B43 (New York City bus)

{{short description|Bus route in Brooklyn, New York}} {{Use American English|date=June 2023}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2018}} {{More citations needed|date=October 2016}} {{Infobox bus line | logo =  | logo_width =  | logo_alt =  | number = {{NYC bus infobox header |title=b43 |color=local}} | bgcolor =  | titlecolor =  | box_width =  | subheader = Graham Avenue Line and Tompkins Avenue Line | image = File:B43 bus on Brooklyn Avenue front, March 2020 01.jpg | image_width =  | image_alt = A front view of a curved mostly blue bus passing a bright yellow building | caption = A 2017 XN40 (794) on the Lefferts Gardens-bound B43 on Brooklyn Avenue in March 2020 | system = MTA Regional Bus Operations | operator = New York City Transit Authority | garage = Jackie Gleason Depot | vehicle = New Flyer C40LF CNG<br>New Flyer Xcelsior XN40 | livery = | pvr = | status = | open = July 1854 (Graham Avenue streetcar)<br>September 10, 1995 (B43) | close =  | predecessors = | former_operator = | night = | routetype =  | locale = Brooklyn, New York, U.S. | communities = Greenpoint, Williamsburg, Bedford–Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Prospect Lefferts Gardens | landmarks = | termini =  | start = Greenpoint – Box Street | via = Manhattan Avenue, Graham Avenue, Tompkins Avenue | end = Prospect Lefferts Gardens – Prospect Park {{NYCS Prospect Park|time=bullets}} | length = {{convert|7|mi|km}} | stations =  | stops =  | otherroutes = B48 Lorimer Street/Classon/Franklin Avenues | compete = | ibus = | level = | level1 = | frequency = | alt_frequency = | time = | day = All times | zone = | annualpatronage = 1,712,160 (2024)<ref name=ridership>{{cite web | title=Subway and bus ridership for 2024 | website=mta.info | date=June 10, 2025| url=https://new.mta.info/agency/new-york-city-transit/subway-bus-ridership-2024| access-date=June 11, 2025}}</ref> | transfers = Yes | timetable_link = [https://new.mta.info/document/7071 B43] | map_link =  | map =  | map_state =  | map_name =  | previous_line = B42 | system_nav =  | next_line = {{font color|white|#00CCFF|B44 SBS}} | notes =  }}

The '''Graham Avenue Line''' and '''Tompkins Avenue Line''' were two public transit lines in Brooklyn, New York City with the Graham Avenue Line running mainly along Graham Avenue and Manhattan Avenue and the Tompkins Avenue Line running mainly along Tompkins Avenue. The Graham Avenue line ran between Downtown Brooklyn and Greenpoint and the Tompkins Avenue Line ran between Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Williamsburg. Originally streetcar lines, they were replaced by the '''B47''' and '''B62''' bus routes which were then combined to form the '''B43''' route which currently operates between Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Greenpoint. The line is dispatched from Jackie Gleason Depot in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

==Route description== The B43 bus route runs between Lincoln Road near Ocean Avenue and the Prospect Park subway station in Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Manhattan Avenue and Box Street in Greenpoint via Manhattan Avenue, Graham Avenue, and Tompkins Avenue at all times.

The B43 begins at the Prospect Park station and runs on Ocean Avenue until it becomes Empire Boulevard, running on Empire Boulevard until Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues. It runs southbound on Brooklyn Avenue and northbound on Kingston Avenue until Fulton Street, where it switches to Tompkins and Throop Avenues, respectively. It runs on Tompkins and Throop Avenues until Flushing Avenue. It runs on Flushing Avenue until Graham Avenue, which it runs on until Engert and Driggs Avenues until Manhattan Avenue. It then runs up Manhattan Avenue until Box Street, where it terminates.

==History== ===Trolley service=== The Brooklyn City Railroad opened the line, as the '''Flushing Avenue Line''', in July 1854 as a branch of the Fulton Street Line continuing east along Flushing Avenue to Throop Avenue with an extension to Division Avenue (present-day Broadway) in April 1855.<ref>John Homer French, [https://books.google.com/books?id=R_zHwh4xByQC Gazetteer of the State of New York], 1860, pages 66 and 67</ref> It was later extended north along Graham Avenue to North Second Street (present-day Metropolitan Avenue) in 1867<ref>{{cite news | work = Brooklyn Daily Eagle | location = Brooklyn, NY |title=Railroad Enterprise|date = December 19, 1867|page=2}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | work = Brooklyn Daily Eagle | location = Brooklyn, NY |title=The Lufaner Inquest Continued|date = January 25, 1868|page=2}}</ref> and to Van Cott Avenue (present-day Driggs Avenue) in October 1872.<ref>{{cite news | work = Brooklyn Daily Eagle | location = Brooklyn, NY |title=City Railroad Extension|date = October 7, 1872|page=11}}</ref>

On April 27, 1890, Brooklyn City opened new trackage on Flushing Avenue from Graham Avenue east to Metropolitan Avenue, with the service operating on it becoming the new Flushing Avenue Line, and the old Flushing Avenue Line being renamed the '''Flushing and Graham Avenues Line''' and afterwards, the Graham Avenue Line.<ref>{{cite news | work = Brooklyn Daily Eagle | location = Brooklyn, NY |title=City Railroad Changes|date = April 25, 1890|page=1}}</ref>

===Bus service=== Streetcars on the Tompkins Avenue Line were replaced by buses on August 24, 1947.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1947 |title=Public Notice Tompkins Avenue Line |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/unionturnpike/53472611691/in/album-72157709433583407/ |access-date=February 14, 2024 |website=Flickr.com |publisher=New York City Board of Transportation}}</ref>

Buses on the Graham Avenue Line were substituted for streetcars on December 11, 1949,<ref>{{Cite news|date=1949-12-11|title=Transit Service Changes Today|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-transit-service-changes-today/140415292/|access-date=2024-02-07|work=Daily News|pages=186|postscript=none}}; {{Cite news|date=1949-12-12|title=Buses Installed on Grand St. Line|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-brooklyn-daily-eagle-buses-installed/140415321/|access-date=2024-02-07|work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle|pages=3}}</ref> and the route was renumbered the B62.<ref>{{Cite magazine|title=Brooklyn PCC Cars' 80th Anniversary|url=https://erausa.org/pdf/bulletin/2010s/2016/2016-11-bulletin.pdf|magazine=The Bulletin|volume=59|issue=11|date=November 2016|page=16|access-date=February 6, 2024}}</ref>

The B47 trolley was replaced with electric trolley buses and ran on Kingston Avenue in both directions (it was a two-way street) to Williamsburg Bridge Plaza via Tompkins, Division, and Lee Avenues. During the heavy snowfalls in the 1950s, the electric buses had difficulty making it up the Kingston Avenue hill, and were seen backed up on Empire Boulevard in columns.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

When the north-south avenues in Brooklyn were converted to one way in the early 1960s, the B47 went north on Kingston Avenue and south on Brooklyn Avenue until Empire Boulevard. The electric trolleybuses were replaced first with “old look” GMC buses, and later with “new-look” GMC buses.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}

On September 10, 1995, the B62 was merged with the B47 to form the present-day B43 route.<ref name="September 10, 1995">{{cite news |work=The New York Times |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60614FF39540C738EDDA10894DD494D81 |title=Coming Transit Reductions: What They Mean for You |date=August 20, 1995 |at=section 13, p. 10}}</ref><ref name="DailyNews-Sept10-1995">{{cite web|title=AT-A-GLANCE BUS SERVICE CHANGES|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/boroughs/at-a-glance-bus-service-article-1.709820|work=Daily News (New York)|access-date=December 19, 2015|date=September 17, 1995}}</ref> The B47 had replaced the Tompkins Avenue Line running between Prospect Lefferts Gardens and Williamsburg along Empire Boulevard, Kingston Avenue, Tompkins Avenue, and Harrison Avenue. When the routes were combined, the Harrison Avenue portion of the B47 was removed, along with the Flushing Avenue section of the B62. The B43 was moved to the Grand Avenue Depot when it opened in 2008, but was moved back to the Jackie Gleason Depot by early 2011.<ref name="Grand Avenue Depot">{{Cite web|title=Grand Avenue Depot|url=http://www.timesnewsweekly.com/sites/www.timesnewsweekly.com/files/archives/Archives2007/Oct.-Dec.2007/122707/NewFiles/CB-TRANSIT.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150916055427/http://www.timesnewsweekly.com/sites/www.timesnewsweekly.com/files/archives/Archives2007/Oct.-Dec.2007/122707/NewFiles/CB-TRANSIT.html|archive-date=September 16, 2015}} </ref>

On December 1, 2022, the MTA released a draft redesign of the Brooklyn bus network.<ref name="Brachfeld 202212">{{cite web | last=Brachfeld | first=Ben | title=Draft plan for new Brooklyn bus network aims to finally end decades of slow, unreliable service | website=amNewYork | date=December 1, 2022 | url=https://www.amny.com/new-york/brooklyn/mta-draft-redesign-brooklyn-bus-network/ | access-date=December 2, 2022}}</ref><ref name="Crain's New York Business 202212">{{cite web | title=Brooklyn bus riders could finally get faster service under MTA redesign | website=Crain's New York Business | date=December 1, 2022 | last=Spivack | first=Caroline | url=https://www.crainsnewyork.com/transportation/brooklyn-bus-riders-could-finally-get-faster-service-under-mta-redesign | access-date=December 2, 2022}}</ref> As part of the redesign, southbound service in Bedford–Stuyvesant would be rerouted along Albany Avenue and Marcus Garvey Boulevard to serve areas without existing bus service. Closely spaced stops would also be eliminated.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Draft Plan: B43 Local|url=https://new.mta.info/project/brooklyn-bus-network-redesign/routes/b43-local|access-date=2022-12-06|website=MTA|language=en}}</ref>

==Incidents== On the morning of October 26, 2021, a bus operator was doing the B43 to Greenpoint when a van ran a stop sign at Eastern Parkway and collided with the front of the bus, sending it into a Bank of America center. No passengers were on the bus when it crashed, but the operator and a few in the van were injured.<ref>{{cite web|title=MTA bus crashes in front of Bank of America in Crown Heights|url=https://brooklyn.news12.com/mta-bus-crashes-in-front-of-bank-of-america-in-crown-heights|author=News 12 Staff|publisher=News 12 Brooklyn|date=26 October 2021|access-date=3 February 2026}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Driver Hurt When MTA Bus Crashes With Van, Jumps Curb In Brooklyn|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/mta-bus-crash-noreaster/|publisher=CBS News New York|date=26 October 2021|access-date=3 February 2026}}</ref>

==See also== * Greenpoint and Williamsburgh Railroad * Crosstown Line (Brooklyn surface) ===Connecting bus routes=== * {{NYC bus link|B16|B48}} (on Lincoln Road) * {{NYC bus link|B41}} (at Flatbush Avenue) * {{NYC bus link|B49}} (at Bedford/Rogers Avenues) * {{NYC bus link|B44 SBS}} (at Rogers/Nostrand Avenues) * {{NYC bus link|B44}} (at Nostrand/New York Avenues) * {{NYC bus link|B45}} (at St. John’s Place) * {{NYC bus link|B65}} (at Bergen/Dean Streets) * {{NYC bus link|B25}} (at Fulton Street) * {{NYC bus link|B26}} (at Halsey Street) * {{NYC bus link|B52}} (at Gates Avenue) * {{NYC bus link|B38}} (at Lafayette/DeKalb Avenues) * {{NYC bus link|B54}} (at Myrtle Avenue) * {{NYC bus link|B57}} (at Flushing Avenue) * {{NYC bus link|B46}} (at Broadway) * {{NYC bus link|B60}} (at Johnson/Montrose Avenues) * {{NYC bus link|Q54|Q59}} (at Grand Street) * {{NYC bus link|B24}} (at Metropolitan Avenue) * {{NYC bus link|B48|B62}} (at Driggs/Nassau Avenues) * {{NYC bus link|B32|B62}} (at Green/Freeman Streets)

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Streetcar lines in Brooklyn B043 B043