As most of the veteran members know, I normally only post news on most really big topics when funding is actually identified, and on the Capital Plan. Not only is the merger of systems officially on the books, but it has already begun ladies and gentleman! Lets review the history.
MTA Bus Company was established in late 2004 to operate bus services resulting from the city's takeover of the privately operated bus route operations administered by the NYCDOT.
The routes were taken over on a staggered schedule, beginning with the former Liberty Lines Express bus routes on January 3, 2005,Queens Surface Corporation bus routes on February 27, 2005, New York Bus Service bus routes on July 1, 2005, Command Bus Company bus routes on December 5, 2005, Green Bus Lines bus routes on January 9, 2006, and Jamaica Buses bus routes on January 30, 2006.Triboro Coach Corporation, the final remaining company, ceased operating and its routes have been operated by MTA Bus since February 20, 2006.
Currently, the only NYCDOT-subsidized lines not consolidated into MTA Bus are those run by Academy Bus and formerly by Atlantic Express until their bankruptcy in 2013. Academy Bus previously operated those routes and others until 2001, when Atlantic Express and NYCT took them over. Although the X23, and X24 routes were absorbed by Atlantic Express, the X17J, X21, X22, and X30 routes were absorbed by the New York City Transit Authority. NYCT discontinued service on the X21 months after the takeover. Recently, NYS Assemblyman Lou Tobacco and NYS Senator Andrew Lanza, along with U.S. Congressman Michael E. McMahon and NYC Councilmen Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo have asked the MTA to look into the possible consolidation of the remainder of the NYCDOT routes. In Brooklyn, a company called Private Transportation operates the B110 route; this is franchised but not subsidized by NYCDOT. Atlantic Express also ran the AE7 express route from Travis, Staten Island and Tottenville, Staten Island in the same manner as the Private Transportation B110 local route. Citing low ridership and increased costs, Atlantic Express canceled the AE7 service on December 31, 2010. Councilmen Ignizio and Oddo as well as Congressman Michael G. Grimm have called on the MTA to revamp that route also.
In 2008, the bus operations of MTA Bus Company and New York City Transit (as well as the now former Long Island Bus division) were merged into a new regional operation, MTA Regional Bus Operations. The MTA Bus brand continues to be used. Long Island Bus was shed by the end of 2011.
In September 2015, the MTA Board gave the go-ahead to allocate funding for the systematic mergers of NYCT and MTA Bus Company. This will begin with an all new Central Bus Command Center located at the East New York Depot, which will continue to operate as MTA Department of Buses Surface Transit Headquarters. The new facility will feature an all new radio system which will connect all MTA buses across both divisions. The final systematic merger will be complete will all bus fareboxes are replaced for a brand new system that again will be standard on all buses across both divisions. This also means that MTA will likely revise the destination sign coding system for MTA Bus as well, because the fareboxes will be tied into the system.
MTA now expects the next phase of the merger to be complete by July 2020. At this time it is being said that the new MTA Bus Company division will operate in a near identical fashion that MaBSTOA did when it was merged into NYCTA in 1940. MTA Bus already operates in a near identical fashion to that of it's sister agency NYCTA. At this time however, it is unclear if MTA will swap any bus routes, merge or close any depots, or drop the MTA Bus titles for NYC Bus titles. It has been said however that the Yonkers Depot could in fact close down sometime in the future, transferring operations to the Eastchester Depot