Sumner Avenue Line and New Lots Avenue Line

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

B15
Sumner Avenue Line New Lots Avenue Line Brooklyn−JFK Airport
Overview
System	MTA Regional Bus Operations
Operator	New York City Transit Authority
Garage	East New York Depot
Route
Locale	Brooklyn
Start	Bedford–Stuyvesant – Woodhull Medical Center
Via	Marcus Garvey Blvd (southbound) / Lewis Avenue (northbound), East 98th Street, New Lots Avenue, Linden Boulevard, Conduit Avenue
End	JFK Airport, Queens – Terminal 5
Service
Operates	All times except late nights
Fare	$2.75 (MetroCard or coins)
Cash	Coins only (exact change required)
Transfers	Yes
Timetable	B15
Route map ← B14 B16 →

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 JFK Airport in Queens. The Brooklyn General Mail Facility in Spring Creek is also served by the route, with buses running through there at night, and select buses from Bedford-Stuyvesant using it as a terminal during the day.

Route description

The B15 bus route runs between the Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center and Flushing Avenue (J M) subway station in Bedford-Stuyvesant and the Brooklyn General Mail Facility in Spring Creek or John F. Kennedy International Airport's Terminal 4 in Queens. The two branches combined during midday and overnight hours.

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, jogging south to Linden Boulevard and merging onto Conduit Avenue after entering Queens. B15 buses then serve several areas of JFK Airport and end at Terminal 4. Between the Brooklyn-Queens border and JFK Airport, B15 buses run non-stop.

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, where it continued south on Troy to end at Bergen Street. The Broadway Railroad leased the line on December 31, 1881 The Brooklyn, Queens County and Suburban Railroad, owned by the Long Island Traction Company (later the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company), leased the Broadway Railroad in early 1894, and the line was electrified in late October. After the Nassau Electric Railroad, which owned the Bergen Street Line, was leased to the Brooklyn Heights Railroad (another BRT property) in 1899, Sumner Avenue cars were extended south/east along the Bergen Street, Saint Johns Place, and Ralph Avenue lines to Brownsville and west along the Bergen Street Line to Hamilton Ferry in Red Hook.

Buses were substituted for most streetcar service on July 20, 1947 with direct Bedford-Stuyvesant-Red Hook service unreplaced.

B15 bus route

When the New Lots Avenue Line was converted to buses in 1941, it was assigned the B10 designation, running from the Canarsie Depot at Rockaway Avenue and Hegeman Avenue continuing east along Hegeman Avenue and Linden Boulevard to Atkins Avenue in East New York. Buses replaced Sumner Avenue Line trolleys in 1947, and the route was cut back from Williamsburg Bridge Plaza to its current terminal at Marcus Garvey Boulevard (Sumner Avenue) and Broadway, and became part of the B10. In 1991, the route was extended to the Brooklyn General Mail Facility in Spring Creek and, in 1993, 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) 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).

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.