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Posted by
W.B.
on Fri Jul 17 11:50:31 2026
July 17, 1960 - The Book of First and Last Runs and Route Service Changes
Manhattan, New York
Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc. - NYCO and FACO Divisions
Surface Transit, Inc.
Third Avenue and Lexington Avenue are converted into one-way thoroughfares. Third Avenue between 24th and 128th Streets is now northbound, and Lexington Avenue between 131st and 21st Streets southbound. Several bus changes are implemented as a result:
- The 3 - Lexington Avenue and 4 - Lexington and Lenox Avenues bus routes are discontinued. Both had been originally run by the New York City Omnibus Corporation starting March 25, 1936 (as a replacement for New York Railways streetcar lines that travelled along the avenue), and since June 1, 1956 had been administered under the NYCO Division of Fifth Avenue Coach Lines.
- The M-101, previously Third Avenue only, will now travel north on Third Avenue up to 125th Street, and south on Lexington Avenue between 125th and 23rd Streets; its description will now become "Third, Lexington and Amsterdam Avenues."
- In addition, a new "short-turn" branch of the M-101 is launched, running between 125th and 23rd Streets; unlike the regular route (and another, already existing "short-turn" branch that travels from 96th Street to 6th Street), this new branch is driven by Fifth Avenue Coach drivers on buses marked as 'Surface Transit Inc.' that are assigned out of the 100th Street (now Tuskegee Airmen) depot (the regular M-101, at the time, was assigned out of Central Bronx depot). In this sense, the new short-run branch is a de facto replacement for the NYCO Division's 3.
- The 2 - Fourth and Madison Avenues (via Madison Avenue) line is extended to 146th Street and Lenox Avenue (via 116th Street) to compensate for the demise of the 4. (The 1 - Fourth and Madison Avenues [via Park Avenue] line still terminates north at 135th and Madison at this juncture; it is not until April 30, 1967 that this route will be extended to 146th-147th and Lenox via 135th Street.) It is also around this time that 2's (and 1's) main route description is changed to "Park Avenue South and Madison Avenue," given the name change of Fourth Avenue between Union Square and 32nd Street to Park Avenue South the prior year.
(NOTE: That the 2 will be so extended after the demise of one route would be especially ironic given that, on March 2, 1969, the by-then Fifth-Madison-Lenox route will itself be discontinued and replaced north of 116th Street by the newly-created M-101A - Third, Lexington and Lenox Avenues line, known since 1974 as M102.)
Peripherally affected by these changes is the FACO Division's 15 - Jackson Heights line, Queens-bound buses of which are rerouted northbound from Lexington to Third Avenue between 57th and 59th Streets.
(Sources: "One-Way Bus Schedules Given for Lexington and 3d Avenues," The New York Times, July 12, 1960; "Here's How Buses Will Go Thataway on 3d and Lex.," Daily News [New York], July 12, 1960; "New York City Omnibus Corp." by Bernard Linder, Motor Coach Age, February 1969; From a Nickel to a Token: The Journey from Board of Transportation to MTA by Andrew J. Sparberg, Oxford University Press, 2014.)
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