B43 (New York City bus)

The Graham Avenue Line and Tompkins Avenue Line were two public transit lines in Brooklyn, New York City with the Graham Avenue Line running mainly along Graham Avenue and Manhattan Avenue and the Tompkins Avenue Line running mainly along Tompkins Avenue. The Graham Avenue line ran between Downtown Brooklyn and Greenpoint and the Tompkins Avenue Line ran between Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Williamsburg. Originally streetcar lines, they were replaced by the B47 and B62 bus routes which were then combined to form the B43 route which currently operates between Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Greenpoint. The line is dispatched from Jackie Gleason Depot in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

b43
Graham Avenue Line and Tompkins Avenue Line
Southbound B43 on Brooklyn Avenue
Overview
System	MTA New York City Bus
Operator	New York City Transit Authority
Garage	Jackie Gleason Depot
Vehicle	New Flyer C40LF CNG New Flyer Xcelsior XN40
Began service	July 1854 (Graham Avenue streetcar) September 10, 1995 (B43)
Route
Locale	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Communities served	Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Bedford–Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens
Start	Greenpoint– Box Street
Via	Manhattan Avenue, Graham Avenue, Tompkins Avenue
End	Lefferts Gardens– Prospect Park ​​
Length	7 miles (11 km)
Other routes	B48 Lorimer Street/Classon/Franklin Avenues
Service
Operates	All times
Annual patronage	1,718,047 (2023)^[1]
Transfers	Yes
Timetable	B43
Route map ← B42    B44 SBS →

Route description

The B43 bus route runs between Lincoln Road near Ocean Avenue and the Prospect Park subway station in Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Manhattan Avenue and Box Street in Greenpoint via Manhattan Avenue, Graham Avenue, and Tompkins Avenue at all times.

The B43 begins at the Prospect Park station and runs on Ocean Avenue until it becomes Empire Boulevard, running on Empire Boulevard until Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues.It runs southbound on Brooklyn Avenue and northbound on Kingston Avenue until Fulton Street, where it switches to Tompkins and Throop Avenues, respectively. It runs on Tompkins and Throop Avenues until Flushing Avenue. It runs on Flushing Avenue until Graham Avenue, which it runs on until Engert and Driggs Avenues until Manhattan Avenue. It then runs up Manhattan Avenue until Box Street, where it terminates.

History

Trolley service

The Brooklyn City Railroad opened the line, as the Flushing Avenue Line, in July 1854 as a branch of the Fulton Street Line continuing east along Flushing Avenue to Throop Avenue with an extension to Division Avenue (present-day Broadway) in April 1855.^[2] It was later extended north along Graham Avenue to North Second Street (present-day Metropolitan Avenue) in 1867^[3][4] and to Van Cott Avenue (present-day Driggs Avenue) in October 1872.^[5]

On April 27, 1890, Brooklyn City opened new trackage on Flushing Avenue from Graham Avenue east to Metropolitan Avenue, with the service operating on it becoming the new Flushing Avenue Line, and the old Flushing Avenue Line being renamed the Flushing and Graham Avenues Line and afterwards, the Graham Avenue Line.^[6]

Bus service

Streetcars on the Tompkins Avenue Line were replaced by buses on August 24, 1947.^[7]

Buses on the Graham Avenue Line were substituted for streetcars on December 11, 1949,^[8] and the route was renumbered the B62.^[9]

The B47 trolley was replaced with electric trolley buses and ran on Kingston Avenue in both directions (it was a two-way street) to Williamsburgh Bridge Plaza via Tompkins, Division, and Lee Avenues. During the heavy snowfalls in the 1950s, the electric buses had difficulty making it up the Kingston Avenue hill, and were seen backed up on Empire Boulevard in columns.^{[citation needed]}

When the north-south avenues in Brooklyn were converted to one way in the early 1960s, the B47 went north on Kingston Avenue and south on Brooklyn Avenue until Empire Boulevard. The electric trolleybuses were replaced first with “old look” GMC buses, and later with “new-look” GMC buses.^{[citation needed]}

On September 10, 1995, the B62 was merged with the B47 to form the present-day B43 route.^[10][11] The B47 had replaced the Tompkins Avenue Line running between Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Williamsburg along Empire Boulevard, Kingston Avenue, Tompkins Avenue, and Harrison Avenue. When the routes were combined, the Harrison Avenue portion of the B47 was removed, along with the Flushing Avenue section of the B62. The B43 was moved to the Grand Avenue Depot when it opened in 2008 but was moved back to the Jackie Gleason Depot by early 2011.^[12]

On December 1, 2022, the MTA released a draft redesign of the Brooklyn bus network.^[13][14] As part of the redesign, southbound service in Bedford–Stuyvesant would be rerouted along Albany Avenue and Marcus Garvey Boulevard to serve areas without existing bus service. Closely spaced stops would also be eliminated.^[15]

See also

• Greenpoint and Williamsburgh Railroad
• Crosstown Line (Brooklyn surface)

References

1. "Subway and bus ridership for 2023". mta.info. April 29, 2024. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
2. John Homer French, Gazetteer of the State of New York, 1860, pages 66 and 67
3. "Railroad Enterprise". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. December 19, 1867. p. 2.
4. "The Lufaner Inquest Continued". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. January 25, 1868. p. 2.
5. "City Railroad Extension". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. October 7, 1872. p. 11.
6. "City Railroad Changes". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY. April 25, 1890. p. 1.
7. "Public Notice Tompkins Avenue Line". Flickr.com. New York City Board of Transportation. 1947. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
8. "Transit Service Changes Today". Daily News. December 11, 1949. p. 186. Retrieved February 7, 2024; "Buses Installed on Grand St. Line". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. December 12, 1949. p. 3. Retrieved February 7, 2024.
9. "Brooklyn PCC Cars' 80th Anniversary" (PDF). The Bulletin. Vol. 59, no. 11. November 2016. p. 16. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
10. The New York Times, Coming Transit Reductions: What They Mean for You, August 20, 1995, section 13, page 10
11. "AT-A-GLANCE BUS SERVICE CHANGES". Daily News (New York). September 17, 1995. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
12. . Archived from the original on September 16, 2015.
13. Brachfeld, Ben (December 1, 2022). "Draft plan for new Brooklyn bus network aims to finally end decades of slow, unreliable service". amNewYork. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
14. Spivack, Caroline (December 1, 2022). "Brooklyn bus riders could finally get faster service under MTA redesign". Crain's New York Business. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
15. "Draft Plan: B43 Local". MTA. Retrieved December 6, 2022.