From the ferry to Tottenville: Staten Island bus lines (Then and Now) - SILive.com
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — All of Staten Island’s bus routes initially took the prefix “R” for the borough of Richmond. The “R” was changed to “S” when the borough was officially named Staten Island in 1975. Around 1989, the route numbers were changed. Here is a list of the original bus numbers with the new numbers as well.
Staten Island’s largest trolley or street railway companies were the Richmond Light & Railroad Co., and the Staten Island Midland Railway, which operated a few routes.
Staten Island Midland Railway was suspended in the 1920s, and the streetcar lines were then run by the New York City Department of Plant and Structures, which also started some trolleybus routes, beginning in 1921.
In 1925, the Tompkins Bus Co. came along and was granted a franchise to run gasoline buses on Staten Island. Buses replaced the streetcar and trolleybus routes, and new bus routes were formed serving earlier unserved areas.
In 1927, the Richmond Light & Railroad Co. was renamed Richmond Railways. In 1933, a Richmond Railways subsidiary Staten Island Coach Co. began running buses, replacing the Richmond Railways streetcar routes. The two separate bus systems continued to operate until 1937, when the Staten Island Coach Co. began running the Tompkins Bus Co. routes. The former Tompkins Bus Co. routes were given new route numbers in the 100′s.
The Staten Island Coach Co. went out of business in 1946. The Isle Transportation Co., a company organized by some Staten Island Coach Co. employees, began operating the buses on Staten Island. However, the Isle Transportation Co. went bankrupt in 1947, and the city took over the buses on Feb. 23 of that year. This was the first city-operated bus service, other than the Williamsburg Bridge line.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) now operates the bus routes on Staten Island.
The St. George Ferry terminal hub is where there are connections to the Staten Island Ferry, local trains, and many Staten Island bus routes.
In May 2017, there was a MTA study done called ‘Reimagining Express Buses,’ which found that “the express bus network evolved through piecemeal changes over several decades,” and suggested that “to make substantial improvements, a comprehensive examination of the network as a whole was required, focusing on street corridors rather than specific routes.”
About this time, we saw dedicated bus lanes pop up all over Staten Island.
I love the look of the old rounded bus designs of the 1930s. As years went on, bus design became more streamlined. The use of buses on Staten Island has been a constant since the end of trolleys.
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