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Fifth Avenue Coach Company

FACCO Yellow Coach #1263, which ran from 1931 to 1953, and for other operators for 50+ years afterward throughout the US and Canada, preserved by the New York Transit Museum and on display near Times Square in Manhattan.
Parent	See the article
Founded	1896; 128 years ago (1896)
Defunct	1962; 62 years ago (1962)
Headquarters	605 West 132nd Street New York, NY
Locale	Greater New York
Service area	Manhattan, Queens, The Bronx, and Westchester County
Service type	Local bus transit

The Fifth Avenue Coach Company was a bus operator in Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, and Westchester County, New York, providing public transit between 1896 and 1954 after which services were taken over by the New York City Omnibus Corporation. It succeeded the Fifth Avenue Transportation Company.

History

The company was founded in 1896 when it succeeded the bankrupt Fifth Avenue Transportation Company. It initially operated existing horse-and-omnibus transit along Fifth Avenue, with a route running from 89th Street to Bleecker Street. Fifth Avenue is the only avenue in Manhattan never to see streetcar service due to the opposition of residents to the installation of railway track for streetcars. The company introduced electric buses two years later and was acquired by the newly formed New York Transportation Company in 1899.

They introduced a fleet of 15 of their own motorbuses in 1907 that operated along Fifth Avenue and on some crosstown routes. The company became independent of the New York Transportation Company in 1912.

In 1925, the year that they came under control of The Omnibus Corporation, the company purchased a majority share in the New York Railways Corporation.

When the New York Railways Corporation started converting streetcar lines to buses in 1935–36, the new replacement bus services were operated by the New York City Omnibus Corporation, which had been formed in 1926 and had shared management with The Omnibus Corporation. New York Railways Corporation was dissolved in 1936.

The New York and Harlem Railroad trolleys were replaced by Madison Avenue Coach Company, Inc. buses, and the Eighth and Ninth Avenue Railway trolleys by Eighth Avenue Coach Corporation buses, both companies owned by Fifth Avenue Coach. (Fourth and Madison Avenues; 86th Street Crosstown was not replaced with buses). Madison Avenue Coach and Eighth Avenue Coach were folded into New York City Omnibus in November 1951.

In 1954 The Omnibus Corporation sold the Fifth Avenue Coach Company to the New York City Omnibus Corporation which changed its name to Fifth Avenue Coach Lines two years later. In 1956, the company also acquired the Westchester Street Transportation Company, a bus company previously affiliated with the Third Avenue Railway. The same year, they also acquired the Surface Transportation Corporation, and allowed it to operate under a new name as a subsidiary of Fifth Avenue. After a strike in 1962, and a fight for control with financier Harry Weinberg, bus operations were taken over by the city. Buses in Westchester survived the strike and city takeover until they were acquired by Liberty Lines Transit in 1969.

Routes

The routes that were operated by the Fifth Avenue Coach Company are listed below.

See also

• Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority, successor to FACCST within New York City
• Liberty Lines Transit, Inc., successor to the FACCST routes in Westchester County

References

1. ^ "CoachBuilt.com - Fifth Avenue Coach". Retrieved 20 December 2008.
2. ^ "GSAPP Historic Preservation Studio 2005-2006". Archived from the original on July 5, 2007. Retrieved 20 December 2008.
3. "Guide to the Fifth Avenue Coach Company Collection, 1895-1962 - Fifth Avenue Coach Company Collection". New York Historical Society. Retrieved 20 December 2008.
4. "MTA - New York Transit Museum - Education". Retrieved 20 December 2008.
5. "COACH LINE READY TO RIP UP CAR TRACKS IN A WIDE BUS PLAN; Fifth Av. Company Promises Quick Start if the city Approves Project". The New York Times. 24 May 1926. p. 1.
6. Securities and Exchange Commission. 1945. p. 238. The New York Omnibus Corporation, successor to the New York Railways Corporation commenced the operation of bus route in 1936. In all but one year since then it has been profitable
7. "Gas-Electric Motorbus Co., Roland Gas-Electric Vehicle Co., New York Motor Bus Co..." New York City Omnibus Corp. was formed in 1926 with Ritchie president)
8. "5 Bus Franchises are Under Inquiry". The New York Times. 4 January 1934. p. 1.
9. "Buses to Run Soon on 8th and 9th Avs". The New York Times. 5 October 1935. p. 17.
10. "Bus Merger in City Approved by P.S.C." The New York Times. 9 November 1951. p. 28.
11. "Guide to the Fifth Avenue Coach Company Collection 1895-1962". New York History Society. In 1954, after acquiring the Hertz car rental business, the Omnibus Corporation sold the assets of the Fifth Avenue Coach Company to the New York City Omnibus Corporation, which was renamed Fifth Avenue Coach Lines in 1956.
12. Bernard W. Stern (1986). "Part III: The Weinberg Era". Rutledge Unionism: Labor Relations in the Honolulu Transit Industry. University of Hawai'i, Center for Labor Education & Research.

External links

• Fifth Avenue Transportation Company, 1885-1895; Fifth Avenue Coach Company, 1895-1962, New York, New York
• The Fifth Avenue Coach Company Collection at the New-York Historical Society

• 1896 establishments in New York City
• 1962 disestablishments in New York (state)
• American companies established in 1896
• American companies disestablished in 1962
• Transport companies established in 1896
• Transport companies disestablished in 1962
• 1899 mergers and acquisitions
• 1925 mergers and acquisitions
• 1954 mergers and acquisitions
• Fifth Avenue
• Surface transportation in Greater New York
• Bus transportation in New York City
• Defunct companies based in New York City
• Defunct public transport operators in the United States