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Transit Strike

 
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MaBSTOA 15



Age: 70
Joined: 27 Feb 2013
Posts: 1055

PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2021 10:01 pm    Post subject: Transit Strike Reply with quote

Vieo on YouTube regarding the end of the Transit Strike, 1966

Look carefully for a Mercedes-Benz operated by Carey Transportation and a glimpse of Shea!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d58p2hoMxyc
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee



Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 22165
Location: NEW JOISEY

PostPosted: Mon Dec 06, 2021 10:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for posting this link!

I was just a grade-school kid at the time, and I remember there was a DAILY NEWS(?) photo of idled BMT trains (Standards and SMEES) in the ENY yards, during the '66 strike.......

"NYO"

BTW:

LOVED that brief glimpse of the hallowed Shea, and the CAREY Mercedes-Benz; as a kid, I remember seeing that bus a number of times when Mom and I were in the city for the day, way back when.

Only wish we got to ride it!
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W.B. Fishbowl



Age: 57
Joined: 02 Oct 2014
Posts: 2368
Location: New York, New York, USA

PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 6:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There were two things that struck me on this:
- The Times Square "zipper" flashing the news. This was about eight months old at the time (the zipper, that is) in terms of its operation. The font displayed (from Naxon Telesign) was created specifically for the purpose of traveling through displays which were 11 rows high as this one and a "sister" zipper atop the Walgreens building at 151 North State Street in Chicago that ran only until about 1972; as the type they used before that (as still seen atop the building that housed Bond Clothing Store and the Criterion Theatre) was too blocky and square, and some characters would have looked strange on the One Times Square zipper. (The "Bond zipper" would later use the same type variant as One Times Square from mid-1967 to late 1970, and again on an alternating basis in 1976-77.)
- The shot of Fifth Avenue from what would be its last day as a crosstown thoroughfare. The very next day, Fifth became one-way southbound (originally from 138th Street to Washington Square North, truncated on the northernmost end to 135th Street some time in the late 1960's / early '70's), and Madison Avenue one-way northbound, precipitating a change in many routes' paths - and "merging" (for purely operational purposes on MaBSTOA's part) NYCO's #2 Park Avenue South-Madison Avenue and FACCo's #2 Fifth and Seventh Avenues routes into one unified, integrated, singular route with two "branches" (the former becoming the Lenox Avenue branch [7.5 route miles], the latter the Seventh Avenue branch [9.48 route miles] as 2A), structured along the lines of both the #3 with its St. Nicholas and Convent branches, and the #14 with its Avenue A and Avenue D branches; plus all the iterations of #10 Eighth Avenue-Central Park West (Cortlandt Street - which three days after the transit strike end would have its southern terminus moved up to Vesey Street; Abingdon Square; and Houston-West Streets), #16 34th Street (the 12th Avenue and West 42nd Street Pier branches) and #18 86th Street (the East End Avenue and 91st Street-York Avenue branches). To that end, the ex-FACCo 2's depot assignment was switched from 132nd Street to 146th Street, where the ex-NYCO 2 had been stationed since 1964.
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee



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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 11:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

W.B.:

So much in that video that truly showed a "Noo Yawk" that has long since ceased to exist; why the "zipper" sign was never declared a landmark is beyond me.

BOND's "zipper" also reminded me of a long-ago time when men still wore SUITS (Your's Truly recalls that, when he began working in Lower Manhattan in 1979, "traditional" businesswear was still pretty much the rule.

I wore a suit each day (and a fedora/Panama) until I retired; by that time (2003) few men were still wearing suit to work (don't get me started on the "dress down" trend; seeing "mature" men not even wearing socks when commuting always raised my ire)

Watch the news today, whn a transit hub is shown during a report; even rush hours at Penn or GCT show virtually no man still wearing a suit, or even a tie)

Back to the buses:

Surely, W.B., when you watched this video, you were thinking of all the many changes in bus service that long-ago time, when a FISHBOWL was MODERN and you could still ride on an Old Look or a MACK.

I've learned from you and MaBSTOA 15 (and others here) just how many changes have taken place over the years in the City, regarding bus routes, abandonments, services changes, etc.

(Remember, too, half-filled street wastebaskets, hardly any trash in the streets, and the "Suzy Spotless" commercials, reminding you: "Please, don't be a litterbug!)"

At least, back in 1966, you could still ride "Tee-Yay" and MaBSTOA Old Looks and MACKS, and batwing Fishbowls were were then "all the rage".

And prewar subway cars (and postwar SMEES) were still in service, replete with "railfan windows".

Yup, it's all so long ago, now....

"NYO"
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W.B. Fishbowl



Age: 57
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 11:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 wrote:
Surely, W.B., when you watched this video, you were thinking of all the many changes in bus service that long-ago time, when a FISHBOWL was MODERN and you could still ride on an Old Look or a MACK.

As I said, this was just one day before Fifth and Madison Avenues each became one-way. I forgot to mention the "return" of #1's to Fifth Avenue and #5's to Sixth Avenue, though the routes with those numbers were the opposite, operations-wise, as to what of those numbers ran there in decades past. The #1 that traveled down Fifth after 1966 was the ex-NYCO route, the #5 the ex-FACCo . . . and each's route along those avenues was a mere snippet of what the earlier routes of FACCo's 1 and NYCO's 5 had trodden. (Until 2010, the M1 only went down Fifth up to 40th Street when it headed for Park Avenue and Park Avenue South; until 1989 the M5 only ran up Sixth from Houston to 57th Street. Only in the last 11 years has the M1's southbound route more or less mimicked the old FACCo #1's along Fifth. And from 2010 to 2017, the M5 northbound, when on Trinity Place/Church Street/Sixth Avenue, almost replicated the NYCO #5's route as constituted from 1940 to 1942 when it was extended to South Ferry as a replacement for the Sixth Avenue el (before and after then its southern terminus was at Fulton Street).

At that point in time, the new order of MaBSTOA Fishbowls - with the last 200, all assigned initially in Manhattan, laden in batwings and no standee windows (the first 300 at first were all allotted to the Bronx) - were being broken in for service in both Manhattan and the Bronx.
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee



Joined: 18 Dec 2007
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 12:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

.........this is all not only QUITE interesting, but also, QUITE complex; you really have to be "in the know" to be able to keep track of all the route and line changes, over the years! Shocked

"NYO"
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W.B. Fishbowl



Age: 57
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And here we are, January 14th - the day after the end of the transit strike, and on the anniversary of the big changes involving key Fifth and Madison Avenue routes due to the one-way conversions. Because it was done on such short notice, there were many complaints, from what I've read, "at the time" about how some people couldn't find their buses where they'd been, and signs hadn't been put up explaining how, say, the #2(A), 3 and 4's NB route was shifted to Madison Avenue and the #5's to Sixth. There were even reports of ridership on the Fifth and Madison routes declining due to these changes.

But other routes were affected too. Those crosstown routes that passed along Central Park that had used Fifth Avenue N/B from one street to another, now had to use Madison Avenue. Among those so impacted: the #7 65th Street crosstown (transitioning from 65th to 68th Streets on E/B runs), the #6 72nd Street crosstown (between 57th and 72nd Streets on E/B runs), and the #18 86th Street crosstown (between 84th and 86th Streets on E/B runs).

Wasn't it also in its aftermath that alternate bus stops for 1, 4 and what was then 15, then for 2, 2A, 3 and 5, had to be created along Fifth Avenue?
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee



Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 22165
Location: NEW JOISEY

PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2022 5:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

.........post '66 strike, the BIGGEST boondoggle of them all came out with the Chrystie St. fiasco, which, effectively, removed virtually all individuality from the BMT and the IND. Sad

On that first day, many motormen had no idea where they were going to end up, and you also had passengers heading for Kew Gardens who ended up in Coney Island!!! Shocked Shocked

"Progress"........... Razz

"NYO"
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B53RICH




Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Posts: 254

PostPosted: Sat Jan 15, 2022 3:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

TA buses exiting the Flushing depot.
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