The Fourth and Madison Avenues Line The
New York and Harlem Railroad (NY&H) was the first railroad in Manhattan, opening from
City Hall north along
Centre Street,
Broome Street (northbound trains were later moved to
Grand Street),
the Bowery,
Fourth Avenue, and Park Avenue to
Harlem in the 1830s, and was extended southwest along
Park Row to
Broadway in 1852. A branch opened along
42nd Street and Madison Avenue to
73rd Street in 1870, and the NY&H began to operate streetcars along this route; it was later extended to Harlem. Buses were substituted for streetcars by the
Madison Avenue Coach Company in March 1936. The
New York City Omnibus Corporation took over operations in 1951, and changed its name to
Fifth Avenue Coach Lines in 1956; the
Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority took over operations in 1962. When the bus that replaced the
Lexington and Lenox Avenues Line was terminated, the Madison Avenue bus was extended west on 139th Street and north on
Lenox Avenue to
147th Street. When Madison Avenue became one-way northbound, southbound traffic was moved to Fifth Avenue, replacing the original route of the
Fifth Avenue Coach Company. The
Fifth Avenue Transportation Company (later the Fifth Avenue Coach Company) began operating
stages on Fifth Avenue between
11th Street and
59th Street on January 23, 1886. The company was formed because the wealthy residents of Fifth Avenue did not want a
street railway. The route was later extended south to
Washington Square Park and north to
89th Street, and in 1900 the company was authorized to extend north to
135th Street, and to operate on other streets including
110th Street and
Riverside Drive to
124th Street. More extensions, on
32nd Street from Fifth Avenue west to
Seventh Avenue (
Penn Station) and north from 110th Street on
Seventh Avenue and
Manhattan Avenue/
St. Nicholas Avenue to
155th Street, were soon authorized. After the company's
horse cars were replaced with
motor buses in July 1907, it began operating these extensions, and assigned them numbers in 1916 or 1917: • Fifth Avenue to 135th Street • Fifth and Seventh Avenues to
Polo Grounds (155th Street and St. Nicholas Place) • Fifth and St. Nicholas Avenues to Polo Grounds • Fifth Avenue and Riverside Drive via 110th Street to 135th Street and Broadway •
Fifth Avenue and Riverside Drive via 57th Street to 135th Street and Broadway •
72nd Street Crosstown via 57th Street The Fifth Avenue Coach Company (FACCo) obtained a permit on July 1, 1925, and on July 9 began operating its
15 and
16 routes. The 15 (now the
Q32) began at Fifth Avenue and
25th Street at
Madison Square Park, and traveled north on Fifth Avenue, east via
57th Street to the
Queensboro Bridge, and along
Queens Boulevard,
Roosevelt Avenue, and 25th Street (now 82nd Street) to
Northern Boulevard in
Jackson Heights, Queens. The short 16 (Elmhurst Crosstown) was renamed Q89 on July 1, 1974, began at Roosevelt Avenue and 82nd Street and used Baxter Avenue and
Broadway to reach Queens Boulevard in
Elmhurst. Even before the Fifth Avenue company began operating its coaches, the
New York and Harlem Railroad was operating its
Fourth and Madison Avenues Line of
horse cars, later
trolleys, mainly on
Fourth Avenue below and
Madison Avenue above
42nd Street (
Grand Central Terminal). The
Madison Avenue Coach Company, a
New York Railways subsidiary, started operating replacement buses on February 1, 1935. Several changes were made to the route: instead of
the Bowery, a shorter alignment via
Centre Street and
Lafayette Street was used, and a variant stayed on Madison Avenue south to
26th Street and short-turned at
Astor Place. As part of the
New York City Omnibus Corporation system (NYCO; also a New York Railways subsidiary), these two routes were numbered 1 (
via Park Avenue) and 2 (short-turn
via Madison Avenue).
Extensions and combinations On July 17, 1960,
Lexington Avenue and
Third Avenue became a
one-way pair. The NYCO's
4, which had traveled along Lexington Avenue,
116th Street, and
Lenox Avenue to northern
Harlem, was discontinued. To cover this travel pattern, the 1 was extended west on 135th Street and north on Lenox Avenue, and the 2 was realigned to turn west on 116th Street and north on Lenox Avenue. The path of the 1 and 2 south of
Union Square was changed on November 10, 1963, to use
Broadway rather than Fourth Avenue and Lafayette Street, due to Lafayette Street becoming
one-way northbound and Broadway becoming one-way southbound. On that same day, the southern terminus for FACCo's 2 and 3 was moved to
8th Street and
Fourth Avenue, after terminating the prior two months at 8th Street between Fifth Avenue and
University Place following a ban on all bus traffic through their prior terminus of
Washington Square imposed by the city on September 2, 1963. As part of the new pattern, the 2 and 3 turned at Fourth Avenue onto
Wanamaker Place and then onto Fifth Avenue. Fifth and Madison Avenues became
one-way streets on January 14, 1966, and the four FACCo routes on Fifth Avenue past Central Park and the two NYCO routes on Madison Avenue were combined into four routes on both avenues. In particular, the following changes were made: • The NYCO's 1 and FACCo's 1 were combined. The northbound route of the new 1 followed the old NYCO 1 along Park Avenue, 39th Street, Madison Avenue, 135th Street, and Lenox Avenue, and the southbound route used Lenox Avenue and 135th Street to join the old FACCo 1 at Fifth Avenue. Buses left the old FACCo route at 40th Street, heading south on the old NYCO route on Park Avenue and Broadway. • The NYCO's 2 and FACCo's 2 (since extended to
168th Street via
Edgecombe Avenue) were combined. Again, the southbound route generally followed the FACCo's 2, and the northbound route was the NYCO's 2. North of 110th Street, the combined route had two variants, watching the two divergent routes. One, designated by MaBSTOA as the Seventh Avenue branch (and numbered 2A), followed the FACCo's 2 along 110th Street and Seventh Avenue, continuing along Seventh and Edgecombe Avenues to 168th Street, while the other (designated the Lenox Avenue branch) used 116th Street and Lenox Avenue to 147th Street (NYCO's 2). FACCo's 2 was renamed 2A from 1966 to 1974, while NYCO's 2 had its route south of 116th Street moved to
Third Avenue northbound and
Lexington Avenue southbound, and its route number changed to 101A, on March 2, 1969 (renumbered
M102 on July 1, 1974). • The FACCo's 3 (since extended to
Fort George via St. Nicholas Avenue), 4 (since extended to
Fort Tryon Park via
Fort Washington Avenue, and ending at
Penn Station in the south), and 15 were essentially moved northbound from Fifth Avenue to Madison Avenue south of 110th Street. Where it made a difference, the NYCO's 2 was more closely followed. The 1 and 4 routes (later the M1 and M4, respectively) were among the first routes to get limited-stop service, in 1973. 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.
Recent changes .Limited-stop service on the M2 began between 110th Street and 8th Street on October 14, 1991, replacing local service between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. In September 1995, limited-stop service was implemented on Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. In January 2000, the MTA Board announced plans to implement limited-stop M2 service on Sundays between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. due to continued increases in weekend ridership. The change was to take effect in spring 2000, and was expected to reduce costs by $25,000 a year. On May 21, 2000, this change took effect. On the same day, Sunday M3 service began starting 17 minutes earlier. In May 2000, the MTA announced plans to revise the terminal loop for the M2 and M18 bus routes and relocate their terminal from West 167th Street between Audubon Avenue and St. Nicholas Avenue to the northern side of West 168th Street between Audubon Avenue and St. Nicholas Avenue. The M2 made a circuitous route to reach the 168th Street subway station, including a u-turn from northbound St. Nicholas Avenue to southbound Broadway, and the M18 misses the subway station. The M18 bus route missed the terminal loop of the M2 would be revised to run along Audubon Avenue, West 168th Street, and Broadway instead of Audubon Avenue, West 167th Street, St. Nicholas Avenue, West 168th Street, and Broadway. The M18 bus terminal loop would be revised from consisting of Audubon Avenue, West 167th Street, and St. Nicholas Avenue to consisting of Audubon Avenue, West 168th Street, Broadway, West 166th Street, and St. Nicholas Avenue. The revised changes would eliminate the u-turn and, by having southbound M18 buses share a stop with the M2 and M3 at Broadway and West 168th Street, could potentially equalize boarding on those routes. The change was expected to be implemented in mid-2000. On July 2, 2000, the changes in M2, M4, and M18 bus service took effect. Plans were announced in April 2002 to reroute northbound evening and late night M2 service off of Wanamaker Place, University Place, and East 14th Street and onto Fourth Avenue, which was the route used by M2 during the rest of the day. The change was made so M2 service would not be split between two corridors overnight, to simplify M2 service, reduce travel times by three to five minutes, and consolidate late night M1 and M2 service. The service change took effect on June 30, 2002. On June 25, 2010, as a result of service cuts, MTA no longer operated weekend M1 service into Midtown, instead terminating at 106th Street. After numerous requests to rescind some of the 2010 service cuts, the MTA restored the M1 to 8th Street on the weekends on January 6, 2013. There was a proposal underway to re-extend this line back down to
Worth Street in early 2017. In this proposal, every other bus would go to Worth Street via
Bowery and
Third Avenue, returning uptown via
Centre Street and
Lafayette Street. The M1 was extended back down to
Grand Street on September 3, 2017, though downtown buses run on
Broadway. Service will eventually be re-extended to Worth Street, after which the downtown buses running below 8th Street will be rerouted onto Bowery. To allow M4 riders to access Penn Station, and vice versa, free transfers would be available between Q32 and M4 buses going in the same direction. However, the plan was then changed to have the M4 continue down to 32nd Street, where it would terminate midway between 5th and Madison Avenues, two blocks from Penn Station. This was likely done to minimize the impact of the route changes because of the 32nd Street widening, while still maintaining the same connectivity with other routes, like the at 34th Street. On June 30, 2024, the M2 stop on Audubon Avenue at West 165th Street was discontinued and was redirected to Amsterdam Avenue, and the M3 stop terminal was relocated to St. Nicholas Avenue at West 192nd Street. The northbound M4 stop on East 32nd Street at Fifth Avenue was relocated to Madison Avenue at East 32nd Street. The stop on East 32nd Street at Fifth Avenue was changed to be a drop-off only stop. == Incidents ==