The fleet consists of over 5,800 buses of various types and models for fixed-route service, making MTA RBO's fleet the largest public bus fleet in the United States. The MTA also has over 2,000 vans and cabs for ADA paratransit service, providing service in New York City, southwestern Nassau County, and the city of Yonkers. All vehicles, with the exception of paratransit cabs, are fully accessible to persons with disabilities. Fixed-route buses are dispatched from 27 garages (19 New York City Bus and 8 MTA Bus) and one annex in New York City. Several fleet improvements have been introduced over the system's history. The first large order of air conditioned buses began service in 1966. "
Kneeling buses" were introduced in 1976, and wheelchair lifts began appearing in 1980. Also in the 1980s,
stop-request cords (or "bell cords") were replaced by yellow tape strips. However, buses ordered after 2008 feature cords rather than tape strips due to the latter's higher maintenance cost.
Articulated buses were introduced in 1996, and have since become prominent in the Bronx and Manhattan. and have made up most of the new non-express buses ordered since the early 2000s. The last non-express high-floor bus was withdrawn in 2019. Most post-2000 orders also feature stop-request buttons located on grab bars. Beginning in 2016, new orders have been built/retrofitted with
Wi-Fi connectivity and
USB charging ports. In 2023, Wi-fi connectivity was removed on all buses due to low usage from passengers. Starting in 2016, efforts to bring an audio/visual system to the current and future fleet went underway to improve customer service and ADA accessibility thru use of next stop announcements &
PSAs. Though the former Long Island Bus Division (now
NICE Bus) had already deployed such a system throughout its fleet since the early-2000s, the MTA had only trialed similar systems alongside GPS tracking between 2007 and 2012 on select routes in the New York City Bus system. Current plans include the installation of digital information screens installed throughout the interior of the bus which will provide real-time information such as time, weather, advertisements, & service advisories. The screens are supplied by contract from 3 different vendors and are installed on new bus deliveries starting in 2017 while buses built after 2008 are currently receiving retrofits. A new livery was also introduced, replacing the blue stripe livery on a white base that had been in use in one variation or another since the late 1970s. The first of these buses entered service in mid-May 2016 on the
Q10 route.
Low and zero emission buses Buses operating on clean or alternative fuels also make up a significant portion of the fleet, particularly since the establishment of the MTA's "Clean Fuel Bus" program in June 2000. and were mass-ordered beginning in 1995.
Hybrid-electric buses, operating with a combination of diesel and
electric power, were introduced in September 1998 with the
Orion VI, and mass-ordered beginning in 2003 with the
Orion VII. As of December 2022, the fleet has over 1,100 diesel-electric buses and over 700 buses powered by compressed natural gas, which make up less than half of the total fleet. This is the largest fleet of either kind in the United States. In 2017, the MTA tested a fleet of ten forty-foot
battery electric buses – five from
New Flyer and five from
Proterra, the
XE40 Xcelsior CHARGE and
Catalyst BE40 models respectively. These were all leases, which expired in 2021. In 2019, the MTA ordered their first battery-electric sixty-foot
articulated buses, with an order of fifteen
XE60 Xcelsior CHARGE buses from New Flyer, deployed on Manhattan
Select Bus Service routes. In April 2021, the agency placed an RFP for forty-five new forty-foot battery-electric buses. The first two buses (
New Flyer Xcelsior CHARGE H2) will be launched in The Bronx by late 2025. The MTA announced that it would only purchase zero-emission buses from 2029, and that the entire bus fleet will be zero-emission by 2040. ==Fixed-route fleet details==