B15 (New York City bus)

For additional information on the current bus service, see List of bus routes in Brooklyn.

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.

b15
Marcus Garvey Boulevard / New Lots Avenue Line
A 2022 XD40 (7890) on the Lefferts Boulevard-bound B15 at Ralph Avenue/Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn in September 2022, due to construction at JFK Airport.
Overview
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
Route
Locale	Brooklyn and Queens, New York, U.S.
Communities served	Bedford–Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Ocean Hill, Brownsville, East New York, Lindenwood
Landmarks served	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[1]
End	John F. Kennedy International Airport – Lefferts Boulevard AirTrain station – or East New York – Linden Boulevard / Drew Street
Length	9.5 miles (15.3 km)[2] (eastbound)
Service
Operates	All times[1]
Annual patronage	2,833,642 (2023)[3]
Transfers	Yes
Timetable	B15
Route map Bedford–Stuyvesant – Woodhull Hospital  B15  ​ Intermittent stops Park Avenue Broadway Myrtle Avenue Intermittent stops Willoughby Avenue Pulaski Street DeKalb Avenue Intermittent stops Lafayette Avenue Green Avenue Gates Avenue Intermittent stops Madison Street Jefferson Avenue Halsey Street MacDonough Street Fulton Street Atlantic Avenue Dean Street Intermittent stops Troy Avenue Schenectady Avenue Utica Avenue Intermittent stops Rochester Avenue St. Marks Avenue Buffalo Avenue Intermittent stops Prospect Place Park Place St. Johns Place / Buffalo Avenue St. Johns Place / Ralph Avenue Eastern Parkway East New York Avenue Sutter Avenue Blake Avenue Dumont Avenue Kings Highway Riverdale Avenue–Lenox Road Legion Street Willmohr Street Lott–Church Avenues Hegeman Avenue Intermittent stops Boyland Street Bristol–Chester Streets Rockaway–Thatford Avenues Intermittent stops Osborn–Watkins Streets Gaston Boulevard–Christopher Avenue Sackman–Powell Streets Van Sinderen Avenue Hinsdale Street–Williams Avenue Alabama Avenue Georgia–Sheffield Avenues Pennsylvania Avenue Intermittent stops Vermont–Wyona Streets Bradford Street–Miller Avenue Van Siclen Avenue–Hendrix Street Scheneck Avenue–Barbey Street Jerome Street Ashford Street Intermittent stops Elton–Linwood Streets Essex Street Berriman Street Montauk Avenue–Milford Street Dumont Avenue / Fountain Avenue Hegeman Avenue / Fountain Avenue Linden Boulevard / Fountain Avenue Intermittent stops Euclid Avenue Crescent Avenue Autumn Avenue Lincoln Avenue Eldert Lane Loring Avenue Drew Street / Linden Boulevard  B15  Emerald Street 78th–79th Streets Nonstop via Conduit Avenue Lefferts Boulevard AirTrain Station Bergen Road JFK Stop 22 JFK Airport stops West Hanger Road JFK Stop 20A Cargo Service Road JFK Stop 17 East Hanger Road JFK Stop 18 Building 122 JFK Stop 15 Buildings 14/21 JFK Stops 14/13 Buildings 23 JFK Stops 12/11 Building 90 JFK Airport – Terminal 5  B15  Legend Two-way stop One-way stop  B15  Terminal  B15  Part-time terminal Subway connection ← B14  {{{system_nav}}}  B16 →

Route description

The B15 bus route runs between the Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center and Flushing Avenue (J and ​M) 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.^[1][4][5]

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.^[1][4]

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.^[5][6] The loop is still served by terminating B14 and B20 buses, and through B13 service to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Bushwick or the Gateway Center in the southern portion of Spring Creek.^[4][5]

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.^[7][8][9]

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.^[10] The Broadway Railroad leased the line on December 31, 1881.^[11] 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.^[12] The BRT would become the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) in 1923.^[13]

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.^[14][15] 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.^[14][16][17] The service was assigned the B10 designation.^[14][16][18] 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.^[16][19] Sumner trolley service was fully eliminated in 1949.^[16]

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.^[20] 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.^[18][20] This extension had been proposed around 1960 to serve the Cypress Hills and Louis Heaton Pink public housing complexes in New Lots.^[21] The bus would serve Brooklyn General Mail Facility in Spring Creek when it opened in 1991.^[22][23] 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)^[18][24] to avoid confusion with the Q10, 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.^[25][26] 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.^[27][28][29] 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.^[26][30] On September 8, 2013, B15 buses stopped directly serving the Brooklyn General Mail Facility loop due to low ridership.^[5][6]

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.^[31]

On December 1, 2022, the MTA released a draft redesign of the Brooklyn bus network.^[32][33] 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. ^[34] 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.^[35]

References

1. MTA Regional Bus Operations. "B15 bus schedule".
2. "B15" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
3. "Subway and bus ridership for 2023". mta.info. April 29, 2024. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
4. "Brooklyn Bus Map" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. October 2020. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
5. "Transit & Bus Committee Meeting April 2013" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. April 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 4, 2013. Retrieved December 24, 2015.
6. McKenzie, Trista (September 26, 2013). "NYC Traffic Report for Thursday, September 26: UN General Assembly Delays". allmediany.com. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
7. "New Name: Avenue Becomes a Boulevard". The New York Times. October 22, 1987. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
8. "Bedford Stuyvesant/Expanded Stuyvesant Heights Historic District: Designation Report" (PDF). nyc.gov. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. April 16, 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 13, 2016. Retrieved July 4, 2016.
9. Leonard Benardo; Jennifer Weiss (July 1, 2006). Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges, and More Got Their Names. New York University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-8147-9945-1. Retrieved July 4, 2016.
10. "A New Street Railroad". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. March 13, 1881. p. 4.
11. "Railroad Bills". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. March 8, 1883. p. 4.
12. "Real Estate Market". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. October 24, 1894. p. 14.
13. "Municipal Operation of Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Cars Began 80 Years Ago". New York Division Bulletin. 46 (12). Electric Railroaders Association: 1, 4. December 2003. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
14. Sparberg, Andrew J. (October 1, 2014). From a Nickel to a Token: The Journey from Board of Transportation to MTA. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-6190-1.
15. Seyfried, Vincent F. (1961). "Full text of "Story of the Long Island Electric Railway and the Jamaica Central Railways, 1894-1933 /"". archive.org. F. E. Reifschneider. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
16. "Public Notices". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. August 11, 1949. p. 19. Retrieved March 29, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
17. "Notice of Public Hearing: Franchise Matters". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Fultonhistory.com. July 15, 1941. p. 16. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
18. "1976 Brooklyn Bus Map". wardmaps.com. New York City Transit Authority. 1976. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
19. New York Board of Transportation, Report for the Three and One-half Years Ending June 30, 1949
20. "600-Block Area In Brooklyn To Become Major One-Way Streets". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Fultonhistory.com. September 25, 1963. p. 3. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
21. Fitzgerald, Owen (July 25, 1960). "The Voice of Brooklyn". New York World-Telegram. Fultonhistory.com. p. B2. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
22. AKRF, Inc., Eng-Wong Taub & Associates, Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, Inc. (February 4, 2009). "FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT for GATEWAY ESTATES II". nyc.gov. New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Retrieved November 16, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
23. "Brooklyn P&DC, Brooklyn, NY Area Mail Processing (AMP) Public Meeting: November 28, 2011" (PDF). United States Postal Service. November 28, 2011. Retrieved November 18, 2015.
24. Heller Anderson, Susan; Dunlap, David W. (June 25, 1985). "NEW YORK DAY BY DAY; . . . Bridge Experiment". The New York Times. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
25. "Bus Service Advisories: Queens". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. December 2004. Archived from the original on December 5, 2004. Retrieved February 20, 2016.
26. "Transit Committee Meeting June 2012" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. June 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 13, 2012. Retrieved March 9, 2016.
27. Donohue, Pete (October 12, 2009). "MTA to give buses to LaGuardia Airports and John F. Kennedy Airport luggage racks". Daily News (New York). Retrieved December 26, 2015.
28. Hirshon, Nicholas (October 13, 2009). "Travelers' delight: Luggage racks on airport bus routes off to a flying start". Daily News (New York). Retrieved December 26, 2015.
29. Grynbaum, Michael M. (October 12, 2009). "Bringing Storage, and Comfort, to a La Guardia-Bound Bus". The New York Times. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
30. "mta.info | Planned Service Notices: JFK Airport Terminal 4 Bus Stop Relocation". May 31, 2012. Archived from the original on May 31, 2012. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
31. Mohamed, Carlotta (February 14, 2022). "MTA announces bus route service changes to take effect in March amid JFK Airport terminal redevelopment – QNS.com". QNS.com. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
32. 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.
33. 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.
34. "Draft Plan: B15 Local". MTA. Retrieved December 5, 2022.
35. "Draft Plan: B55 SBS". MTA. Retrieved December 5, 2022.

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