M1, M2, M3, and M4 buses
The M1, M2, M3, and M4 are four local bus routes that operate the Fifth and Madison Avenues Lines – along the one-way pair of Madison and Fifth Avenues in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Though the routes also run along other major avenues, the majority of their route is along Madison and Fifth Avenues between Greenwich Village and Harlem.
m1, m2, m3, m4
m1, m2, m4
Mother Clara Hale Depot (M1)
Manhattanville Depot (M2, M3, M4)
New Flyer Xcelsior XDE40
Nova Bus LFS HEV (except M1)
Orion VII NG HEV (except M1)
1832 (trolley)
1886 (bus)
1966 (current alignment)
Manhattan, New York, U.S.
M1: SoHo – Grand Street
M2-M3: East Village – 8th Street
M4: Midtown – 5th Avenue-32nd Street
Madison Avenue (northbound)
Fifth Avenue (southbound)
110th Street (except M1)
M1: Harlem – 147th Street
M2: Washington Heights – 168th Street
M3: Fort George – 193rd Street
M4: Fort Tryon Park – The Cloisters
24 hours (M2)
4:50 AM- 12:50 AM (M1)
5:40 AM-12:00 AM (M3)
5:35 AM-11:20 PM (M4)
2,324,726 (M1, 2023)
2,095,581 (M2, 2023)
2,926,679(M3, 2023)
3,508,095 (M4, 2023)[5]
Yes
The routes are the successors to the New York and Harlem Railroad's Fourth and Madison Avenues Line, which began operations in 1832 as the first street railway in the world, and several lines of the Fifth Avenue Coach Company, a bus operator that started running on Fifth Avenue in 1886.
History[edit]
The Fourth and Madison Avenues Line[edit]
The New York and Harlem Railroad was the first railroad in Manhattan, opening from City Hall north along Centre Street, Broome Street (northbound trains were later moved to Grand Street), the Bowery, Fourth Avenue, and Park Avenue to Harlem in the 1830s, and was extended southwest along Park Row to Broadway in 1852. A branch opened along 42nd Street and Madison Avenue to 73rd Street in 1870, and the NY&H began to operate streetcars along this route; it was later extended to Harlem. Buses were substituted for streetcars by the Madison Avenue Coach Company in March 1936. The New York City Omnibus Corporation took over operations in 1951, and changed its name to Fifth Avenue Coach Lines in 1956; the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority took over operations in 1962.
When the bus that replaced the Lexington and Lenox Avenues Line was terminated, the Madison Avenue bus was extended west on 139th Street and north on Lenox Avenue to 147th Street. When Madison Avenue became one-way northbound, southbound traffic was moved to Fifth Avenue, replacing the original route of the Fifth Avenue Coach Company.
The Fifth Avenue Transportation Company (later the Fifth Avenue Coach Company) began operating stages on Fifth Avenue between 11th Street and 59th Street on January 23, 1886.[10] The company was formed because the wealthy residents of Fifth Avenue did not want a street railway.[11][12] The route was later extended south to Washington Square Park and north to 89th Street, and in 1900 the company was authorized to extend north to 135th Street, and to operate on other streets including 110th Street and Riverside Drive to 124th Street.[13] More extensions, on 32nd Street from Fifth Avenue west to Seventh Avenue (Penn Station) and north from 110th Street on Seventh Avenue and Manhattan Avenue/St. Nicholas Avenue to 155th Street, were soon authorized. After the company's horse cars were replaced with motor buses in July 1907, it began operating these extensions, and assigned them numbers in 1916 or 1917:[14][15]
