Triboro Coach

Triboro Coach Corporation was a bus company in New York City, United States, operating local service in Queens and express routes to Manhattan until February 20, 2006.

History

Salvatore Fornatora began operating buses in Queens since 1919, with his first route (today's Q19 route) connecting 103rd Street-Corona Plaza on the recently opened Corona Line in Corona with Flushing. The Corona terminal was moved to Astoria in 1928, when the Corona Line was extended to Flushing, and the company (then the Woodside-Astoria Transportation Company) was also operating several other routes in the Astoria-Woodside-Maspeth area by 1930.

The new Triboro Coach Corporation was incorporated on April 10, 1931 running the Q18 and Q24, and on September 24, 1936 it acquired a city franchise for nine routes in northwestern Queens (the "Long Island City zone"[1]). After World War II, Triboro was acquired by the stockholders of Green Bus Lines, after financial difficulties, but continued to operate independently. Major expansions were made in 1956 between Woodside and Rockaway Park (replacing the Long Island Rail Road's Rockaway Beach Branch, out of service since 1950) and in 1961, when it acquired the Q72 (then the B72) from the New York City Transit Authority. Five express routes to Manhattan were initiated in the 1970s and 1980s: the QM10 in 1970, QM11 in 1971, QM12 in 1975, and QM22, QM24, and QM24W in June 1988.[2]

In addition to diesel powered buses, Triboro housed a CNG fueling facility and CNG powered buses. CNG fueling was installed in 1994 to be used for orders of TMC RTS-06 CNG buses and later Orion V CNG buses that were ordered in conjunction with identical buses used by Command Bus Company and Queens Surface Corporation (now Spring Creek Depot and College Point Depot respectively). The facility remained following MTA Bus takeover when the former Triboro Coach facility became the LaGuardia Depot. However, the facility was destroyed and shut down in April 2006 (only 2 months after the MTA Takeover) following an explosion within one of the natural gas lines and destroyed a former Triboro/ ex-Jamaica Bus RTS-04. Since then, all of the ex-Triboro CNG buses were transferred to Spring Creek and College Point Depots and ran from there up until their retirement.

Rear view of an MTA Bus Company bus on the Q38 route with Triboro Coach colors.

Just prior to MTA Bus takeover, Triboro Coach operated the following routes. Most of these continue to be based out of the company's former facility:

Bus routes

Queens local
Queens-Manhattan express

References

  1. ↑ New York Times, Long Island City Zone Taken by One Bus Line, January 4, 1936, page 17
  2. ↑ Triboro Coach Corporation (via the Internet Archive)

External links