Andy's Almanac - March 23, posted by W.B. on Sun Mar 24 08:54:43 2019.

Wikipedia doesn't insist on anything. You can change it.

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Re: Andy's Almanac - March 23

Posted by andy on Sun Mar 24 10:07:01 2019, in response to Re: Andy's Almanac - March 23, posted by W.B. on Sun Mar 24 08:54:43 2019.

Thanks for researching. Guess my memory is not exact, but Motor Coach Age is certainly the Bus Bible, to me and other transit geeks.

And I agree that M1 route is not a merger of the FACO and NYCO #1 routes but is definitely the successor to NYCO #1.

It's amazing that FACO and NYCO used duplicate route numbers on parallel avenues (Madison-Fifth, and Fifth-Sixth, as examples). Considering that the companies were commonly owned, it's even more amazing.

Today that would confuse everyone, but somehow the old-timers must have known the difference. I was always happy after MABSTOA eliminated the duplicate Manhattan route #s in 1974.

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