What is the world's largest horse show?

The Devon Horse Show, also known as The Devon Horse Show and Country Fair is an annual horse show which has been held late May through early June in Devon, Pennsylvania since 1896. It is the oldest and largest outdoor multi-breed horse show in the U.S. The event serves as a fundraiser for Bryn Mawr Hospital.

Devon Horse Show

Since 1896, the Devon Horse Show is the oldest and largest outdoor multi-breed horse competition in the United States. The Annual Horse show and Country Fair promotes horsemanship and horse breeding for conformation, performance and speed. The original ideas and activities of the show have changed dramatically over the decades. The show attracts people from all over the world, as both competitors and spectators.

The first horse show was held on July 2, 1896 as a one-day event held at the Devon Race track and Polo Grounds. The show consisted of thirty classes, the largest class having only ten entries. The fenced-in show ring was constructed on grass and the judges and officials sat in a gazebo in the center. Today, there is a fenced-in sand ring and there are at least five judges' booths or stands sitting on the outside of the main arena.The Devon Horse Show grounds hosts two main rings, the Dixon Oval and the Gold Ring. The Dixon Oval is the main arena surrounded by the grandstands with the famous gateway reading "Where the Champions Meet." The smaller Gold Ring hosts the more populous classes such as pony breeding classes, Pessoa Medal, Regular Pony Hunters, as well as Local Hunters.

The Devon Horse Show has in-hand, jumpers, hunters, carriages, and gaited events.

"Dressage at Devon" is also held on the Devon Horse Show grounds, taking place September 26 through the 30th.

The Devon Horse Show, instituted just 3 years after the opening of Bryn Mawr Hospital, serves as the hospital's largest fund-raising event, beginning in 1919. Since 1972, Devon has contributed over $10 million to Bryn Mawr Hospital, to support projects such as the Emergency Center, the Maternal-Fetal Medicine program and the Outpatient Diagnostic Center.

Devon Horse Show


When was the New York City Transit Authority established?

The New York City Transit Police Department was a law enforcement agency in New York City that existed from 1953 (with the creation of the New York City Transit Authority) to 1995, and is currently part of the NYPD. The roots of this organization go back to 1936 when Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia authorized the hiring of special patrolmen for the New York City Subway. These patrolmen eventually became officers of the Transit Police. In 1949, the department was officially divorced from the New York City Police Department, but was eventually fully re-integrated in 1995 as the Transit Bureau of the New York City Police Department by New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

New York City Transit Police

In 1997, the Transit Bureau became the Transit Division within the newly formed Transportation Bureau. In July 1999, the Transit Division once again became the Transit Bureau, but remained part of the Police Department. Headquarters for the NYPD Transit Bureau are located at 130 Livingston Street in Brooklyn Heights.

Since the 1860s, the New York City Subway's predecessors operated lines running at grade level and on elevated structures. Between 1900 and October 27, 1904, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) built the first subway line in Manhattan. Both the IRT and the competing Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT, later BMT) were privately held operators who operated city-owned subway lines. They hired their own police. However, in 1932, the city-owned Independent Subway System (IND) opened; the IND lines originally had "station supervisors" employed to police them, their names having been taken from the New York City Police Department's hiring list.

The creation of the New York City Transit Police came about on November 17, 1933, six men were sworn in as New York State Railway Police. They were unarmed but were still responsible for the safety of the passengers on the IND as well as guarding property. Two years later, 20 "station supervisors, class B" were added for police duty. Responsible for assisting in the opening and closing of doors and announcing destinations, these 26 "specials" were soon given powers of arrest, but only on the IND line. In 1937, 160 more men were added to this police force. Additionally, 3 lieutenants, 1 captain, and 1 inspector from the NYPD were assigned as supervisors. When the privately run IRT and BMT were taken over by New York City in 1940, the small patrol force on the IND line nearly doubled in size. Now part of the Civil Service system, more Transit supervisors were needed. In 1942, the first promotional exam was given for the title of "special patrolman grade 2" – or what is now known as a sergeant.

The Code of Criminal Procedure was changed in 1947 granting transit patrolmen peace officer status and by 1950, the number of "specials" reached 563. The following year, exams were held for both Transit sergeants and lieutenants. In 1953, the New York City Transit Authority came into being and assumed control over all the subway lines from the old New York City Board of Transportation.

Beginning in 1949, the question as to who should supervise the Transit Police Department was one which was carefully scrutinized over the next five years by various city officials. The issue being considered was, "Should Transit be taken over by the NYPD?" In 1955, the decision was made that the Transit Police Department would become a separate and distinctly different department, ending almost two decades of rule by the NYPD. The Civil Service Commission established a new test for transit recruits, and on April 4, the first appointments from the list were made. An NYPD lieutenant, Thomas O'Rourke, was also designated the first commanding officer of the Transit Police Department. Soon after, Lieutenant O'Rourke along with 9 others, passed the captain's exam. Captain O'Rourke was then appointed as the first chief of the new department. With crime on the rise, the number of transit officers increased so that by 1966, the Department had grown to 2,272 officers. That year, Robert H. Rapp was appointed chief by the NYC Transit Authority. Under Chief Rapp, and at the direction of the mayor, an ambitious new anti-crime program got underway. The program had a goal of assigning an officer to each of New York City's subway trains between the hours of 8:00 PM and 4:00 AM. And the Transit Police Department continued to grow. By early 1975, the department comprised nearly 3,600 members.

In 1975, a former NYPD chief inspector and sometime City Council president, Sanford Garelik, was appointed chief of the Transit Police Department. Determined to reorganize the Transit Police Department, Chief Garelik was also successful in instilling a new sense of pride and professionalism among the ranks. However, the fiscal crisis that began that year was an unexpected blow – especially to transit cops. Over the next five years, layoffs and attrition would reduce their numbers to fewer than 2,800. On September 12, 1979, in a sweeping shake up, Chief Garelik was ousted and replaced by Chief James Meehan former Chief of Personnel of NYPD. New officers would not be hired until 1980. By that time, Transit Police was a very old department personnel wise, losing many officers each month to retirement. The first recruits were hired off the list of NYPD exam # 8155 given on June 30, 1979. This first wave of new hires was historic as it contained the first female officers ever sworn into the Transit Police. This required many of the older districts to be renovated to provide locker room facilities for women. Shortly thereafter, Transit Police resumed their own exams By the early 1990s the Transit Police Department had regained all of its former strength and had increased even further.

In 1991, the Transit Police gained federal accreditation under Chief William Bratton. The department became one of only 175 law-enforcement agencies in the country and only the second in the New York State to achieve that distinction, the other being Suffolk County Police. The following year it was also accredited by the State of New York, and by 1994, there were almost 4,500 uniformed and civilian members of the department, making it the sixth-largest police force in the United States. Bratton was also responsible for upgrading the antiquated radio system, changing the service weapon to a 9mm Glock, and greatly improving the morale of the department.

Over time, however, the separation between the NYPD and the NYC Transit Police Department created more and more problems. Redundancy of units, difficulty in communications and differences in procedures all created frustration and inefficiency. As part of his mayoral campaign, candidate Rudolph Giuliani pledged to end the long-unresolved discussion and merge all three of New York City's police departments (the NYPD, the Transit Police, and the NYC Housing Authority Police Department) into a single, coordinated force. Mayor Giuliani took office on January 1, 1994, and immediately appointed William Bratton as NYPD Police Commissioner whose great expertise at police work undertook the mission to fulfill Giuliani's promise. Discussions between the city and the New York City Transit Authority which included a threat of laying off the entire Transit Police Department, produced a memorandum of understanding, and at 12:01 Am on April 2, 1995, the NYC Transit Police was consolidated with the New York City Police Department to become a new bureau within the NYPD called NYPD Transit Bureau. This consolidation is unofficially referred to by some as "The Hostile Takeover Of 95." This term originated with the Transit Police Union, as well as the members of the Transit Police who were opposed to the merger. After a reorganization of the Department in February 1997, the Transit Bureau became the Transit Division within the newly formed Transportation Bureau. In July 1999, the Transit Division once again became the Transit Bureau. The true reasoning behind the consolidation was Giuliani's desire to create one police payroll instead of three separate ones, and to bring all three police departments under his direct control. Prior to April 2, 1995, neither the Transit Police nor the Housing Police were under the purview of the police commissioner, who was in turn the direct subordinate of the mayor. While Members of the Transit Police were paid by the Transit Authority, and those of the Housing Police was paid by the Housing Authority, the funds for the payrolls did not actually come from those agencies, but were provided monthly by The City of New York. Giuliani won his quest for the consolidation by withholding the payroll funds for both police departments.

One main task of the Transit Police was its defense of the subway system from defacement. Graffiti was very prominent throughout the subway system by the mid-1980s and the city government took a hard line in response. The Transit Police, and specifically a new unit called the Vandal Squad, led by its commanding officer, Lieutenant Kenneth Chiulli, began to fine and arrest those painting graffiti. Founded in 1980, the Vandal Squad's mission was to protect the subway system from serious criminal acts of destruction like kicking out windows and throwing seats out of train cars. It was only with the Clean Car Program of 1984 that graffiti became the primary focus of this specialized unit. They also made a policy to remove any work of graffiti within 24 hours. By the end of the 1980s, the Transit Police had effectively solved the problem of graffiti in the subway system.

The Transit Police also handled both quality of life crimes and violent crime in the subway system, with uniform officers, plain clothes anti-crime, as well as a detective squad in each district. While NYPD operated out of precincts, Transit Police operated out of districts with each district covering a different part of the system. Each district had at least 1 RMP patrol car on the surface to provide rapid response to stations requiring police action, and to transport officers with prisoners to central booking, or back to the district. The typical uniformed Transit Police officer worked alone. Plain clothes officers, such as anti-crime, worked in pairs. The Decoy Squad worked in a group, with each member playing a specific role. New hires known as probationary officers were most often assigned to the Tactical Patrol Force known as TPF The TPF was responsible strictly for train patrol. TPF officers were assigned various trains that they were responsible for during their tour. Patrol required the officers to ride the train for the entire route which meant the TPF crossed both borough lines as well as District lines. At times this caused conflict between the TPF supervisors and the local district supervisors as to who truly had jurisdiction over the TPF. To combat fare evasion, Transit Police had the Summons Squad, whose officers worked in plain clothes in pairs, with the prime objective of issuing summonses systemwide for fare evasion, littering and smoking.

Prior to 1995, all summons issued for fare evasion were appearance tickets in criminal court. The typical penalty was $10 or 2 days. After the consolidation, summonses were then handled by the Transit Adjudication Bureau, a division of New York Civil Court, with the fines going back to the Transit Authority.

The Transit Police also had their own internal affairs, with field investigative officers nicknamed "The Shoe-Fly Squad" by the rank and file officers. The shoe-flys would travel throughout the subway system with the express purpose of finding officers committing any form of violation while on post and giving that officer a "complaint". A common warning that a "shoe-fly" was in a particular area would be a radio check followed by a forward and backward count to ten. Civilian complaints were handled at 370 Jay Street in Brooklyn.

Other Transit Police units were the K9 unit, and the Emergency Medical Rescue Unit (EMRU) which handled major emergencies on the subway system, the most common being a passenger struck by train, referred to as "man under" if the passenger was run over, "space case" if the passenger had fallen into the gap between the train and the platform, and "dragging" if the passenger had been dragged by the train. A lesser known unit was the Surface Crime Unit (Bus Squad). It consisted of about sixty officers who patrolled the NYC buses and bus depots.

During the existence of the New York City Transit Police Department, 13 officers died in the line of duty.

The history of the MTA's bus operations generally follows the history of the New York City Transit Authority, also known as MTA New York City Transit (NYCT), which was created on June 15, 1953 by the State of New York to take over operations then operated by the New York City Board of Transportation. In 1962 the State established the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA) as a subsidiary of NYCT to take over operations then operated by two private companies, Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc. and Surface Transit, Inc. Both NYCT and MaBSTOA operate service pursuant to a lease agreement with the City of New York.

MTA Regional Bus Operations

MTA Regional Bus Operations (RBO) is the surface transit division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). It was created in 2008 to consolidate all bus operations in New York City operated by the MTA., MTA Regional Bus Operations runs 234 local routes, 71 express routes, and 18 Select Bus Service routes. Its fleet of 5,725 buses is the largest municipal bus fleet in the United States and operates 24/7.

The division comprises two brands: MTA Bus and MTA New York City Bus. While MTA Bus is an amalgamation of former private companies' routes, MTA New York City Bus is composed of public routes that were taken over by the city before 2008. The MTA also operates paratransit services and formerly operated Long Island Bus., MTA Regional Bus Operations' budgetary burden for expenditures was $773 million.

Regional Bus Operations is currently only used in official documentation, and not publicly as a brand. The current public brands are listed below:

The most common scheme is a straight blue stripe across the sides of the bus against a white base, with no colors on the front or back, and black window trim. From 1977 until late 2007 (and still present on much of the fleet), the livery was a full all-around stripe with a black rear, and until late 2010 (and still present on buses repainted during this time), the scheme was a stripe with a blank rear. Buses operated in Select Bus Service bus rapid transit service are wrapped with a light blue-and-white wrap below the windows. In spring 2016, a new livery was introduced based on navy blue, light blue, and yellow, with a mostly blue front and sides, a light blue and yellow wave, and a yellow back. This new livery will gradually replace the blue stripe on a white base livery.

Currently, many RBO's operational changes have been at the management level, with the creation of a unified command center and consolidation of management for all bus operations, with the aim of reducing redundancies in the agency. Other changes have included eliminating the MTA Bus call center, folding it into that of MTA New York City Transit, and the unification of the fare policy for all of the MTA's services.

City involvement with surface transit in the city began in September 1919, when Mayor John Francis Hylan, through the New York City Department of Plant and Structures (DP&S), organized private entrepreneurs to operate "emergency" buses to replace four abandoned storage battery streetcar lines: the Madison Street Line, Spring and Delancey Streets Line, Avenue C Line, and Sixth Avenue Ferry Line. Many routes were soon added, replacing lines such as the Brooklyn and North River Line (trolleys) and Queens Bus Lines (buses), and the DP&S also began operating trolleys in Staten Island to replace the Staten Island Midland Railway's system.

Another city acquisition was the Bridge Operating Company, which ran the Williamsburg Bridge Local trolley, acquired in 1921 by the DP&S. Unlike the other lines, this one remained city-operated, and was replaced by the B39 bus route on December 5, 1948, by then transferred to the New York City Board of Transportation.

With the city takeover of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation's surface subsidiary, the Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation, on June 2, 1940, the city gained a large network of trolley and bus lines, covering all of Brooklyn and portions of Queens. On February 23, 1947, the Board of Transportation took over the Staten Island bus network of the Isle Transportation Company. Further acquisitions were made on March 30, 1947, with the North Shore Bus Company in Queens, and September 24, 1948, with the East Side Omnibus Corporation and Comprehensive Omnibus Corporation in Manhattan. The final Brooklyn trolleys were the Church Avenue Line and McDonald Avenue Line, discontinued on October 31, 1956, though the privately operated (by the Queensboro Bridge Railway) Queensboro Bridge Local remained until 1957.

Thus, in the late 1950s, the city operated all local service in Staten Island and Brooklyn, about half the local service in Queens, and several routes in Manhattan. Several private companies operated buses in Queens, and the Avenue B and East Broadway Transit Company operated a small Manhattan system, but by far the largest system was the Fifth Avenue Coach Company and Surface Transit, which operated almost all Manhattan routes and all Bronx routes, plus two into Queens (15 Fifth Avenue - Jackson Heights and TB Triborough Bridge) and one within Queens (16 Elmhurst Crosstown). After a strike in 1962, the city condemned the assets of the bus companies. To facilitate the anticipated sale of the bus service back to private ownership, a new agency, the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA) was formed as a subsidiary of the New York City Transit Authority to operate the former Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc. and Surface Transit, Inc. routes under lease from the city. The final acquisition was in 1980, when MaBSTOA took over operations of the Avenue B & East Broadway Transit Co. Inc.'s routes, using MaBSTOA equipment with Avenue B red route roll signs (NYCTA acquired the 13 Grumman Flxibles that had been assigned to Avenue B and placed them in NYCTA service).

However, in late 1981 the MTA decided to merge the New York City Transit Authority's Surface Division (aka NYCTA Civil Service) with the Manhattan & Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (aka MABSTOA Non Civil Service) into one single entity using the MTA - New York City Transit Authority, or MTA - New York City Bus moniker instead of the former.

Public takeover of the remaining Queens buses, as well as most express routes, was implemented in 2005 and 2006 when the city purchased the assets of seven private bus companies, and entered into an agreement with the new MTA Bus Company for their operation and funding. In 2008, the bus operations of New York City Transit and MTA Bus Company (as well as the now former Long Island Bus division) were merged into a new regional operation, MTA Regional Bus Operations. The New York City Bus brand continues to be used; however, it (and the MTA Bus brand) are being phased out with the introduction of a new blue-and-yellow livery; the first two buses with the new livery for New York City Transit service were delivered in fall 2016 (MTA Bus had its first 75 examples delivered in spring and summer 2016). Even with the new livery, New York City Transit Authority, Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority, and MTA Bus Company continue to be the legal entities operating the services.

MTA Bus Company was established in late 2004 to operate bus services resulting from the city's takeover of the privately operated bus route operations previously administered and subsidized by the NYCDOT.

The routes were taken over on a staggered schedule, beginning with the former Liberty Lines Express bus routes on January 3, 2005, Queens Surface Corporation bus routes on February 27, 2005, New York Bus Service bus routes on July 1, 2005, Command Bus Company bus routes on December 5, 2005, Green Bus Lines bus routes on January 9, 2006, and Jamaica Buses bus routes on January 30, 2006. Triboro Coach Corporation, the final remaining company, ceased operating on February 20, 2006.

Currently, the only NYCDOT-subsidized lines not consolidated into MTA Bus are those run by Academy Bus and formerly by Atlantic Express until their bankruptcy in 2013. Academy Bus previously operated those routes and others until 2001, when Atlantic Express and NYCT took them over. Although the X23, and X24 routes were absorbed by Atlantic Express, the X17J, X21, X22, and X30 routes were absorbed by the New York City Transit Authority. NYCT discontinued service on the X21 months after the takeover. Recently, NYS Assemblyman Lou Tobacco and NYS Senator Andrew Lanza, along with U.S. Congressman Michael E. McMahon and NYC Councilmen Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo have asked the MTA to look into the possible consolidation of the remainder of the NYCDOT routes. In Brooklyn, a company called Private Transportation operates the B110 route; this is franchised but not subsidized by NYCDOT. Atlantic Express also ran the AE7 express route from the Tottenville and Travis neighborhoods of Staten Island in the same manner as the Private Transportation B110 local route. Citing low ridership and increased costs, Atlantic Express canceled the AE7 service on December 31, 2010. Councilmen Ignizio and Oddo as well as Congressman Michael G. Grimm have called on the MTA to revamp that route also.

The current system came into being in the mid-2000s following the MTA's assumption, through its subsidiary MTA Bus Company (MTABC), of services previously operated by private carriers under operating authority agreements administered by the New York City Department of Transportation, the successor to the New York City Bureau of Franchises. MTABC operates service pursuant to an agreement with the City of New York under which all expenses of MTABC, less operating revenues, are reimbursed. This brought almost all bus transportation in New York City under its control.

After the bus mergers were completed in 2006, the MTA then moved to streamline its operations through consolidation of management function. To that effect, RBO was officially created in May 2008, with the president of what was then MTA New York City Transit's Department of Buses, Joseph J. Smith, named to lead the consolidated bus operations. MTA Regional Bus also included the MTA Long Island Bus division until December 2011, when its services were transferred to the private operator Veolia Transport.

In 2008, the bus operations of MTA Bus Company and New York City Transit (as well as the now former Long Island Bus division) were merged into a new regional operation, MTA Regional Bus Operations. The MTA Bus brand continues to be used. This brand, and the New York City Bus brand, was removed from buses delivered from 2016 on, and the blue-stripe livery was replaced with a new blue-and-yellow livery. The first order with the new livery, 75 articulated buses for MTA Bus, were delivered in spring and summer 2016.

Until December 31, 2011, MTA Regional Bus Operations also operated Nassau County's bus and paratransit service, formerly known as Long Island Bus. This service was operated by the MTA under an agreement with Nassau County, who owned its facilities and equipment. In 2011, the MTA asked Nassau County to provide more funding for Long Island Bus than they were at the time. The county refused to provide additional funding, and the MTA voted to end operation of the system at the end of 2011. The county then decided to hire Veolia Transport, (now Transdev) a private transportation company, to operate the system in place of the MTA beginning in 2012. The system was then rebranded "Nassau Inter-County Express".

MTA Regional Bus routes are spread out across New York City. However, some bus routes may also operate to areas beyond city limits. The Q5 and Q85 routes cross the Nassau County border to go to the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream. The Q2 and Q110 routes leave Queens as they run along Hempstead Turnpike and onto the Cross Island Parkway, and Belmont Racetrack in Elmont, where they re-enter the city. The Q46 local and QM6 express buses run along Lakeville Road in Lake Success, Nassau County upon entering Long Island Jewish Medical Center and North Shore Towers. The Q113 and Q114 cross into Nassau County between Southeast Queens and Far Rockaway. During peak hours, select Q111 buses run to Cedarhurst in Nassau County. The Bx16 route runs into Westchester County for two blocks in Mount Vernon. The Bx7 and Bx10 buses both make their last stops at the Bronx-Westchester border. BxM3 express buses leave the city as they operate to Getty Square in Yonkers. The S89 is the only route to have a stop outside state borders, terminating at the 34th Street Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station in Bayonne, New Jersey. Some Staten Island express routes run via New Jersey, but do not stop in the state.

Local bus routes are labeled with a number and a prefix identifying the primary borough of operation (B for Brooklyn, Bx for the Bronx, M for Manhattan, Q for Queens, and S for Staten Island). Express bus routes to Manhattan generally use a two-letter prefix with an "M" at the end (i.e. an express route from Brooklyn is prefixed BM; from the Bronx, BxM; from Queens, QM; and from Staten Island, SIM). Exceptions to this rule are seven Brooklyn and Queens express routes operated by New York City Transit, which use an X prefix. Lettered suffixes can be used to designate branches or variants. The two-letter prefixed express system (BM, BxM and QM) was previously used by the former private carriers.

, MTA Regional Bus Operations' budgetary burden for expenditures was $773 million, which it supports through the collection of taxes and fees.

Local and limited-stop buses provide service within a single borough, or in some cases across two. While local buses make all stops along a route, limited-stop buses only make stops at busy transfer points, points of interest, and heavily used roadways. Limited stop service was first attempted with the M4 bus during rush hours in 1973, then expanded to other routes from there. The usual setup is that limited stop service runs the full route, while local services run only in the limited stop area, and the limited stop buses run local at the tail ends of the route not served by locals (similar to the operation of some subway services and the Staten Island Railway). There are also full-route limited-stop buses, with local variants that make limited stops along the entire route; limited-only buses with no local variants under the same route number; and limited-zone buses, with a semi-limited section (with smaller distances between stops than on regular limited routes) near the route's tail ends, and a non-stop section in the middle.

Most Limited-Stop buses flash "LIMITED" or "LIMITED STOPS" on the destination sign. Occasionally, a paper orange and purple "Limited" sign will also be placed at the bottom of the windshield by the bus operator. Dark navy blue "LOCAL" and red "Express" signs also exist.

The following MTA Regional Bus routes run limited stop service (for non-Staten Island routes, where there is a route numbering system, bold indicates no corresponding local service on the limited-stop route, and "italic" indicates no corresponding daytime local service on the limited-stop route):

Select Bus Service (SBS), the brand name for MTA bus rapid transit service, is a variant of Limited-Stop bus service that requires fare payment to be made "before" boarding the bus, at fare payment machines in shelters at designated "stations" (such a shelter is shown to the right). Receipts given for payment of fare are "proof-of-payment" that must be shown to the MTA's fare inspectors upon request. In the event of the fare machine failing to issue a receipt, the bus operator must be notified of the problem. The implementation of this new service is paired with new lane markings and traffic signs that reserve a lane for buses only during the daytime.

Buses used in this service are identifiable with "stations" equipped with ticket machines, and also have a "+selectbusservice" wrap identifying them as such buses. Locations of stops (and in some cases, the local bus stops) were shifted or eliminated where possible to prevent mixing of local bus customers. SBS is offered in conjunction with the NYC DOT and NYS DOT.
Express bus service is generally geared towards peak hour commuters from the outer boroughs and neighboring suburbs that lack rail or subway services to and from Midtown Manhattan or Lower Manhattan. Some routes also provide significant off-peak service from early morning to late evening, every day. Routes with daily off-peak service include the BxM1/2, BxM3, BxM4, BxM6, BxM7, BxM8, BxM9, BxM10, BxM11, QM2, QM4, QM5/6, SIM2, SIM3c, SIM4c, X27 and X28; the SIM1c runs 24 hours a day. 45-foot MCI and Prevost over-the-road coaches are used for express service.

Service originally began on November 3, 1965, on route R8X (later X8, now SIM5) traveling from the South Shore of Staten Island, up Hylan Blvd and Father Capodanno Blvd., into Downtown Brooklyn. In the 1980s, the R8X was renumbered and rerouted from Brooklyn to its current terminal in Lower Manhattan.

In addition to a 100% accessible bus fleet, New York City Transit also provides paratransit services under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 under the Access-A-Ride brand, for customers who cannot use regular bus or subway service. It services all five boroughs of New York City at all times. The Access-A-Ride paratransit services are provided by various independent contractors, using vehicles owned by the MTA. Although all buses are wheelchair-accessible, these vehicles provide an accessible transport option for MTA riders. The program was created in 1991 after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Within a service area, bus stops are normally located every two to three city blocks apart; specific guidelines dictate that stops should be placed every. Buses marked Limited-Stop, Select Bus Service, and Express have fewer stops. Stops are located curbside, usually at street intersections, identified by blue signage and shelters. Buses stop either on concrete pads, or designated bus lanes (maroon-red if painted). Some bus stops, particularly along Select Bus Service routes, are designed as bus bulbs.

All bus stops are in effect at all times unless otherwise indicated by signage.

Bus stops in New York City are identified by two types of signs:

In addition, Queens buses that run along the border with Nassau County () or within Nassau County () will sometimes share former Long Island Bus-style signage with Nassau Inter-County Express bus service, though many stops on the Q111, Q113, and Q114 routes in Nassau County are either unsigned, or simply signed as "No Stopping Bus Stop". These signs are also made of metal.

The newer signs, used on all New York City Bus-branded routes, were in place by the mid-2000s, while old-style bus stop signs still exist on many MTA Bus-branded routes, showing only the route and not the destination. All bus stop signs within the city borders are maintained by New York City Department of Transportation. The newer signs are made of recyclable ABS plastic that last up to ten years and are easier to maintain then the old metal signs, which last about three years on average. The green plastic pole stands from to high, versus the old metal signs. Both old and new-style stops carry a Guide-A-Ride box that is attached to the center of the pole, providing route maps, schedules and other information. Guide-A-Ride boxes were installed on all NYCT routes by the 1980s. Implementation on MTA Bus Company routes began in the 2000s for express buses, and in 2012 for local bus routes. All bus stops have schedules.

The first metal signs in the city to feature a pictograph of a bus were installed by the Transit Authority in the 1960s. Metal signs in their current design, which are mainly used on MTA Bus-operated routes and at temporary construction-regulation bus stops, were first used in 1976, as part of a pilot program on Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Midtown Manhattan funded by the Urban Mass Transit Administration, and fully implemented in the 1980s.

In its current iteration, the upper portion of the sign is red, reading "NO STANDING" with an arrow identifying the no standing zone. Below on a blue background is a white circle, with a blue pictograph of a bus and wheelchair from the International Symbol of Access. Routes are identified with color-coded labels (see below), but without destinations. Some signs for express-bus service are colored lime-green and read "EXPRESS" at the top.

The modern color-coded lollipop-shaped bus stop signs, which are used at all bus stops on New York City Bus-operated routes as well as at bus stops shared with MTA Bus routes and other companies, were first installed in November 1996 in Jamaica, Queens. They were designed by W.S. Sign Design Corporation. The signs were created following two federal grants given to the MTA and DOT in 1994 totaling $1.5 million, in response to complaints from bus riders that the previous metal signs lacked basic information about bus routes and schedules, and that some signs were often missing entirely. They were based off signs used in London and Paris that had existed since at least the 1950s.

It is important to note that these signs are installed in violation of the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law, Section 1680 which requires all "traffic control devices" to comply with the U.S. Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) as modified by the NYS Supplement. They are a violation because parking signs must be rectangular rather than circular. As a partial result of posting these signs, the federal government is considering denying highway aid money to the city.

The new bus stop sign features a large circle on top and rectangular color-coded bus route information on the bottom. The bus stop circle also has a pictograph of a bus and ADA wheelchair, in white on a blue background. Hanging off the pole below are rectangular bus route signs, color-coded by type of service. Each has a route number and final destination, usually the neighborhood in which it terminates, though a street or landmark is listed for some routes. Westbound Bx12 local signs, for example, read "Sedgwick Avenue" instead of the neighborhood University Heights. At the bottom of this area is a white rectangle with black text announcing the name of the stop, usually the names of the streets at the intersection. On bus stops that operate at all times of day, an arrow and red text on the bottom of the upper circle indicates the no-standing zone for cars. On stops that only operate part-time, the top route number box will read "NO STANDING", with the top destination box listing the days and/or times of day this is in effect. Some bus routes that run underneath elevated subway lines (such as the Bx9 underneath the Broadway elevated in the Bronx) use metal bus stop signs with a printed image depicting a modern bus sign, affixed to the pillars of the El.

Some bus stops, produced by Data Display and STV Incorporated, feature electronic countdown clocks. In addition to the route and destination, an LED readout in between displays how many stops away or minutes away the next bus is using the MTA's "Bus Time" system. The first two signs of this kind, in Stapleton and New Dorp on Staten Island, were installed in 2013. The Stapleton stop is solar-powered. A third stop was installed near City Hall in Manhattan in 2015. An additional 18 stops in Staten Island and Brooklyn were approved for installation in late 2014, 10 for Queens in 2015, and 100 in Staten Island in 2016, as part of the NYCDOT's plan to install around 350 across the city. In 2018, as part of its Bus Action Plan, the MTA announced that more signs would receive electronic countdown clocks.

Several stops along Select Bus Service routes, such as the B44, B46, M34/M34A, M60, M79, M86, and Q44 employ different countdown clocks that are separate from bus stop signage. These clocks are part of wayfinding information kiosks installed in conjunction with the city's WalkNYC project beginning in 2013. As of 2016, a total of 32 bus stops had one of the two countdown clocks installed. The current countdown clocks are successors to a pilot program on the M15 in 2007, and another on the M34 and M16 buses between 2009 and 2012.

The signage for routes at bus stops may be given different colors depending on the types of services available at each stop.

The current bus shelters found at many bus stops were designed by Spain-based advertising company Cemusa, as part of a citywide "street furniture" project that also included newsstands, bike shelters, and public toilets. Cemusa was awarded a 20-year contract for 3,300 bus shelters in May 2006, after the project had been receiving design bids going back to the 1990s. As opposed to the city paying Cemusa to install the shelters, the company paid for exclusive rights to advertise on the shelters; in return, the company would share a portion of the ad revenue generated. They replaced the simple old-style shelters, consisting of black-painted metal with glass. The first 24 shelters were installed by December 2006 in Queens.
Designed by British architect Nicholas Grimshaw and his firm Grimshaw Architects, the shelters are constructed of stainless steel, with glass on three sides including the roof and rear. The fourth side consists of an advertising panel. On the non-advertising panel is an insert listing the streets of the intersection where the stop is located on the outer side, and route maps and information also featured on the Guide-A-Ride on its inner face. The shelters come in five sizes (Regular: ; Narrow: ; Short: ; Little: ; and Double: ). All the modern shelters feature benches (many of the old ones did not), and were praised for environmentally friendly construction during their introduction. Several of these shelters, primarily in Manhattan, have since been equipped with LED displays, LCD video advertisement panels, and ad panels with NFC communication technology. Following the acquisition of Cemusa by French advertising firm JCDecaux in 2015, bus shelters are now maintained by JCDecaux.

Between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., "Request-a-Stop" service is available as dictated by NYCDOT traffic regulations. If requested by a passenger, the bus operator may discharge passengers at a location along the route that is not a bus stop, as long as it is considered safe. If the location is not "safe" (i.e. it will interfere with traffic flow), the bus operator will discharge passengers at the nearest safe location. Request-A-Stop is not available on Select Bus Service, Express routes, Limited-Stop routes, or overnight bus shuttles. Request-A-Stop was inaugurated on December 5, 1993 in Staten Island, and expanded to other boroughs in 1994.

The fleet consists of over 5,700 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 (except for paratransit cabs) are fully accessible to persons with disabilities. Fixed-route buses are dispatched from 28 garages (20 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 ("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. Low-floor buses, designed to speed boarding and alighting and improve riding conditions for elderly and disabled passengers, were first tested in 1997 and have made up most of the new non-express buses ordered since the early 2000s. Most post-2000 orders also feature stop-request buttons located on grab bars. Beginning in 2016, new orders along with buses built after 2011 will be built/retrofitted with Wi-Fi connectivity and USB charging ports.

A pilot program is currently ongoing to bring an audio/visual system to the current and future bus fleet. This will include digital information screens installed throughout the interior of the bus which will provide real-time information such as time, weather, advertisements, service advisories and automated announcements that announces next stops & PSAs in an effort to improve customer service and ADA accessibility. These screens are currently being tested under contract from 3 different vendors and will eventually be expanded to all of the fleet citywide.

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.

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. Buses running compressed natural gas (CNG) were first tested in the early 1990s, and mass-ordered beginning in 1999. Hybrid-electric buses, operating with a combination of diesel and electric power, were introduced in September 1998, and mass-ordered beginning in 2004. Within the current fleet are over 1,600 diesel-electric buses and over 700 buses powered by compressed natural gas, which make up over half of the total fleet. This is the largest fleet of either kind in the United States.

Dollar bills and half-dollar coins are not accepted on fixed-route buses or Select Bus Service payment stations, nor are they accepted on buses of the Bee-Line Bus System (Bee-Line) in Westchester County or the Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) in Nassau County. All fares are in US dollars, and the following fare policy applies to all New York City Transit, MTA Bus, NICE, and Bee-Line (except for the BxM4C) buses. Up to three children who are 5 years old or younger get to ride free provided that they are accompanied by a fare-paying rider.

, three-quarters of bus routes provide high-frequency service in at least one direction during rush hours, with buses arriving at least every ten minutes. Of these routes, 54% provide high-frequency service in both directions, while 21% provide service only in the peak direction (toward transit hubs during the morning, and away from these hubs during the evening). One quarter of routes run with headways of more than 10 minutes during rush hours.

Of the five boroughs, the Bronx has the greatest proportion of bus routes with high frequencies in both directions, with 65% of routes running such frequencies. Manhattan has the highest ratio of routes with high frequencies in at least one direction, at 85%. On the other hand, more than 60% of routes on Staten Island, the city's least populous borough, ran with low rush-hour frequencies, marking the highest such ratio in the city. In roughly 28% of the city's neighborhoods, less than half of routes operate at high frequencies in both directions. Neighborhoods outside of each borough's central business districts, as well as off-peak service, are more likely to be subject to low-frequency bus service, despite significant off-peak demand in areas like Forest Hills, Queens, and Sunset Park, Brooklyn. MTA Bus and New York City Bus also have the U.S.'s highest rates of deadhead runs, or "not-in-service" runs without passengers, with a respective 19% and 14% of trips being deadheads.

Buses running off-schedule are also common in the MTA Regional Bus system, with almost one in four buses running either too early or too late to maintain a constant spacing between buses. This is prevalent even on Select Bus Service bus rapid transit routes, where 20% of bus trips do not adhere to their schedules. Some routes suffer from bus bunching. Routes affected by bus bunching may not have any buses in a certain direction for prolonged periods of time, and then several buses will show up within a short time period. In 2017, nearly twelve percent of routes were considered to be bunched on a regular basis, compared to 9.4% in 2015. This phenomenon most affects bus routes within Brooklyn Community Board 5 in East Brooklyn, where 15% of buses are subject to bunching.

, MTA buses on local buses run at average speeds of, the slowest of any major bus system nationwide. MTA Select Bus Service routes had marginally faster speeds, averaging. The average speed varies between boroughs, with Manhattan having the lowest average local-bus speed () and Staten Island having the highest (). In 2017, sixteen of the seventeen bus routes with average speeds of less than were located in Manhattan. Conversely, eight of the eleven routes with average speeds of more than were located on Staten Island. On average, buses generally spend a little more than half of the trip (54%) in motion, while 22% of the trip is spent at bus stops and 21% is spent idling at red lights.

The Straphangers Campaign, another riders' advocacy group, gives out "Pokey Awards" to the slowest bus routes of each year. The slowest bus routes are typically crosstown bus routes in Manhattan, with 14 of the slowest bus routes in 2017 being crosstown bus routes. In 2017, the slowest bus route was the M42 crosstown bus on 42nd Street, which had an average speed of, approximately a walking pace. This was followed by the M31/M57, M50, and M66 crosstown buses on 57th, 49th/50th, and 65th/66th Streets respectively, all of which averaged less than. Other "winners" of the Pokey Award include the M79 on 79th Street and the M23 on 23rd Street, both of which have now been converted to Select Bus Service routes. However, Select Bus Service routes only serve 12% of all bus riders, and the average bus route is 10% percent slower than it was in the mid-1990s.

A 2015 study found that 35 MTA routes with significant ridership figures had average speeds of less than, and that the M66 crosstown bus had an average speed of. Slow bus rides were not limited to Manhattan routes; the Bx2 bus in the Bronx and the B35 bus in Brooklyn both ran at speeds of less than. In 2018, the riders' advocacy group Bus Turnaround Campaign rated each bus route based on speed and reliability, and gave 75% of city bus routes a "D" or "F" grade. As a result, in early January 2019, mayor Bill de Blasio promised to raise bus speeds by 25% by the next year.

As a result of these slow average speeds, MTA Regional Bus Operations has the highest per-mile operating cost of all city bus systems in the U.S., with a per-mile cost of $30.40. If the operating costs were closer to the U.S. average, MTA buses would have the highest farebox recovery ratio among U.S. cities' bus systems.

Many local New York City Bus and MTA Bus routes take long and winding routes that, in the most extreme cases, take more than two hours to traverse from end to end. Some of the longest routes are in Staten Island, where the average bus line is long. The longest local bus route in the city, the S78, is long and spans the entire length of Staten Island. Brooklyn also has several long bus routes, and the borough hosts three of the city's ten longest routes.

Some local routes divert into neighborhoods and detour down driveways rather than taking a more direct path. These routes then merge onto heavily-congested main corridors. A 2017 report indicated that nearly half of bus routes had at least 10 turns along their routes. The most winding route was the Bx8 bus in the Bronx, with 29 turns.

Starting in 2015, the MTA investigated express bus routes on Staten Island, which were circuitous, duplicative, and infrequent. The MTA proposed replacing all of the existing express bus routes with simpler and shorter variants, a proposal supported by 76% of Staten Island residents who had learned about the study. In March 2018, after hosting several meetings with Staten Island residents, the MTA announced that express bus service to Staten Island was expected to be completely reorganized in August 2018. As part of the redesign, all of the existing bus routes would be discontinued and replaced with 21 new routes with a "SIM" prefix.

, MTA bus routes tend to be more heavily used on weekends than on weekdays. Weekday bus ridership in 2017 averaged 1.9 million, while weekend ridership averaged 2.1 million. Express buses had an average weekday ridership of 40,200, while paratransit was used by a mean of 27,900 people each weekday.

Bus ridership has steadily declined through the 2000s and 2010s. From 2008 to 2017, bus ridership declined by more than 100 million. Average weekday bus ridership fell 5.7%, and average weekend bus ridership fell 4%, from 2016 to 2017. The greatest ridership decreases were in Manhattan, where bus ridership declined more than 15% from 2011 to 2016. Ridership decreased less dramatically in Brooklyn and parts of Queens and Staten Island, while ridership increased slightly within the Bronx, southwest Brooklyn, central Queens, and most of Staten Island. Bus lines that ran parallel to subway routes also saw ridership declines. As of 2017, there were thirteen bus routes with at least 20 stops within of a subway station; all saw ridership declines, with each route averaging a 20% loss.

To speed up bus service, the city started installing bus lanes in Downtown Brooklyn and St. George, Staten Island, in 1963. Another bus lane was soon installed along Hillside Avenue in Queens. In 1969, part of 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan also received a bus lane. Additional bus lanes were added in the 1970s and 1980s. Bus lanes now exist on major corridors in all five boroughs, and are especially prevalent on high-volume and Select Bus Service corridors. There are also bus lanes along several highways that lead to Manhattan. The city's bus lane network is about long, representing nearly two percent of the city's of streets.

The bus lane rules are enforced by traffic cameras on gantries above the lanes; photos are taken of vehicles who violate the rules, and these motorists are then fined. Bus lanes have generally increased average bus speeds and reduced travel times where they are installed. However, double-parked vehicles and other obstructions often force buses within buses to merge out of these lanes.

, traffic signal preemption is used on five bus corridors in New York City. Traffic signals with bus preemption allow traffic lights to display a green signal for a longer-than-normal period of time when a bus approaches the intersection. The first corridor to receive traffic signal priority was the Victory Boulevard corridor on Staten Island in 2006, which used infrared detection technology to allow traffic signals to communicate with transponders on buses. Although the system itself was successful, the buses with transponders were reassigned to bus routes in Brooklyn and Queens, rendering the devices useless. Moreover, MTA administrators did not see any cost savings from the program, and employees generally lacked the motivation to maintain the system. In 2008, the Victory Boulevard installation was followed by the Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway corridor (Bx12 bus) in the Bronx, which used GPS transponders aboard buses. Due to both systems' high cost, they were eventually removed from both corridors.

In 2011, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed that traffic signal priority be installed along 11 bus routes within the following two years. The MTA started testing signal priority along the M15 in Lower Manhattan in 2012. From 2014 to 2016, five Select Bus Service routes received GPS-based traffic signal priority at 260 intersections. They were the M15 in Manhattan; the B44 along Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn; the S79 along Hylan Boulevard on Staten Island; the Bx41 along Webster Avenue in the Bronx; and the B46 along Utica Avenue in Brooklyn. The New York City government subsequently studied four of these routes, and found that all of the routes saw increases in average bus speeds along the portions that had bus priority signals. Speeds on these routes increased by an average of 18%.

Eleven more corridors were set to receive traffic signal priority by July 2017. The number of equipped intersections rose to 500 by March 2018, and was set to increase further to 1,000 intersections by 2020. However, as of that date, traffic signal priority was still in the testing stages, and preemptive traffic signals in New York City were used in much lower proportions than in other major cities. An expansion of traffic signal priority is planned as part of the Bus Action Plan. In January 2019, de Blasio said that the traffic signal priority program would be expanded to 1,200 intersections.

In April 2018, in response to a citywide transit crisis and complaints about the general quality of MTA bus service, the MTA published a Bus Action Plan detailing 28 suggestions to improve the bus system. Within twelve months, targeted corridor improvements were to be implemented, some bus stops would be removed to speed up service, and off-peak bus service would be expanded on strategic routes. As part of the plan, there will be a system-wide redesign of the bus network by 2021 to improve connectivity and provide more direct service.

Expanding bus priority is also part of the plan. Traffic Signal Priority would be implemented on additional routes, and new bus lanes and queue jump lanes would be instituted. In addition, the MTA would study ways to implement exclusive bus lanes and busways on priority corridors. To ensure that bus lanes are not blocked, dedicated transit-priority traffic teams would be put into place with the NYPD in 2019. Tap readers would be installed by the end of 2020, and all-door boarding would be installed with the introduction of a new contactless payment system that is planned to replace the MetroCard. There would be regular fare enforcement on bus routes to reduce fare evasion.

The plan also contained some improvements to bus riders' experience. All buses delivered after April 2018, as well as 1,000 existing buses, would also receive digital information screens with automated announcements. In addition, by the end of 2018, new bus maps would be designed to make it easier to comprehend the bus network and to provide location-specific maps for neighborhoods in each neighborhood. Although the MTA had already started installing bus stop signs with real-time information, the Action Plan called for more bus shelters to be equipped with these signs. Starting in 2019, the MTA's mobile app would provide real-time seat availability information on selected bus routes. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, the agency announced its transition to a zero-emissions electric bus fleet. The MTA would also test out a double-decker bus on the redesigned Staten Island bus routes in 2018.

Safety features and customer amenities were installed on new and existing buses as part of the Bus Action Plan. By January 2019, audible "pedestrian turn warning" announcement systems were installed on 617 buses, while cameras were installed on the inside of 3,469 buses and on the outside of 319 buses. Relocated or smaller pillars were installed on most new buses to increase visibility for drivers. Amenities such as USB charging ports, Wi-Fi, and digital information screens were installed on thousands of existing buses, as well as in all new buses. Traffic signal priority systems and automatic passenger counters were both installed in over a thousand buses. In addition, the MTA was planning to buy 248 compressed natural gas buses, 285 diesel-electric hybrid buses, and 60 electric buses in order to reduce energy emissions from the new bus fleet. Ten hybrid and ten electric buses had been tested in 2018.

In March 1953, the Board of Transportation was abolished, and was replaced by the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA). The NYCTA formally succeeded the BOT on June 15, 1953, being composed of five unsalaried members. Hugh Casey was elected as the agency's chairman at the authority's first meeting. The new Transit Authority was modeled after the existing Port of New York Authority which now calls itself the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, the latter of which is also now part of the MTA. At this time, the city government leased the IRT, BMT, and IND subway lines and the surface system (buses and, until 1956 street cars). A major goal of the formation of the NYCTA was to remove transit policy, and especially the setting of the transit fare, from City politics. The fare was increased to fifteen cents on July 25, 1953, and a token was introduced for paying subway and elevated fares. Bus and trolley fares continued to be paid by cash only.

New York City Transit Authority

The New York City Transit Authority (also known as NYCTA, The TA or simply Transit, and branded as MTA New York City Transit) is a public authority in the U.S. state of New York that operates public transportation in New York City. Part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the busiest and largest transit system in North America, the NYCTA has a daily ridership of 8 million trips (over 2.5 billion annually).

The NYCTA operates the following systems:

As part of establishing a common corporate identity, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 1994 assigned popular names to each of its subsidiaries and affiliates. The New York City Transit Authority is now known popularly as "MTA New York City Transit (NYCT)", (or more specifically on the vehicles, "MTA New York City Bus" and "MTA New York City Subway"), though the former remains its legal name for documents and contracts. Newer contracts and RFPs, however, have also used the popular name.

The Authority is also sometimes referred to as "NYCT" (for "New York City Transit"), or simply the "TA" (for "Transit Authority").

The Chairman and Members of the MTA, by statute, also serve as the Chairman and Members of the Transit Authority, and serve as the Directors of the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority. The Executive Director of the MTA is, "ex officio", Executive Director of the Transit Authority.

The Transit Authority has its own management structure which is responsible for its day-to-day operations, with executive personnel reporting to the agency president. Andy Byford is the current President of the New York City Transit Authority.

The subway system today is composed of what once were three separate systems in competition with one another. Two of them were built and operated by private companies: August Belmont's Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT). The third, the public Independent Subway System (IND) was owned and operated by the City of New York. The IRT and BMT systems were acquired by the city on June 1, 1940, for $317,000,000 and consolidated with the IND into the New York City Board of Transportation (NYCBOT).

The buses on Staten Island had been operated by a private company operating under a franchise that expired in 1946. When it became known that the company would not renew its franchise, a group of residents in the borough organized the Isle Transportation Company, to continue operation. This group ran into financial difficulties and the city took over the company on February 23, 1947. The city then controlled all of the bus routes on Staten Island. On March 30, 1947, the City took over the bus lines of the North Shore Bus Company, which comprised half of the privately owned lines in Queens, after that company went into financial troubles. On September 24, 1948, the City acquired five bus lines in Manhattan for similar reasons.

The surface operation of the BOT was a costly operation, resulting from the various equipment that was required, including trolley cars, trolley coaches, gasoline and diesel buses, of which many were obsolete and in need of replacement.

During World War II, the New York City Transit System showed an operating surplus on the five-cent fare, because gasoline was rationed and auto riders had to abandon their cars for subway and bus travel. Factories began to work around the clock, and therefore business boomed. Transit repairs were kept at a minimum as basic materials were in short supply for civilian use. Operating revenues were raised and maintenance costs were reduced, but as a result, the future problems of deferred maintenance and falling ridership. In 1946, costs rose and profits turned to losses, and to obtain needed funds, the fare was raised in 1948 to ten cents on the subways and elevated, and to seven cents on the surface lines. This increase only produced a revenue surplus for a single year. In 1951 a uniform ten-cent fare was established on both the rapid transit and surface lines. Operating deficits continued to add up and public dissatisfaction with the transit system grew, as equipment was deteriorating, and train schedules being difficult to abide by.

In July 1953, the NYCTA proposed spending $1,065,000,000 over six years, expanding the city's subway system through new lines and connections between the IND and BMT Divisions. The most important new lines were a Second Avenue subway, including a Chrystie Street connection to the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridge and a rebuilt DeKalb Avenue junction in Brooklyn, IRT Utica Avenue and Nostrand Avenue extensions into southeast Brooklyn, and the extension of subway service to the Rockaway Peninsula using the Long Island Railroad's Rockaway Beach Branch. Only the Chrystie Street connection, the rebuilt DeKalb Avenue Junction, and the Rockaway Line were built between 1954 and 1967.

One provision in the 1953 law that created NYCTA demanded that by July 1955, the agency create a plan to sell its bus and trolley routes to private operators. In the beginning of 1955, it was reported that the NYCTA's surface operations cost seven million dollars more to operate annually than it collected in revenue from the fare box. By privatizing the surface operations, and as a result focusing on subways, the NYCTA could then meet its operating costs. Two Manhattan private operators, New York City Omnibus and Surface Transportation, in March 1955, expressed interest in taking control of the five-route NYCTA bus operation in that borough. In the other boroughs there was no interest in taking over the routes in Brooklyn and Staten Island, and there was little interest in Queens. In April 1955, laws were passed by the New York State legislature to change the NYCTA into a three-member salaried panel to become in effect on July 1, 1955. This allowed its members to devote their full-time to managing New York's transit system. As part of this law, the provision that required surface operations to be sold was removed. The Chairman of the NYCTA then became Charles Patterson.

One major problem that the NYCTA inherited from the Board of Transportation was the age of the subway cars from the IRT and BMT. The first new cars were the R16s, numbered 200, which first appeared in January 1955 being put in service on the J train. These cars were introduced with automatic thermostats and dampers to control the heat and ventilation systems based on the air temperature outside. Additional subway cars were also ordered and delivered between 1960 and 1965; the R27s, the R30s and R32s for the IND/BMT lines, and R29s, R33s and R36s for the IRT (2,350 cars). Between 1966 and 1969, an additional 1,000 cars, split between the R38, R40, and R42 orders, were placed into service. The last of the original BMT Standard stock was retired by 1969, along with the last prewar IRT equipment.

On July 5, 1966, the fare was increased to twenty cents.

Today, all of the subways are owned by New York City and leased to the Transit Authority for operation.

As with all mass transit in the United States the TA requires assistance for its capital costs and to cover operational needs, however, the very high ridership of New York City's subway system has enabled it to pay 67% of its operating costs from fares and advertising. Historically, the TA's capital requirements were met by the city and state jointly, but this support was withdrawn, primarily by Governor Rockefeller, in the 1960s.

In 1965, mayoral candidate John Lindsay pledged to use the toll revenues from the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA) to offset the NYCTA's deficits. In January 1966, New York State, with the help of Governor Nelson Rockefeller. purchased the Long Island Rail Road, from its corporate parent, the Pennsylvania Railroad, becoming part of the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Authority (MCTA). Rockefeller saw the difficulty that John Lindsay, who had since won the mayoral election, had in his plan to use the TBTA surpluses for the NYCTA, and decided to expand the MCTA to give it oversight to the NYCTA and the TBTA. The MCTA would be renamed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Tied to a bill with the creation of the MTA was a $2.5 billion bond issue that would be approved or disapproved by voters in November 1967. A majority of the bonds would go to the state's mass transit systems, with a majority going to New York City, and to Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland, and Orange Counties. The day prior to the election, two brand new R40 cars were displayed on the IND Sixth Avenue Line at Herald Square. The bond issue passed, and the MTA was set to take over the NYCTA in 1968. The night before December 31, 1967, the NYCTA and the TWU made an agreement to avoid a strike. The deal gave NYCTA workers the ability to retire with about half-pay after twenty years if the employee was over fifty years old. This would later cause problems, as large numbers of transit workers would retire to take advantage of these benefits. On March 1, 1968, the NYCTA, and its subsidiary, the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA), were placed under the control of, and are now affiliates of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

Andy Byford has been president since January 2018.

The NYCTA's recent past presidents were:
Employees of the New York City Transit Authority assigned to the New York City Subway and in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx are members of the Transport Workers Union of America Local 100, with Queens and Staten Island bus personnel represented by various Amalgamated Transit Union locals.

In 1949, the Transport Workers Union and the Board of Transportation, under Mayor Willian O'Dwyer signed a Memorandum of Understanding that gave the right to represent all of the system's workers to the TWU. In 1954 an NYCTA-wide representation election took place. It gave TWU exclusive collective bargaining rights for all hourly workers for the NYCTA, except for those in the Queens and Staten Island Bus Divisions, which remained a part of the Amalgamated Association of Street Electric Railway and Motor Coach Employees of America, which became the Amalgamated Transit Union in 1964. After looking at the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers as their model, NYCTA motorman formed their own union in 1954, a Motormen's Benevolent Association (MBA) to further their interests. In 1956 they went on strike on a hot June day, tying up service on the BMT Division. Its president, Theodore Loos, and its leadership were fired after the strike, but were reinstated after agreeing not to strike again.

On December 16, 1957, another representation election for the TWU was scheduled, and the motormen from the MBA did not want to have a small role in the TWU, and threatened to strike, but were stopped by court injunctions. As a result, the motormen wanted to hold an election for the representation of their craft independent of the NYCTA-wide elections. The management of the NYCTA did not recognize the MTA as a bargaining unit as the TWU officially represented the motormen. A request for a separate election was denied, and as a result the motormen wanted to show their power and to acquire their own representation. As a result, on December 9, 1957, the motormen went on strike, resulting in subway service being reduced in half for eight days. Riders using the IND lines in Queens, the Bronx, and Upper Manhattan, and the southern Brooklyn lines of the BMT were the hardest hit. The leaders of the MBA were punished after going against injunctions prohibiting strikes. Afterwards, the MBA leaders were punished, and on the first morning of the strike, the MBA President Theodore Loos and three other MBA officials were arrested and sent to jail. In 1958, the TWU and the MBA reached a settlement. The motormen became a separate United Motormen's Division within the TWU and benefitted from a fund for skilled craft workers. Theodore Loos became its head.

On New Year's Day, in 1966, a 12-day strike was started with the aid of Michael J. "Mike" Quill. This strike started after the union member's contracts had expired, and with large economic demands from the union. After the 1966 New York City transit strike, the Taylor Law was passed making public employee strikes illegal in the state of New York.

Despite the Taylor Law, there was still an 11-day strike in 1980. Thirty-four thousand union members struck in order to call for increased wages.

On December 20, 2005, another strike occurred. Workers walked off at 3 a.m. and the NYCTA stopped operating. Later that day, State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones warned the transit union that there would be a fine of $1 million for each day the TA is shut down. Also for each day the workers missed during the strike they would be fined two days' pay. Ultimately, the Judge fined the union $2.5 million, charged employees two days' wages for every day they were out on strike, and imposed individual fines on the union's officers. Most significantly, the courts indefinitely suspended the Union's dues checkoff and refused to restore it for nearly 18 months. The strike was over by December 23, after several contract negotiations; the original contract, agreed to by Local 100 and the Transit Authority as a result of the strike, was ultimately imposed on both parties by an arbitrator. More than four months after the strike ended, the courts imposed a brief jail term on Local 100 President Toussaint for his role in the strike.

In 2008–09, MTA management once again refused to sign off on an agreement with Local 100 for a successor to the collective bargaining agreement, which expired early in 2009. This time, the Union chose to pursue the arbitration process provided by the Taylor Law rather than strike in support of its demands. On August 11, 2009, after months of hearings and dozens of witnesses, the state arbitration panel issued its award. However, the MTA refused to comply with the award, forcing the Union to go to court to seek to enforce it. On December 11, 2009, State Supreme Court Justice Peter Sherwood issued a decision upholding the arbitration award in all respects. The MTA had not indicated whether it appealed this decision.

In December 2006, MTA New York City Transit launched TripPlanner, its online travel itinerary service. TripPlanner offers users customized subway, bus, and walking directions within all five boroughs of New York City, as well as service alerts and service advisories for planned track work. The service was developed and is maintained by NYC Transit and its outside vendor, Trapeze Group. It is accessed through the MTA website.

Similar to MapQuest, which offers driving directions, TripPlanner provides search fields for starting address and destination address, and allows end users to navigate the complexity of the subway and bus system by narrowing their options to subway, local bus or express bus only, minimizing the number of transfers or time, and adjusting the walking distance to and from the transit stop.

In October 2007, NYCT launched TripPlanner On the Go! This service allows users with mobile access to the web to obtain travel itineraries while away from a desk or laptop computer. TripPlanner On the Go! was made applicable for cellular phone, PDA, or Blackberry users, and offered the same three-option travel directions along with real-time service alerts. The back end programming for On the Go! was "developed using XHTML technology and the latest Microsoft Dot Net Framework in a clustered environment." By the end of October 2007, more than 5,000 daily customers were using TripPlanner.

In February 2008, NYCT announced an upgrade to the mapping system using NAVTEQ and Microsoft Virtual Earth software similar to mapping sites such as Google Maps and MapQuest. The new software offered more accurate street grids, included business and points of interest, and allowed users to view the maps in aerial, and 3-D points of view. To date, the aerial and 3D views are not available on TripPlanner's mobile service.

In June 2008, NYCT announced it had reached 10,000 daily visitors to TripPlanner. Since the announcement, the number of visits to the service eclipsed the number of telephone calls to the agency's travel information hotline. The following month, Trip Planner launched as a widget application, allowing users to add it to their personalized homepage, blog, or website.

The Trip Planner has since largely replaced the NYCTA call center on NYC Transit's phone number.

The fare hikes did not effectively increase revenue for the Board of Transportation to offset increasing operation costs, while system ridership plateaued due to the American car culture and increasing migration to the suburbs. After two years of financial surplus, the BOT experienced a $1.2 million deficit in 1950, and a $24.8 million deficit in 1952. The BOT was also criticized due to the influence of politics on the organization, the direct control over the board by the mayor, and the use of the city's operating budget to subsidize transit operations. In March 1953, the New York State Legislature created the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), a public authority without direct control from a political office, with members appointed by both the Governor and Mayor. Governor Dewey signed the bill approving the creation of the TA into law on March 20, 1953. On June 15, 1953, operation of the New York City Transit System was turned over to the Transit Authority, with the Board of Estimate leasing the system to the TA for a period of ten years. The Board of Transportation, meanwhile, was dissolved. The new Transit Authority was modeled after the existing Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, the latter of which is also now part of the MTA.

New York City Board of Transportation

The New York City Board of Transportation or the Board of Transportation of the City of New York (NYCBOT or BOT) was a city transit commission and operator in New York City, consisting of three members appointed by the mayor. It was created in 1924 to control city-owned and operated public transportation service within the New York City Transit System. The agency oversaw the construction and operation of the municipal Independent Subway System (IND), which was constructed shortly after the Board was chartered. The BOT later presided over the major transfers of public transit from private control to municipal control that took place in the 1940s, including the unification of the New York City Subway in 1940. In 1953, the Board was dissolved and replaced by the state-operated New York City Transit Authority, now part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

In 1874, the New York State Legislature passed a bill allowing for the creation of a rapid transit commission in New York City, which was formed in 1875. This commission mapped out elevated railway routes that would be built by private companies, but did not plan any underground lines. In 1889, Mayor Hugh J. Grant created a five-member rapid transit board to lay out lines in the city. In 1891, the State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act, allowing the government of New York City and all cities with a population of over one million to create a board of "rapid transit railroad commissioners", which would dictate the expansion of rapid transit facilities within the city. The government could issue bonds in order to fund rapid transit for the city. That year, a five-member rapid transit board was created for the city, called the "Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners". The board received bids for a municipal underground rail line, but no bids were selected. The board was abolished in 1894 by the State Legislature due to its failure to create a subway line. It was replaced by a new board whose members included the Mayor of New York City. That year, the New York City government issued a referendum stating that future rapid transit lines should be municipally operated, as opposed to issuing franchises to private operators. In spite of this, the initial subway lines to be operated in the city − the "first subway" opened in 1904, and the initial portion of the Centre Street Loop to Essex Street opened in 1908 − were privately operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) respectively. The initial 1890s transit board was replaced in 1907 by the state-run New York Public Service Commission (PSC). This agency would oversee the Dual Contracts subway expansion, which led to the construction of new lines for the IRT and BRT.

Until 1924, municipal public transportation actions originated primarily from state-controlled agencies, including the 1891 and 1894 rapid transit boards, the PSC, and most recently the New York State Transit Commission which was created in March 1921. Following the creating of the State Transit Commission and the reelection of Al Smith as Governor of New York in 1922, then-mayor John Francis Hylan and future mayors Jimmy Walker (then a state senator) and John P. O'Brien (the city's corporation counsel) sought to establish a city-controlled transit commission. Hylan had been both an opponent of private transit operation, particularly that of the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT; the successor to the BRT), and a political opponent of Smith. Hylan also had his own plans for a city-operated subway system.

In 1924, the New York City Board of Transportation was created by the New York City Board of Estimate following a bill passed by New York State Legislature. The Board of Transportation would responsible for mapping and constructing new rapid transit lines, carrying out the powers dictated in the 1891 Rapid Transit Act, while the State Transit Commission would continue to oversee the privately operated systems. The bill had been deadlocked in the State Assembly for two years until a compromise bill was introduced in February 1924 and passed on April 11 of that year. Governor Smith signed the bill into law on May 2, and the BOT assumed power on June 1. The board's first chairman was John Hanlon Delaney, one of Hylan's top advisers who had been the transit construction commissioner since 1919. The BOT would release the initial plans for what would become the Independent Subway System (IND) on December 9, 1924, based largely off of Mayor Hylan's plans. The first IND subway line and the system's trunk line, the IND Eighth Avenue Line, broke ground on March 14, 1925, and was opened on September 10, 1932. On August 29, 1929, the BOT released its first major plans for the expansion of the city-owned system still under construction. A revision of this proposal was released almost ten years later on July 5, 1939. These plans would later be called the IND Second System, and would go largely unbuilt due to the Great Depression and World War II.

Beginning on June 1, 1940 under the mayoral administration of Fiorello H. La Guardia, the Board of Transportation took over the assets of the IRT and BMT for municipal operations in an event referred to as unification. The event placed the three rapid transit systems − IRT, BMT, IND − under a single operator. The BOT also inherited the BMT's extensive surface transit network in Brooklyn and Queens, which consisted primarily of streetcar lines along with a few electric trolley coach and diesel-powered bus routes. The BOT proceeded to close the IRT-operated Second and Ninth Avenue elevated lines in Manhattan, and the BMT-operated Third and Fifth Avenue elevateds in Brooklyn. On December 15, 1940, the IND's second Manhattan trunk line − the IND Sixth Avenue Line − was completed. In 1941, the BOT began motorizing the former BMT streetcar lines in Brooklyn and Queens into diesel bus routes or trolley coach routes. The further motorization of surface lines, and the completion of the IND system, however, was delayed due to World War II. Unification made the Board of Transportation the largest public transit operator in North America, in addition to being one of the few systems under public ownership at the time.

Following the end of World War II, the BOT resumed subway construction. On February 23, 1947, the Board of Transportation assumed the bus routes of Isle Transportation in Staten Island. On March 30, 1947, the BOT took over the North Shore Bus Company in Queens. Both companies could not operate on the mandated five-cent fare and went bankrupt. This gave the city control of the majority of surface transit in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. It also created three distinct surface transit divisions: the Brooklyn Bus and Trolley Division, the Staten Island Bus Division, and the Queens Bus Division. On September 24, 1948, the BOT took over the East Side Omnibus Corporation and Comprehensive Omnibus Corporation in Manhattan. At this time, the BOT resumed motorizing trolley lines, and proceeded to construct new storage and repair facilities. It also purchased new buses, to either replace streetcars or the dilapidated buses inherited from private operators.

Following an artificial operating surplus during World War II, brought on by gas and rubber rations leading to increased mass transit usage, the Board of Transportation had its first operational deficit in 1947, amounting to $18 million. On March 30, 1948, Governor Thomas E. Dewey signed legislation to allow the BOT to increase fares with the approval of the New York City mayor. On July 1, 1948, the Board of Transportation raised the fare for its rapid transit system from five cents to ten cents, with the approval of Mayor William O'Dwyer. The nickel fare had been in place in the subway system since October 27, 1904, a period of 45 years, and was one of the main provisions of the Dual Contracts. New York City was the last major city to have a five-cent fare. The BOT also created 14 new free transfers between the formerly-separate subway divisions. The fare increase was put forward due to increasing debt, inflation in the post-war period, expenditure on new subway routes, equipment and facilities, and maintenance of the existing system which was in disrepair. In addition, city planner Robert Moses pushed for the fare increase to allow more city funding to go towards highway development, while Transport Workers Union of America leader Michael J. Quill supported the fare hike in order to give transit workers a 30-cent per hour wage increase. In 1950, the fare of BOT surface transit was also raised to ten cents. Upon the initial 1948 increases, a twelve-cent fare had been put in place for a combined trip on the subway and either bus or trolley, but this was eliminated on July 1, 1952.

The Board of Transportation's final headquarters was located at 370 Jay Street, at the northwest corner of Jay Street and Wiloughby Street in the modern MetroTech Center of Downtown Brooklyn. The building is bound by Pearl Street to the west, and was formerly bound by Myrtle Avenue at its north end; this portion of the street has since been de-mapped. The 14-story office building was designed by architects William Haugaard and Andrew J. Thomas in post-war modernist style. The building is L-shaped, the long side along Jay Street, and the short side along the former Myrtle Avenue. The outer facade of the building consists of white limestone, with 420 square and uniformly-arranged casement windows.

The building was intended to serve as the central headquarters of the BOT. The building housed 2,500 employees from several divisions of the board including its executive, legal, and engineering staff. The remainder of the building not used by the BOT would be rented out. The ground level of the building at Jay and Wiloughby Streets is designed with numerous columns forming an arcade. Haugaard, the lead designer, had drafted the design prior to World War II. Within the arcade and adjacent to the building are several entrances to the Jay Street–MetroTech subway complex, which consisted of two separate stations when the building was constructed. The location was selected in order to be in close proximity to the lines of all three subway divisions, in order to collect fares via money train. Passageways from the subway stations, including a visible door in the Jay Street IND station, lead to a money sorting room in the basement of the building. Ground broke on the site on October 8, 1948. The building was erected at a time when many other BOT transit facilities were also being built. The headquarters opened on April 1, 1951, just two years before the BOT ceased existence, and after the death of Haugaard. It cost $10 million to construct. The BOT proceeded to vacate its former headquarters, one at Hudson Street at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel in Hudson Square, Manhattan, and the other in the former Paramount Theatre in Downtown Brooklyn.

Following the dissolution of the BOT, the building was used by the Transit Authority as its headquarters, and later used by the MTA with some space rented out to other organizations including the New York City Police Department. In 1990, the Transit Authority moved its primary headquarters out of 370 Jay Street, to its current location on Livingston Street. Other MTA operations were moved to 2 Broadway (now the headquarters of MTA Bridges and Tunnels) in Manhattan in 1998. In January 2006, the money train operations ended, after which the MTA largely vacated the site. The building is currently being converted for use as part of the Brooklyn Campus of New York University.