B15 (New York City bus) explained

Box Width:300px
Subheader:Marcus Garvey Boulevard / New Lots Avenue Line
System:MTA Regional Bus Operations
Operator:New York City Transit Authority
Garage:East New York Depot
Vehicle:New Flyer Xcelsior XD40
New Flyer Xcelsior XDE40
Orion VII NG HEV
Locale:Brooklyn and Queens, New York, U.S.
Communities:Bedford–Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Ocean Hill, Brownsville, East New York, Lindenwood
Landmarks:John F. Kennedy International Airport
Start:Bedford–Stuyvesant  - Woodhull Medical Center
Via:Marcus Garvey Blvd (southbound) / Lewis Avenue (northbound), East 98th Street, New Lots Avenue, Linden Boulevard, Conduit Avenue
End:John F. Kennedy International Airport – Lefferts Boulevard AirTrain station  - or
East New York – Linden Boulevard / Drew Street
Length:8.2miles (eastbound)
Day:All times
Timetable Link:B15
Annualpatronage:2,833,642 (2023)[1]
Transfers:Yes
Map State:collapsed
Previous Line:B14
Next Line:B16

The Sumner Avenue Line and New Lots Avenue Line were two streetcar lines in Brooklyn, New York City, running mainly along Marcus Garvey Boulevard (formerly Sumner Avenue), East 98th Street, and New Lots Avenue between northern Bedford–Stuyvesant and New Lots. Originally streetcar lines, the two lines were combined as a bus route in 1947. That bus route became the present B15 Marcus Garvey Boulevard / New Lots Avenue service, operated by MTA New York City Bus' East New York Depot in East New York. The B15 continues east from New Lots to John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens.

Route description

The B15 bus route runs between the Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center and Flushing Avenue subway station in Bedford–Stuyvesant, and John F. Kennedy International Airport's Terminal 5 in Queens. Alternate buses during rush hours and weekends short turn at Drew Street/Elderts Lane on Linden Boulevard in Spring Creek, at the border with Lindenwood, Queens.[2]

The B15 bus route heads south through Bedford–Stuyvesant along Marcus Garvey Boulevard (southbound) and Lewis Avenue (northbound). After crossing Fulton Street, buses use a number of streets through Crown Heights and Ocean Hill, eventually turning south on Ralph Avenue and southeast on East 98th Street. In Brownsville and East New York, buses head east on Hegeman Avenue and New Lots Avenue, then south to Linden Boulevard and merging onto Conduit Avenue after entering Queens. B15 buses then terminate at the AirTrain JFK's Lefferts Boulevard station, within the grounds of John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Between the 1990s and September 2013, the short-turn B15 Spring Creek terminus was a separate branch, directly serving the Brooklyn General Mail Facility via a turnaround loop at the north end of the facility south of Linden Boulevard. The JFK and Postal Facility branches were combined during midday and overnight hours.[2] The loop is still served by terminating and buses, and through service to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick or the Gateway Center in the southern portion of Spring Creek.[2]

Originally named after abolitionist Charles Sumner, Sumner Avenue was renamed Marcus Garvey Avenue in 1987, and later Marcus Garvey Boulevard after Pan-Africanism proponent Marcus Garvey.[3] [4] [5]

History

Sumner Avenue Line

The Yates Avenue and Flatbush Railroad was organized in 1881 to build a branch of the Broadway Railroad, beginning at Broadway and Yates Avenue (present-day Marcus Garvey Boulevard) in Bedford–Stuyvesant, continuing south on Yates to Fulton Street, then east on Fulton, where it ran over the Brooklyn City Rail Road's Fulton Street Line to Troy Avenue, and continued south on Troy to end at Bergen Street.[6] The Broadway Railroad leased the line on December 31, 1881.[7] The Brooklyn, Queens County and Suburban Railroad, owned by the Long Island Traction Company (later the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company or BRT), leased the Broadway Railroad in early 1894, and the line was electrified in late October.[8] The BRT would become the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) in 1923.[9]

Conversion to bus service

20th century

Beginning in the 1920s many streetcar lines in Brooklyn and the rest of the city began to be replaced by buses, particularly after the unification of the city's three primary transit companies (including the BMT) under municipal operations in June 1940.[10] [11] The New Lots Avenue Line was converted to buses in mid-1941, running from the Canarsie Depot at Rockaway Avenue and Hegeman Avenue continuing east along Hegeman Avenue and Linden Boulevard to Atkins Avenue/Berriman Street in East New York.[10] [12] [13] The service was assigned the B10 designation.[10] [12] [14] On July 8, 1947, the B10 was extended to replace Sumner Avenue trolley service. The Sumner route was cut back from Williamsburg Bridge Plaza to its current terminal at Broadway and Sumner Avenue with direct Bedford–Stuyvesant-Red Hook service unreplaced.[15] Sumner trolley service was fully eliminated in 1949.[12]

On September 29, 1963, several Brooklyn streets including Sumner Avenue were turned into one-way streets; Sumner Avenue would become southbound only. Northbound B10 buses were rerouted onto Lewis Avenue at this time.[16] By this time, the B10 had been extended east along Linden Boulevard to Drew Street/Elderts Lane in New Lots/Spring Creek, near the Brooklyn-Queens border.[16] This extension had been proposed around 1960 to serve the Cypress Hills and Louis Heaton Pink public housing complexes in New Lots.[17] The bus would serve Brooklyn General Mail Facility in Spring Creek when it opened in 1991.[18] [19] In 1993, the route was extended to its current terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport's Terminal 4 in Jamaica, Queens. When the route was extended to Kennedy Airport it was redesignated as the B15 (the previous designation for a route between City Hall and Downtown Brooklyn)[14] [20] to avoid confusion with the, an existing route serving the airport, at the time operated by Green Bus Lines (now part of MTA Bus Company).

21st century

On April 11, 2004, 24-hour service was added to the B15 between Brooklyn and JFK Airport. At the same time, service to all JFK terminals except Terminal 4 was replaced by a free transfer to the AirTrain JFK.[21] On October 12, 2009, buses on the B15 were equipped with luggage racks, as part of a ten-bus pilot program on airport bus services to improve passenger flow.[22] [23] [24] On May 30, 2012, due to construction at Terminal 4, the B15 started terminating at a new stop at Terminal 5, near the former Terminal 6.[25] [26] On September 8, 2013, B15 buses stopped directly serving the Brooklyn General Mail Facility loop due to low ridership.[2] [27]

In February 2022, the MTA announced that the B15 branch to JFK would be truncated to the AirTrain JFK's Lefferts Boulevard station the next month on March 27 to accommodate long-term construction at JFK Airport. The changes would remain in effect until at least 2026, when JFK's new Central Terminal Area was completed. The discontinued portion of the B15 would be served by an extension of the Q3 service.[28]

On December 1, 2022, the MTA released a draft redesign of the Brooklyn bus network.[29] [30] As part of the redesign, the B15's eastern terminus would be truncated to the Brooklyn General Mail Facility, while the western terminus would be extended to the Montrose Avenue station at Bushwick Avenue and Montrose Avenue in East Williamsburg. Northbound service in Bedford-Stuyvesant would be rerouted to Kingston and Throop Avenues. Closely-spaced stops would also be removed. [31] The B15's JFK Airport branch, as well as the B35 Limited bus, would be replaced by the B55, a new Select Bus Service route running from Kensington to JFK Airport via Church Avenue, New Lots Avenue, Linden Boulevard, and North and South Conduit Avenue.[32]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Subway and bus ridership for 2023 . mta.info . April 29, 2024. May 2, 2024.
  2. Web site: Transit & Bus Committee Meeting April 2013. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. December 24, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20131004213110/http://www.mta.info/mta/news/books/pdf/130422_1000_Transit.pdf. October 4, 2013. dead. April 2013.
  3. News: New Name: Avenue Becomes a Boulevard. March 29, 2016. The New York Times. October 22, 1987.
  4. Web site: Bedford Stuyvesant/Expanded Stuyvesant Heights Historic District: Designation Report. nyc.gov. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. July 4, 2016. April 16, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20160313091831/http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/2496.pdf. March 13, 2016. dead.
  5. Book: Leonard Benardo. Jennifer Weiss. Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges, and More Got Their Names. July 4, 2016. July 1, 2006. New York University Press. 978-0-8147-9945-1. 91.
  6. News: . A New Street Railroad . March 13, 1881 . 4.
  7. News: . Railroad Bills . March 8, 1883 . 4.
  8. News: . Real Estate Market . October 24, 1894 . 14.
  9. Municipal Operation of Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Cars Began 80 Years Ago. New York Division Bulletin. December 2003. 46. 12. 1, 4. January 21, 2016. Electric Railroaders Association.
  10. Book: Sparberg, Andrew J.. From a Nickel to a Token: The Journey from Board of Transportation to MTA. October 1, 2014. Fordham University Press. 978-0-8232-6190-1.
  11. Web site: Seyfried, Vincent F.. Vincent F. Seyfried. Full text of "Story of the Long Island Electric Railway and the Jamaica Central Railways, 1894-1933 /". archive.org. F. E. Reifschneider. December 20, 2015. 1961.
  12. News: Public Notices. March 29, 2016. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Newspapers.com. August 11, 1949. 19.
  13. News: Notice of Public Hearing: Franchise Matters. March 29, 2016. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Fultonhistory.com. July 15, 1941. 16.
  14. Web site: 1976 Brooklyn Bus Map. wardmaps.com. New York City Transit Authority. March 28, 2016. 1976.
  15. New York Board of Transportation, Report for the Three and One-half Years Ending June 30, 1949
  16. News: 600-Block Area In Brooklyn To Become Major One-Way Streets. March 29, 2016. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Fultonhistory.com. September 25, 1963. 3.
  17. News: Fitzgerald. Owen. The Voice of Brooklyn. March 29, 2016. New York World-Telegram. Fultonhistory.com. July 25, 1960. B2.
  18. Web site: AKRF, Inc., Eng-Wong Taub & Associates, Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc.. FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT for GATEWAY ESTATES II. nyc.gov. New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. November 16, 2015. February 4, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20151117032206/http://www1.nyc.gov/site/hpd/developers/environmental-review.page. November 17, 2015. dead.
  19. Web site: Brooklyn P&DC, Brooklyn, NY Area Mail Processing (AMP) Public Meeting: November 28, 2011. United States Postal Service. November 18, 2015. November 28, 2011.
  20. Web site: Heller Anderson. Susan. Dunlap. David W.. NEW YORK DAY BY DAY; . . . Bridge Experiment. The New York Times. December 30, 2015. June 25, 1985.
  21. Web site: Bus Service Advisories: Queens. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. February 20, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20041205074610/http://www.mta.info/nyct/service/bus/bussrvnoqn.htm. December 5, 2004. December 2004.
  22. Web site: Donohue. Pete. MTA to give buses to LaGuardia Airports and John F. Kennedy Airport luggage racks. Daily News (New York). December 26, 2015. October 12, 2009.
  23. Web site: Hirshon. Nicholas. Travelers' delight: Luggage racks on airport bus routes off to a flying start. Daily News (New York). December 26, 2015. October 13, 2009.
  24. News: Grynbaum. Michael M.. Bringing Storage, and Comfort, to a La Guardia-Bound Bus. December 27, 2015. The New York Times. October 12, 2009.
  25. Web site: Transit Committee Meeting June 2012. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. March 9, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20120813075205/http://www.mta.info/mta/news/books/pdf/120625_1000_Transit.pdf. August 13, 2012. dead. June 2012.
  26. Web site: mta.info Planned Service Notices: JFK Airport Terminal 4 Bus Stop Relocation . May 31, 2012 . December 30, 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120531230717/http://mta.info/nyct/service/JFK_Terminal4BusStop.htm . May 31, 2012 .
  27. News: McKenzie. Trista. NYC Traffic Report for Thursday, September 26: UN General Assembly Delays. March 29, 2016. allmediany.com. September 26, 2013.
  28. Web site: Mohamed . Carlotta . MTA announces bus route service changes to take effect in March amid JFK Airport terminal redevelopment – QNS.com . QNS.com . February 14, 2022 . April 1, 2022.
  29. Web site: Brachfeld . Ben . Draft plan for new Brooklyn bus network aims to finally end decades of slow, unreliable service . amNewYork . December 1, 2022 . December 2, 2022.
  30. Web site: Brooklyn bus riders could finally get faster service under MTA redesign . Crain's New York Business . December 1, 2022 . Spivack . Caroline . December 2, 2022.
  31. Web site: Draft Plan: B15 Local. 2022-12-05. MTA. en.
  32. Web site: Draft Plan: B55 SBS. 2022-12-05. MTA. en.