b54 | ||||||
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| Myrtle Avenue Line | ||||||
 A 2009 Orion VII NG HEV (4531) on the Downtown Brooklyn-bound B54 about to complete its Jay Street-Metro Tech trip in 2018. | ||||||
| Overview | ||||||
| System | MTA Regional Bus Operations | |||||
| Operator | New York City Transit Authority | |||||
| Garage | Fresh Pond Depot | |||||
| Vehicle | New FlyerXcelsior XD40 | |||||
| Route | ||||||
| Locale | Brooklyn andQueens, New York, U.S. | |||||
| Communities served | Ridgewood,Bushwick,Bedford–Stuyvesant,Clinton Hill,Fort Greene,Downtown Brooklyn | |||||
| Start | Ridgewood Intermodal Terminal | |||||
| Via | Myrtle Avenue | |||||
| End | Downtown Brooklyn – Jay Street and Willoughby Street /Jay Street–MetroTech station | |||||
| Length | 4.5 miles (7.2 km) | |||||
| Other routes | B26 Halsey/Fulton Streets B38 DeKalb/Lafayette Avenues B52 Gates Avenue Q55 (Myrtle Avenue East) Myrtle Avenue Line | |||||
| Service | ||||||
| Operates | 24 hours[1] | |||||
| Annual patronage | 1,580,130 (2024)[2] | |||||
| Transfers | Yes | |||||
| Timetable | B54 | |||||
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TheB54 is abus route onMyrtle Avenue inBrooklyn,New York City. The line travels betweenDowntown Brooklyn in the west andMyrtle–Wyckoff Avenues station in the east. The B54 operates fromMTA New York City Bus'sFresh Pond Depot inRidgewood, Queens. The route serves only the section of Myrtle Avenue within Brooklyn; the section withinQueens is served by theQ55 bus.
The B54 replaced theMyrtle Avenue Line, the firststreetcar line in Brooklyn, which was built by theBrooklyn City Railroad and opened in 1854. This line initially served the entirety of Myrtle Avenue withhorse cars. They were replaced withelectric trolleys by July 1893, and then by the two city-owned bus routes on July 17, 1949. The Myrtle Avenue Line is distinct from theBMT Myrtle Avenue Line, which is a separatesubway line that also operates along a portion of Myrtle Avenue inBushwick, Brooklyn. Until 1969, the BMT line also ran on elevated tracks above the entire Brooklyn section of Myrtle Avenue.
The B54's western terminus is at Jay Street and Willoughby Street near theJay Street–MetroTech station inDowntown Brooklyn. From here, eastbound service heads north on Jay Street, east on Tillary Street and south on Flatbush Avenue Extension before heading east on Myrtle Avenue. Service continues along Myrtle Avenue until it turns left onto Gates Avenue. Buses then make right turns onto St. Nicholas Avenue and Palmetto Street before terminating at the Ridgewood Intermodal Terminal at Palmetto Street and Wyckoff Avenue near theMyrtle–Wyckoff Avenues station inRidgewood.[1]: 14
Westbound service continues via Myrtle Avenue until Lawrence Street, where buses make a left. Buses then make a right onto MetroTech Roadway and another right onto Jay Street to get back to the terminal.[1]: 14
TheBrooklyn City Railroad was incorporated on December 17, 1853, with a capital of $2,500,000 (equivalent to $94,000,000 in 2024). Its first line, the Myrtle Avenue Line, was the first horsecar line in Brooklyn;[3]: 25 it opened on July 3, 1854.[4] The initial line began atFulton Ferry, and ran southeast onFulton Street and east on Myrtle Avenue to a temporary terminus at Marcy Avenue. An extension toBroadway, then known as Division Avenue, atBushwick was completed in December 1854.[5] Myrtle Avenue itself had only been extended to Broadway from Cripplebush Road (today's Bedford Avenue) in 1852.[6] On the second day of the horsecar's operation, a boy was injured whilesurfing outside one of the vehicles; author Brian Cudahy described this as a “sport” that would soon become quite popular with Brooklyn youth".[3]: 25–26
The Brooklyn City Railroad had planned to build a system of several horsecar lines across Brooklyn, but was only able to start horsecar service along Myrtle Avenue after buying the operating rights of a stage coach line that had been operated by Seymour L. Husted.[3]: 25–26 The 3.43-mile-long (5.52 km) line was double-tracked and took 33 to 37 minutes for horsecars to traverse. The route was originally plied by fifteen horsecars, each pulled by four horses.[7] The fare was originally four cents.[8]
In August 1879, the City Railroad extended the line one block east from Broadway toBushwick Avenue, and acquiredtrackage rights over theBushwick Railroad'sBushwick Avenue Line (which used Myrtle Avenue east of Bushwick Avenue) toMyrtle Avenue Park inRidgewood, Queens. At Ridgewood, connections could be made to twosteam dummy lines to local cemeteries—theCypress Hills Line, and later theLutheran Line.[9] The City Railroad acquired these cemetery lines on July 27, 1888, with the lease of the Bushwick Railroad.[10]
Myrtle Avenuehorse cars were replaced withelectric trolleys by July 1893.[11] The line was extended over theBrooklyn Bridge toPark Row Terminal inLower Manhattan on February 15, 1898, along with three others, including theGraham Avenue Line.[12] Cars reached the bridge by turning off Myrtle Avenue onto Washington Street, on trackage originally built for theDeKalb Avenue Line, and turning into Sands Street on trackage from the Graham Avenue Line.[13] The Myrtle Avenue Line was also one of seven that were moved to the new elevated structure on the Brooklyn Bridge on September 28, 1908; the lines accessed the structure using theSands Street elevated station, on the Brooklyn side of the bridge. Cars returned to the old route along Myrtle Avenue and Fulton Street to the split for the new structure at Tillary Street.[3]: 222 [14] A separate summer-only service, called the Myrtle-Culver Line, also ran along the Myrtle Avenue surface line. It connected Ridgewood withConey Island. It ran west on Myrtle Avenue from Ridgewood to Vanderbilt Avenue, and turned south there, using theVanderbilt Avenue Line andCulver Line trackage to Coney Island.[13]
The Myrtle Avenue Line was combined with theCourt Street Line, which had also used the Brooklyn Bridge elevated tracks, to form theMyrtle Avenue and Court Street Line on April 3, 1938.[15] This new route began at Garnett Street and Hamilton Avenue inGowanus, and ran north on Court Street toBorough Hall and east on Myrtle Avenue to Palmetto Street and St. Nicholas Avenue in Ridgewood.[16] In February 1944, service was rerouted via Navy Street, Ashland Place and Willoughby Street instead of Jay Street and Adams Street. On July 27, 1944, service was rerouted in both directions via Adams Street between Willoughby Street and Myrtle Avenue.[17] After elevated railroads stopped operating on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1944, the trolley routes began using the former elevated railroad tracks.[18]
Beginning in the 1920s, manystreetcar lines in Queens,Brooklyn, and the rest of the city began to be replaced by buses, particularly after theunification of the city's three primary transit companies (including the BMT) under municipal operations in June 1940.[19] On June 30, 1949, theNew York City Board of Estimate approved the full motorization of the Myrtle Avenue and Court Street Line with buses.[20] The line was officially replaced by city-owned buses on July 17, 1949, and the route was split in two. Service along Myrtle Avenue was designated B54 ("B" being the designation for buses based in Brooklyn), and the line along Court Street was designated theB66. The eastern terminal of the B54 was moved to Myrtle Avenue and Palmetto Street, and it western terminal was changed to Myrtle Avenue and Washington Avenue.[16] Service on the B54 was initially provided with ten buses, while B66 service was provided with eight buses.[21] On September 17, 1954, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) approved a plan to cut Brooklyn bus service by 10%, including the elimination of B54 service between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. to cut costs.[22] Free transfers would have been provided between the B53 and B57 to make up for the loss of evening and overnight B54 service.[23][24][25] On January 20, 1955, the NYCTA approved a resolution to defer the planned service cuts until after July 1, 1955, pending additional ridership checks.[26]
The Myrtle Avenue bus line had been located under theMyrtle Avenue Elevated for its entire length since the elevated line opened in 1889.[27][28] Bus service along the corridor took 34 minutes, 11 minutes longer than the elevated trains.[29] On October 4, 1969, the Myrtle Avenue Elevated west of theBroadway station was abandoned, the bus line became the only transportation option on Myrtle Avenue west of Broadway.[30] Bus service was increased by 700%, with service running as frequently as every 2.5 minutes during rush hours and every 20 minutes overnight.[31] Some of the increased service was provided by new short-turn trips that ran between Downtown Brooklyn and Broadway, with a terminal loop of Myrtle Avenue, Lewis Avenue, Stockton Street and Broadway.[32][33] In addition, a specialtransfer was given to B54 riders between theJay Street–Borough Hall andMyrtle Avenue–Broadway subway stations, allowing travelers who had used the Myrtle Avenue Elevated to make the connection via the bus.[34]
Following theSeptember 11 attacks, additional security measures were implemented atMetroTech Center, including the rerouting of B54 service out of MetroTech.[35] On July 1, 2007, the travel path of the B54's terminal loop in Downtown Brooklyn was reversed to improve traffic flow and to provide faster service to the Jay Street subway station.[36] Service started terminating at the newly opened Ridgewood Intermodal Terminal, located on Palmetto Street, on August 20, 2010. Palmetto Street was closed to all traffic except for New York City Transit buses and deliveries. The terminal is bordered on the south by the intersection of Myrtle and Wyckoff Avenues and on the north by St. Nicholas Avenue.[37] The change provided easier transfers between the B54, the subway and the other five bus routes using the terminal.[38] On November 7, 2010, direct service through MetroTech was restored as westbound service was rerouted off Flatbush Avenue Extension and Tillary Street, and onto Duffield Street and the MetroTech Roadway.[39] The change was possible because the tenant that required the security measures was leaving MetroTech; it was expected to improve reliability and provide faster service to the subway.[35]
On April 8, 2012, eastbound bus service was rerouted off of Fulton Mall, Fulton Street and Ashland Place. Instead, bus service continued via Jay Street, Tillary Street and Flatbush Avenue Extension before returning to Myrtle Avenue.[40] In response to declining ridership, the MTA proposed reducing bus frequencies along the B54 route in July 2019,[41] prompting demonstrations from opponents.[42][43] The changes took effect in September 2019,[44] in spite of riders' complaints that B38 buses were frequently overcrowded even before the service cuts.[45]
After the abandonment of elevated service [which was March 5, 1944], the "el" terminals at the ends of the bridge were demolished together with the approaches mentioned [the elevated trolley structure]. Overhead wire was strung along the elevated tracks on the bridge and a number of new switches together with new track was constructed together with 7 new loops at Park Row... Trolleys began using the old "el" tracks December 15, 1944.
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