Green Bus Lines


Green Bus Lines, also referred to as Green Lines, was a private bus company in New York City. It operated local service in Queens and express service to Manhattan until January 9, 2006, when the city-operated MTA Bus Company took over its routes. It was managed most recently by Jerome Cooper.
Green Bus Lines routes primarily operated in the Jamaica, Ozone Park, Howard Beach, Jamaica, Queens|South Jamaica], and the Rockaways areas of Queens, along with service to the passenger and cargo areas of John F. Kennedy International Airport. At the time of its closure, Green Lines operated more local and limited bus routes than any other private company in the city.
Stockholders of Green Bus Lines also held control of other private bus companies in Queens and Brooklyn as Transit Alliance. These companies were Triboro Coach, Jamaica Buses, and Command Bus Company, all of which were absorbed into the MTA Regional Bus operations. The company reorganized as GTJ Reit Inc., a real estate investment trust, shortly after MTA takeover.

History

The company was incorporated on April 3, 1925, by William Cooper and Martin Klein to provide local service in certain boroughs. Cooper originally began operating a single bus line, a portion of today's Q8 101-Jerome Avenue route, in 1922. The company was formed from several independently-operated bus lines, whose owners operated the buses, and would become stockholders and employees in Green Lines.
The company acquired several Manhattan routes in 1933, but these were transferred to the Comprehensive Omnibus Corporation in 1935 and New [York City Omnibus Corporation] in 1936. That year, Green Lines took over the operations of Liberty Bus, and the borough's bus system was divided into four lettered "zones", with each zone being served exclusively by one bus company. Green Lines was awarded the rights to all of "Zone C" in southern Queens, which included Woodhaven, Richmond Hill, Ozone Park, Howard Beach, and the Rockaways. With that move, Green Lines assumed the operations of seven other companies in the region. Green also acquired the Manhattan and Queens Bus Corporation, which had operated the ex-Manhattan and Queens Traction Company Queens Boulevard Line into Manhattan since 1937, in 1943.
Green stockholders acquired two other transit companies that continued to operate independently: Triboro Coach Corporation in October 1947, and Jamaica Buses in April 1949. Jointly these three companies formed Command Bus Company in 1979 to take over the routes that had been previously operated by Pioneer Bus Corporation, which went out of the transit bus business following a bitter strike earlier in 1979.
The QM23 was started in the 1950s to replace Long Island Rail Road service to the Brooklyn Manor station on the Rockaway Beach Branch. It was discontinued in 2010 under MTA operations. Four more express routes began operation in the 1970s.

Bus routes

Just prior to MTA Bus takeover, Green Bus lines operated the following routes, which mostly continued to be based in Far Rockaway Bus Depot and John F. Kennedy Bus Depot. Hubs for Green Lines operations included 165th Street Bus Terminal in Jamaica, the Mott Avenue subway station in Far Rockaway, and several stations on the IND [Queens Boulevard Line].

Depots

Original Idlewild depot

Green Bus Lines' first southeast Queens depot was located at 149th Street and 147th Avenue in what was then South Ozone Park, Queens. The facility, which contained an office building and a bus garage, opened in May 1939 at a cost of $250,000. This area has since been de-mapped and is now on the grounds of John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Second Idlewild/JFK depot

Green Lines' second southeast Queens garage was located in Jamaica at 147th Avenue and Rockaway Boulevard near JFK Airport. The depot was built from 1951 to 1952 at the cost of $500,000. It was the primary storage and maintenance facility for the company. It is now the John F. Kennedy Depot of MTA Bus.

Rockaway Garage

Green Lines operated a facility on the Rockaway Peninsula, situated on Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Beach 49th Street in the neighborhood of Arverne. It was sometimes referred to as the "Rockaway Garage". A satellite facility, it primarily housed buses serving the Rockaways and southern Queens, performing light maintenance work. It is now MTA Bus' Far Rockaway Depot. Under MTA takeover, the present fleet at Far Rockaway began exchanging with JFK’s fleet after Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012.