Streetcar service The
Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad opened a line from Lower Manhattan to Central Park in 1864. However, south of
Union Square, tracks were not allowed in Broadway due to local opposition. Thus the route began in the trackage west of
City Hall, jointly owned by the
Sixth Avenue Railroad and
Eighth Avenue Railroad, and used the
one-way pair of
Church Street and
West Broadway to
Canal Street and
Greene Street and
Wooster Street to
8th Street, north of which both directions used
University Place to Union Square. North of Union Square, tracks were built in Broadway to north of
Times Square, where it merged with the Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad's other line, along Seventh Avenue, to end at Seventh Avenue and
59th Street. On May 8, 1884,
Jacob Sharp, the owner of the Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad, incorporated the
Broadway Surface Railroad to run along Broadway from Union Square south to the
Bowling Green. It opened in 1885, and was leased to the Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad. A
cable was installed on May 1, 1893, and the
Lexington Avenue Line and
Broadway and Columbus Avenue Line were also operated by cable as branches. The Broadway Line was
electrified with
conduit in May 1901. The Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railroad was leased by the
Houston, West Street and Pavonia Ferry Railroad on June 30, 1893, and the lessee merged with the Broadway Surface Railroad and
South Ferry Railroad on November 29, 1893 to form the
Metropolitan Street Railway. Buses were substituted for streetcars by the
New York City Omnibus Corporation on March 6, 1936, as route number 6. That company changed its name to
Fifth Avenue Coach Lines in 1956; the
Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority took over operations in 1962.
Reroutes along north-south avenues When Broadway from
34th Street to
Columbus Circle, Sixth Avenue from 34th Street to 59th Street, and Seventh Avenue from Times Square to 59th Street became
one-way streets on March 10, 1957, the Broadway-Seventh Avenue route 6's northbound route was shifted to Sixth Avenue between 34th and 59th Streets. When several lower Manhattan streets were converted to one-way traffic on June 3, 1962, the 6's northbound path in the area was rearranged to travel along
Greenwich Street, Trinity Place and
Church Street. Following the one-way conversions of Sixth Avenue below 34th Street to one-way northbound, and of Broadway between 34th and 23rd Streets and between 14th and Canal Streets to one-way southbound, on November 10, 1963, the NYCO's Sixth Avenue bus (numbered 5) was discontinued and absorbed into the 6, now designated the
Broadway-Seventh Avenue-Avenue of the Americas Line, and later
M6. Meanwhile, the
Fifth Avenue Coach Company had been operating its own route 5, the
Fifth Avenue–Riverside Drive line, since August 5, 1900. For decades up to the 1962 MABSTOA takeover, its route largely held the same: running from
168th Street –
Washington Heights to
Washington Square Park, traveling through Fifth Avenue south of
57th Street, then turning onto
Broadway through Columbus Circle, turning at
72nd Street towards
Riverside Drive on its way to its northern terminus. The only change in the route path was following Broadway's conversion to
one-way southbound between Columbus Circle and
Herald Square in 1957, requiring the northbound 5 to turn at 57th Street onto
Eighth Avenue en route to Columbus Circle.
Bus service (1304) on the M5 Limited in Greenwich Village in 2009 In the first decade following MABSTOA's 1962 takeover of all Fifth Avenue Coach and
Surface Transit lines, several changes to the M5's route were made. After Washington Square Park was closed to bus traffic on September 2, 1963, its southern terminus (and that of
today's M2 and M3) was moved to
8th Street west of
University Place, then turning on there to
9th Street towards Fifth Avenue. Next, on November 10, 1963 (the same day the NYCO's 5 was discontinued), the southern terminus of the FACCo's 5 was moved to
Houston Street and
West Broadway, and its route south of 8th Street extended to Broadway southbound and
Sixth Avenue northbound (M2 and M3's southern terminus was moved further east to 8th Street and
Fourth Avenue in the vicinity of
Cooper Square as part of the same service change). The rest of the 5's northbound route below 57th Street was shifted to Sixth Avenue on January 14, 1966 following Fifth Avenue's conversion to one-way southbound. In 1966, the
New York City Transit Authority proposed rerouting alternate 5 buses from Riverside Drive to
West End Avenue and
Broadway during the evenings, due to frequent muggings on Riverside Drive; the southern half of the route would have remained unchanged. However, residents near Riverside Drive opposed the proposal, which the
New York City Board of Estimate ultimately rejected. The 5's northern terminus was extended to
178th Street –
George Washington Bridge Bus Station on January 10, 1971. In 1976, eight double-decker buses were placed into service on the
M4 and M5 routes as part of a two-year test. The buses were tall, which required the relocation of several traffic lights and removal of tree limbs along the routes. (5222) at the M55’s northern terminal (44th St-6th Ave) in Midtown. Closures of Broadway in the
Theater District south of 47th Street and around
Herald Square in 2009 resulted in major changes to the M6's southbound service, with the northern half of the route shifting to Seventh Avenue before returning to Broadway in the vicinity of Union Square. On July 13, 2009, southbound M6 service was rerouted to run across 23rd Street instead of 14th Street to provide more consistent service. On June 27, 2010, due to budget problems, the M6 was discontinued and the M5 was extended to South Ferry via Broadway to replace former M1 and M6 service south of Houston Street. In January 2016, it was proposed to split the M5 into two routes. The uptown section would continue to operate as the M5, running between Washington Heights and West 37th Street in Midtown. The downtown section would be the M55, a new route between Midtown and South Ferry. In July, in response to public comments, the proposal was modified so the routes could have a 13-block overlap in Midtown. Under the modified proposal, the M5 would run between Washington Heights and West 31st Street near
Penn Station and
Herald Square; the M55 would run between West 44th Street, two blocks north of
Bryant Park, and South Ferry, starting on January 8, 2017. ==References==