Queens Surface Corporation

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"Queens Transit Corporation" redirects here. For the company that operated streetcars, mainly in Brooklyn, see Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation.

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Queens Surface QM4 bus in Midtown Manhattan

Queens Surface Corporation was a bus company in New York City, United States, operating local service in Queens and the Bronx and express service between Queens and Manhattan until February 27, 2005, when the MTA Bus Company took over the operations. The company was known for its orange paint scheme, used since the company's inception in the late 1930s.[1][2]

Queens Surface Corporation was privately held by the Burke family.[3] The Queens Surface Corporation facility was located at 128-15 28th Avenue in the College Point neighborhood of Queens.

History

Partial remains of the former Steinway/New York and Queens County Railway car barn in Woodside. Now a Pizza Hut franchise.

New York and Queens County Railway

The New York and Queens County Railway (NY&QC) became the largest trolley line in Queens in 1896, through the consolidating of four previous streetcar operators: Flushing and College Point Electric Railway, Long Island City and Newtown Railway, Newtown Railway, and the original Steinway Railway Company. It served Long Island City, Woodside, Astoria, North Beach, College Point, Jamaica, and even the Queensboro Bridge. Between 1903 and 1922, the NY&QC became an affiliate of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company.[4] On June 24, 1930., the Woodside Car barn was hit with a massive fire that destroyed much of their fleet, along with the fleet of their competitors, the Steinway Railway (see below).[5]

Steinway Railway

The Steinway Railway operated in northwestern Queens in 1892, through the merger of the Rikers Avenue and Sanford Point Railroad and Steinway and Hunters Point Railroad, only to be acquired by NY&QC in 1896. As NY&QC faced bankruptcy in 1922, it began to sell off Steinway as a somewhat independent company. It was actually bought by the Third Avenue Railway System but was allowed to operate under its own name.

Bustitution and re-merging

On February 19, 1926, NY&QC established a bus division called the Queens-Nassau Transit Lines.[6] Queens-Nassau buses replaced all NY&QC trolleys by 1937, with the last being motorized on October 30 of that year.[5] In the Fall of 1938, the Steinway Railway was bought by Queensboro Bridge Railway Company and renamed as Steinway Omnibus. Steinway began operating buses over former Steinway Railway lines on September 29, 1939.[5] Both companies were operated by the same management,[7] and casually referred to as the "orange buses".[1] Queens-Nassau was renamed Queens Transit Corporation in 1957, and Steinway Omnibus became Steinway Transit in 1959.[8] The two companies merged again in 1986 to form the Queens/Steinway Transit Corporation. The joint company was owned by the Salzberg scrap metal interests, which had ripped up the rails, until 1988, when the Linden Bus Company acquired the routes. Shortly thereafter and before operations commenced, Linden Bus Company changed its name to Queens Surface Corporation.[8]

On February 27, 2005, the MTA Bus Company took over the operations of the Queens Surface routes, part of the city's takeover of all the remaining privately operated bus routes.[9][10]

Bus routes

Prior to MTA Bus takeover, Queens Surface operated the following routes that are now based in College Point Bus Depot, the LaGuardia Depot (the former Triboro Coach depot), and the Eastchester Depot (the former New York Bus Service depot in the Bronx).[11][12]

Former Queens Transit Lines

Bronx and Queens local

  • QBx1 Flushing, Pelham Bay Park - Co-op City Limited Stop Service; most service ran exclusively between Pelham Bay Park and Co-op City. Interborough service is now called the Q50. Co-op City shuttle service is now the Bx23.

Queens local

  • Q25 Kissena Boulevard/Parsons Boulevard/College Point via 127 Street - Jamaica
  • Q34 Kissena Boulevard/Parsons Boulevard/Whitestone via Willets Point Blvd - Jamaica
  • Q65 College Point Blvd - 164th Street - Jamaica
  • Q65A (Now Q64) Jewel Avenue - Electchester/Hillcrest to Forest Hills
  • Q66 Northern Boulevard - (Queens Plaza to Flushing Route)
  • Q67 Calvary via Borden Av. (Ridgewood-Long Island City Route)

Queens-Manhattan express

  • QM2 Bayside-Whitestone Express, via 6th Avenue or 3rd Avenue
  • QM2A (Now QM20) Clearview, Linden & Mitchell Express, via 6th Avenue
  • QM3 Deepdale-Douglaston Express, via 6th Avenue
  • QM4 Jewel Avenue Express, via 6th Avenue or 3rd Avenue

Former Steinway Transit Lines

Queens local

  • Q101 Steinway Street - East Midtown
  • Q101R (Now Q100) Queens Plaza - Riker's Island Limited Stop Service via 21 Street
  • Q102 31st Street - Roosevelt Island - Astoria
  • Q103 Vernon Boulevard
  • Q104 Broadway - 48th Street - Sunnyside

Queens-Manhattan express

  • QM1 Fresh Meadows Express, via 6th Avenue or 3rd Avenue
  • QM1 (Now QM7) Fresh Meadows Express to Wall Street via Lower Manhattan loop
  • QM1A (Now QM5) Glen Oaks-Windsor Park Express, via 6th Avenue or 3rd Avenue
  • QM1A (Now QM6) Lake Success (North Shore Towers) Express, via 6th Avenue or 3rd Avenue
  • QM1A (Now QM8) Glen Oaks-Windsor Park Express to Wall Street via Lower Manhattan loop

Depots

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See also: Bus depots of MTA Regional Bus Operations

Queens Surface depot

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Main article: College Point Depot

Queens Surface's depot was located at 128-15 28th Avenue in the College Point section of Queens, near the printing plant of The New York Times and the former site of Flushing Airport.[13][14][15][16] It was built in 1997 by the NYCDOT, and leased to Queens Surface.[14][17] Many buses under Queens Surface used compressed natural gas (CNG).[13][17] It is now the College Point Depot of the MTA Bus Company.[9][17]

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Steinway Transit depot

The Steinway Transit depot, built in 1939, was located at the northwest corner of Steinway Street and 20th Avenue in Astoria, Queens, near the northern terminus of the company's Q101 route.[7][18][19] It sat across from a Mercedes-Benz (originally Daimler-Benz) factory, opened in 1890 by Gottlieb Daimler and local businessman William Steinway.[20][21][22] It was the successor to the Steinway Railway depot.[5] The depot was closed prior to the company's takeover by the city.

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Woodside Garage

The Woodside Garage was located at 51-00 Northern Boulevard, at the southeast corner 51st Street and Northern Boulevard in Woodside, Queens, adjacent to the Winfield Junction of the Long Island Rail Road. It was the original headquarters of Queens-Nassau Transit.[7][23] It was also the successor to the NY&QC Woodside Trolley Barn, which opened in 1896 and burned down on June 24, 1930.[5][24] The front facade of the trolley barn survives as a Pizza Hut restaurant of the Tower Square Shopping Center.[24]

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References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ New York and Queens County Railway Waiting Room (Long Island Stations & Structures, by Paul S. Luchter; TrainWeb)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Queens Surface Corp: Employment (via the Internet Archive)
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Queens Surface Corporation homepage; including address (Internet Archive)
  16. ↑ New York Times College Point Complex and vicinity (Wikimapia)
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lost Trolleys of Queens and Long Island by Stephen L. Meyers, 2006

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Queens_Surface_Corporation&oldid=719562108#Pre-History:New_York_and_Queens_County_Railway"