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| Re: Why 2 Terminals for Q1? (345319) | |||
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Re: Why 2 Terminals for Q1? |
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Posted by BusMgr on Mon Apr 18 20:01:48 2022, in response to Re: Why 2 Terminals for Q1?, posted by nh153 on Mon Apr 18 17:57:36 2022. It is the "first" official route of the Board of Estimate, so Q1 makes for a nice tribute. That said, it was only a revocable consent granted in 1914, not a full franchise. The first bus routes in the city of New York franchised by the Board of Estimate were the predecessors of routes N31, Q22, and Q22A, dating from 1915. While the franchise had three "routes," those routes could be strung together, the intent being that these routes would continue into Lawrence, Cedarhurst, and Woodmere. Within Queens, buses were to be operated along (using modern street names) Central Avenue, Beach 20th Street, and Seagirt Avenue to Ostend Beach (O'Donohue Park); Mott Avenue to Point Breeze Place; and along a route not entirely clear but probably from Beach 20th Street via Cornaga Avenue, Grassmere Terrace, Ocean Crest Boulevard, Far Rockaway Boulevard, Beach Channel Drive to Beach 35th Street, then along a no longer existent Rockaway Beach Boulevard to Beach 37th Street, then Rockaway Beach Boulevard to Beach 54th Street, then along a no longer existent Rockaway Beach Boulevard (as it crossed the LIRR at grade) to Beach 56th Street, then Rockaway Beach Boulevard to Beach 102nd Street, then along a no longer existent Rockaway Beach Boulevard to Beach 108th Street, then Rockaway Beach Drive to Beach 109th Street, then along a no longer existent Rockaway Beach Boulevard to Beach 110th Street, then Beach 110th Street, Rockaway Beach Boulevard to Beach 116th Street. The bus company that received this first-ever Board of Estimate-granted franchise, Far Rockaway Transportation Company, Inc., did not succeed, and the following year its franchise was revoked. But his small bus company, in a far corner of Queens County, was the first Board of Estimate bus franchise, and arguably among these routes ought to be "Q1."As for the service along Springfield Boulevard, I am a bit ambivalent as to its continued service by route Q1. Service was established there because that was as far out as service was reasonably warranted, and the only sensible terminal was the Queens Village LIRR station, accessed by Springfield Boulevard. Extending out along Braddock Avenue makes sense, and probably it should have replaced Queens Village LIRR station as a terminal at the time it was so extended. But it is hard, politically, to retrench, then as now. Springfield Boulevard functions as part of a turn-around loop, and is really does not fundamentally warrant Q1 bus service. But its withdrawal would be a lost convenience. Hence, my ambivalence. |
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