New York City Transit

Buses


Serves: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island.

Ridership:
2.3 million per average weekday - 726 million annual in 2009.


Number of Buses: 4,561 in 2008

Accessibility: NYC Transit was the first public agency in the world to have a bus fleet 100 percent accessible to customers who use wheelchairs. Every bus is accessible to people in wheelchairs via front or rear-door lifts; some newer buses have low floors that enable customers to enter via front-door ramps.
.
DID YOU KNOW? New York City buses do not accept paper money because NYC Transit uses giant vacuum hoses to empty fareboxes, a process that would shred bills.

Number of miles traveled by an average bus between repairs:
   
2009:
3,969  

 

Number of routes: 208 local and 36 express bus routes in the five boroughs.

Number of average weekday trips:
45, 838 in 2009.

Number of bus stops: 12,500.

Longest rides: The longest local bus routes are Staten Island's S78, which travels 16.5 miles from the St George Ferry Terminal to Main Street in Tottenville and the S74 route, also in Staten Island, which is 17.8 miles long.

Depots: Buses are housed, washed, and maintained at 18 depots.


The Ten Busiest Local Bus Routes 2009

Number

Route  

Borough 

Annual Ridership

1

B46 Brooklyn 

16,816,652

2 M15 Manhattan 16,541,900
3 Bx12 Local/SBS Bronx 14,736,515
4 B6 Brooklyn 14,046,274
5 B44 Brooklyn  13,391,324
6 B35 Brooklyn  12,853,601
7 B41  Brooklyn  12,693,709
8 Bx1/2   Bronx 12,586,548
9 M14 Manhattan 12,036,852
10 M101 Manhattan 10,620,992




DID YOU KNOW? Jackie Gleason played a Brooklyn bus operator on
"The Honeymooners" TV series. In real life, his mother worked as a railroad clerk for 15 years. The Jackie Gleason Depot in Brooklyn was once the site of an elevated railcar inspection shop.


Maintenance: General overhauls and heavy maintenance take place at the Bronx's Zerega Avenue and Brooklyn's East New York Central Maintenance Facilities.

The Ninth Avenue shop in Manhattan and the East New York shop in Brooklyn rebuild individual bus components. The Crosstown and Zerega shops paint buses.

DID YOU KNOW?
Bus maintenance involves more than 7,000 separate parts.


This 45-foot long over-the-road coach, a newer bus model,
carries express bus customers in comfort from Staten Island,
Brooklyn, and Queens into Manhattan.


New York City Transit's Rank Among North American Bus Systems

Annual Bus Ridership 2009

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
New York City Transit
Los Angeles MTA
Chicago - CTA
San Francisco - Muni
Philadelphia - SEPTA
New Jersey Transit
Washington DC - Metro
MTA Bus Company
Seattle - King County DoT
Boston - MBTA

726 million
371 million
319 million
169 million
162 million
159 million
129 million
120 million
111 million
110 million
 

NYC Transit's buses cover a lot of ground as this Manhattan bus stop sign shows.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Back to Back to top