Streetcar service The Fordham Road/Pelham Parkway service began as a streetcar line operated by the
Union Railway Company, a subsidiary of the
Third Avenue Railway, and was the last Union Railway franchise to be constructed. In February 1903, the company announced plans to construct a two-track line along Pelham Avenue (the former name of
Fordham Road and
Pelham Parkway) between
Bronx Park and
Pelham Bay Park, running through largely undeveloped land and parkland. Called the
Pelham Avenue Line, its western terminus would be at
Third Avenue in modern
Fordham Plaza, at the
Fordham station of the then-
New York Central Railroad (now the
Metro-North Railroad Harlem Line) and the entrance of what was then St. John's College (now
Fordham University's Rose Hill campus). Its eastern end would be at the
Pelham Bridge in Pelham Bay. By 1904, the line was running along Fordham Avenue and Pelham Avenue (today's Fordham Road) between
Sedgwick Avenue in
University Heights and Third Avenue in Fordham. That year, the company released plans to extend the line west across the yet-to-be-constructed
University Heights Bridge to
Broadway and 207th Street in
Inwood, Manhattan. By fall 1908, after the opening of the bridge, the Union Railway petitioned for an extension west to Manhattan, and east to Pelham Bay Park. By 1909, the planned eastern extension was truncated to
Southern Boulevard, with both extension plans delayed due to deadlock in negotiations with the city. In 1910, the company once again petitioned the
New York City Board of Estimate and the
New York State Public Service Commission for a western extension to Manhattan, and for an eastern extension from Southern Boulevard to the eastern edge of Bronx Park (at about
Boston Road,
White Plains Road, and Bronx Park East). The Manhattan extension was finally granted in June 1910. Service across the bridge to Inwood began on November 29, 1910. The extension was initially opposed since many streets in the area were narrow. The extension was never implemented. That year, the railroad company began relinquishing its trolley franchises with the city, to be replaced by buses operated by the subsidiary
Surface Transportation Corporation. The 207th Street Crosstown Line was replaced with the then-Bx19 bus service operating between Broadway-207th Street and Southern Boulevard on January 25, 1948, the same date as the motorization of the Bronx and Van Cortlandt Parks Crosstown Line (today's ). The route would be operated by Surface Transit until 1956, and by the
New York City Omnibus Corporation (later under the brand
Fifth Avenue Coach Lines) until the company's routes were taken over by the New York City Transit Authority through its subsidiary Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA) in 1962 after a strike. As the years progressed, service was eventually consolidated from multiple routes, and was given a single label, the Bx12. The route saw extensions east to
City Island, seasonal service to
Orchard Beach, and a branch to the
Bartow-Pell Mansion in the
Pelham Bay Golf Course, along with the introduction of limited-stop service on weekdays. The Orchard Beach branches were labeled
Bx12A and
Bx12B until July 1, 1974, when they were merged into the Bx12 designation. On April 21, 1989, the New York City Transit Authority presented two proposals to rationalize the eastern terminals of service on the Bx12 to the MTA Board for approval. The first proposal called for the discontinuation of the summer only Bx12 Golf Course Shuttle, which ran between Orchard Beach and Pelham Bay Golf Course between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., since it was only used by an average of ten daily passengers. This change took effect in June 1989. The second proposal up for approval was the extension of Bx12 trips that terminated at the Pelham Bay Park subway station to the new Gun Hill Depot at Bartow Avenue and the New England Thruway when it opened in September 1989. This change was intended to rationalize service and establish a relief point for bus operators. While it increased net costs, it increased operating efficiencies. In early 1990, the MTA proposed a dedicated route from City Island to Pelham Bay, the current . The Bx12 continued to run to City Island through mid-1990, but the bus routes were split by 1991. The split service pattern remains in effect today, with some minor adjustments. In 1988, due to the reconstruction of the
University Heights Bridge, the Bx12 began detouring to cross into Manhattan via Bailey Avenue and the
Broadway Bridge at 225th Street, as opposed to the direct path via 207th Street. The route was restored in September 1994 as the vehicle weight restriction on the bridge was removed. In 1989, limited-stop service began on the Bx12, saving up to five minutes per trip. In January 1995, an additional limited stop was added at Jacobi Hospital, and the hours of limited-stop service were expanded from 6:57 – 8:39 a.m. and 4:55 – 6:41 p.m. to 6:30 – 9:30 a.m. and 4 – 6:30 p.m.. Extending the span of the limited-stop service to operate all day between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. was considered, with a plan to revisit the idea if the increase in the span of limited-stop service was successful. The span of the Bx12 was extended to operate all day between 6:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. on September 8, 1997. Exactly one year later, on September 8, 1998, the Bx12 began stopping in the Bay Plaza Shopping Center. In 2004, the MTA in conjunction with the NYCDOT and NYSDOT, performed an initial study on bus rapid transit, with 80 corridors studied citywide. Five routes were prioritized, including the Bx12 route. On June 29, 2008, the Bx12 Limited was converted into the Bx12 Select Bus Service. The total ridership in 2009 was 14,736,515, ranking the route third in ridership citywide and the busiest in the Bronx. In March 2013, the high-floor
articulated buses on the SBS route were replaced with
low-floor articulated buses with three sets of doors to improve boarding and alighting of passengers. ==Notes==