Queens Surface Corporation

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

Queens Surface Corporation was privately held by the Burke family.[1] The Queens Surface Corporation facility was located at 128-15 28th Avenue (near the New York Times printing plant)[2] 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.

Pre-History:New York and Queens County Railway

The New York and Queens County Railway 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.[3] In 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). In 1932 it was reorganized as the New York and Queens Transit Corporation, and ended trolley service in 1937.

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. In the Fall of 1938 the company was bought by Queensboro Bridge Railway Company and renamed as Steinway Omnibus as it began operating bus lines over former trolley lines in 1939. In 1959 the company changed their name again to Steinway Transit.

Bustitution and re-merging

In 1926, NY&QC established a bus division called the Queens-Nassau Transit Lines which replaced all trolleys by 1937. It was renamed Queens Transit Corporation in 1957. Steinway Omnibus (changed to Steinway Transit in 1959) began operating buses over former Steinway Railway lines in the Fall of 1939, and the two companies merged again in 1986 to form the Queens/Steinway Transit Corporation. The 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.

Just prior to MTA Bus takeover, Queens Surface operated the following routes that are now based in College Point Bus Depot.[4]

Bus routes

Former Queens Transit Corp's Lines

Bronx local

Queens local

Queens-Manhattan express

Former Steinway Transit Corp's Lines

Queens local

Queens-Manhattan express

References

  1. ↑ Chan, Sewell (2005-02-01). "City Will Pay $9.5 Million for Bus Line in Queens". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
  2. ↑ New York Times College Point Complex and vicinity (Wikimapia)
  3. ↑ New York and Queens County Railway Waiting Room (Long Island Stations & Structures, by Paul S. Luchter; TrainWeb)
  4. ↑ Queens Surface Corp: Employment (via the Internet Archive)

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, January 10, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.