BusTalk

[Q101 EAST MIDTOWN 2 AV]

1) Which of the following companies is oldest?

A. Coach USA

B. Red & Tan

C. Stagecoach Group

2) What is the MTA's version of the QBx1?

3) What was the old name of the N26?

4) Name the 5 routes operated by TransportAzumah

5) What is the modern version of Ave B & E. Bway's M7 Express Bus

A. X25

B. X90

6) How many buses are operated by Private Transportation Corp? What are the numbers and their models?

7) What was the first designations of the Q32?

A. M32

B. Q89

C. M24

D. QM15

8. How many routes are operated by Red & Tan in Hudson County

9) How many bus routes are operated by Rockland Coaches Inc. (owned by Coach USA)

10) How many routes are operated by Coach USA

11) Who owns Coach USA?

A. Stagecoach Group plc

B. Megabus

C. Veolia Transport

D. Greyhound

E. None of the Above

12) Name the route operated by A&C Bus Corp. (also known as the Montgomery & Westside IBOA) that operates between Jornal Sq and Hudson Mall

13) What is the nickname of NYCT GMC RTS #4396?

14) How many bus routes in NYC are operated by Atlantic Express? Name them and their destinations (e.g. 43 Port Richmond/Bayonne Limited)

[busdude2]

It is the 440 shopper that goes to the hudson mall !

[busdude2]

Question 8- red and tan aka coach usa in hudson county. routes 4, 10, 16, 99, 99s , 231 maybe a couple of other routes too.

[busdude2]

Bus 4396 known as the phoenix !

[Bill From Maspeth]

I can answer a few: Red and Tan is the oldest company; Ave. B's M7 is now NYCT's X90; the Q32 was the M32; Coach USA is owned by Stagecoach; 4396 is/was known as Phoenix.

[Q65A]

Excellent quiz, Q101; you have me very stumped.
I can only hazard a few guesses:
#1: Red & Tan
#5: X90
#7:Q89
#11: Stagecoach Group plc

[foto_buff]

[quote="Q101 EAST MIDTOWN 2 AV"]

7) What was the first designations of the Q32?

A. M32

B. Q89

C. M24

D. QM15

The correct answer is "None of the above"

The Q32 was originally Fifth Avenue Coach Corporation's Route #15, which was granted as a perpetual franchise and not included in any of the route number systems prefixed with the letters of their boroughs. The route became M32 in the mid-1970s as MaBSTOA and NYCTA began rationalizing and standardizing their route maps, particularly in Manhattan, where Fifth Avenue and its NYCO subsidiary had numerous duplicate route numbers.

[Hart Bus]

[quote="foto_buff"]

[B53RICH]

Fifth Avenue Coach route #16 eventually became a MABSTOA route, later called the Q89. I think this route was deleted during the 80's. It basically ran from 82 Street in Jackson Heights then onto Baxter Avenue passing the hospital, then onto Broadway to Queens Boulevard where it turned back. The one time I did see this route in operation OA RTS 2222 was in service.

[ripta42]

This picture, taken in June, 1974, shows a bus on the "M15" on West 23rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues bound for 20th Street & FDR Drive. It doesn't make sense that a First/Second Avenue bus would be there. Was there a period that between QM15 and M32 when the route was designated M15? How was this reconciled with the "real" M15?

[andy47]

The #5301 MABSTOA bus in the 1974 photo is operating on the 23rd Street Crosstown. Because FACO, NYCO, and NYCTA all originally used duplicative route numbers, the 15 designation was actually used for three different routes - 23rd St Crosstown (NYCO), 5th Ave. Jackson Heights (FACO), and 1st-2nd Aves. (NYCTA). In the 70s the route signs began adding the M prefix to Manhattan routes, so that's why M15 shows up on the curtain. Later in 1974 MTA decided, wisely, to eliminate duplicative route numbers in Manhattan since by then the NYCTA, FACO, and NYCO routes had been under common owneship for 12 years. 23rd Crosstown became M26 (later M23 to conform to another policy change that numbered crosstown routes the same as their actual street number). Jackson Heights became M32 (now Q32 because the majority of its mileage is in Queens). 1st and 2nd Aves. remained M15, unchanged to this day.

[W.B. Fishbowl]

Contemporaneous to that "M15" photo would have been this:


. . . taken a month before the route name change to M32, with MABSTOA #5366 (from the 1965 run of TDH-5303 production) clearly showing a "QM15" designation on the rollsign (made about 1972, based upon the borough prefices and the use of combo upper and lower case of Standard Medium a.k.a. Akzidenz-Grotesk), parked in front of the westernmost end of Madison Square Park on East 24th Street. Apparently the QM part was added to this 15 (ex-FACCo) to distinguish from MABSTOA's (ex-NYCO) 23rd Street M15, rather than NYCTA's First/Second Avenue M15. But small wonder that new route numbers were applied to MABSTOA's two 15's.

[MaBSTOA 15]

Very good information on the route 15/32 Jackson Heights... I like to add a little more...

As we all know route 15 and 16 operated out of the Fifth Avenue Coach depot located at 76th Street and Northern Blvd. in Jackson Heights from July 1925 to December 22, 1963. At that time it was transferred to the former NYCO depot at 54th Street until January 1987. Then transferred to the Hudson Pier depot until September 2003. Then unto the Michael Quill depot till the present. In 1994 it was split with Casey Stengle.

(Route 16 Elmhurst Crosstown had a long run on/run off ride - from 54 St to 82 and Northern Blvd! A driver once told me that sometimes the 16 left the depot and returned as a route 15. At 82 st it would change to the route 16)

During the 1939-1949 World's Fair route 15 had runs to the fair grounds.

[MaBSTOA 15]

Route 15 Jackson Heights began on July 9,1925 and operated as such till 1974. It was then changed to the QM 15. However this was short lived. Photos with this destination are rare.

Then starting in July 1, 1974 it was changed to the M32 till March 4, 1989. On the next day it started to operate as the Q32 till the present.

Sometime in November 1963 the terminal in Manhattan was extended to 8th Street and 5th Avenue. It would u-turn under the arch and head north on 5th Avenue.

Other routing changes were:
a) north bound on Madison starting January 14, 1966
b) Queens bound on 59th Street eastbound instead of 57th Street
c) westbound down 60th Street till 5th Avenue
d) Queensborough bridge using the access road
e) cut back from 23/25 Street to Penn Station

Btw, sometimes the headed to Northern Blvd. either heading north on 81st Street or using 83rd Street left on 37th Avenue then north on 81.

[W.B. Fishbowl]

I agree, photos with QM15 markings are very rare - and would have been all in the 1972-74 period. But prior to the 16 route becoming Q89, wouldn't early '70's signs on the front of the bus have advertised it as Q16?