BusTalk

[N4 Jamaica]

Over many decades, I have passed through West Farms Square, either by streetcar or by bus. Only recently, however, have I noticed West Farms ROAD on destination signs. Near the Simpson St. station, Westchester Avenue and Southern Boulevard, is the southern terminus of the mile-long West Farms Road. An adjacent small park is Benjamin Gladstone Square. Remarkably, six transit bus routes converge on this very busy shopping district and transfer point:
Bx4, formerly the A car, on Westchester Avenue.
Bx27, formerly the V car, which heads out Soundview Avenue to Clason Point.
Bx19, formerly the S car, Southern Blvd.
Bx35, formerly an X car, 167th Street Crosstown.
Bx5, Bruckner Blvd, a bus dating from about 1932 and the opening of an Eastern Blvd bridge over the Bronx River.
Bx11, 170th Street Crosstown, a bus route dating back at least to 1927.
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Bronx bus by sphoto33, on Flickr
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Bronx bus by sphoto33, on Flickr

Above, the destination sign shows that this is a tripper or short-turn bus. During the 3 o'clock hour, eight departures are scheduled, with half serving only the busier southern end of the route, reaching the houses and stores at White Plains Road.

[N4 Jamaica]

Bronx bus stop by sphoto33, on Flickr

Bronx bus by sphoto33, on Flickr

My memory is that the V streetcars to Clason Point used to change ends at a trailing point switch under the el near Simpson Street or Fox Street. At Clason Point, they looped. A stronger recollection is that the X-167th Street Crosstown reversed at Hayes Square, a car-length short of the rail connection to Westchester Avenue. The Bx11 used to end at the Freeman St. IRT station.

Bronx bus by sphoto33, on Flickr

During the 3 p.m. hour on weekdays, eight departures of the Bx27 are scheduled. The trips I observed left with standees. After 7:13 p.m., service begins only at the Morrison Avenue station of the #6 train. I suspect that many of the busy stores near Westchester Ave. and Southern Blvd. close by 7 p.m.

[N4 Jamaica]

Bronx bus by sphoto33, on Flickr

A few years back, the TA proposed to drop service on the Westchester Avenue bus because the street was also served by the subway. Fortunately, that did not happen because a good portion of the ridership travels between the stretch with the #6 train overhead and the stretch (Simpson St. to The Hub) with the #2 and #5 overhead. The bus in the photo above is about to travel the mile gap between Simpson St. (2,5) and Elder Ave. (6) stations.
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Mayor Hugh Grant did future genealogists a favor when he ordered a Police Census in 1890. Much of the 1890 federal census was lost by fire in 1921, so for 1890 one can inspect the note pads, block by block, that the police did for what was then the City of New York. Grant thought the federal census gave an undercount. Later, the feds claimed the police census counted merchants who lived outside the city but had a store in the city.

Bronx bus by sphoto33, on Flickr

Bronx bus by sphoto33, on Flickr

Bronx bus stop by sphoto33, on Flickr

[N4 Jamaica]

A photo looking south on Westchester Avenue at Southern Blvd is on Facebook HERE. If the bus facing the camera is on route Bx27 Soundview Avenue, the date would be shortly after March, 1947.

[Q65A]

Nice pix, N4!
I had attended Fordham University during the mid-late 1970's, during which time I regularly rode the Bx12 from the Pelham Bay Park IRT station to Southern Blvd.
At that time, aging MaBSTOA TDH5303's were the main buses working out of the old Coliseum Depot (itself located just east of West Farms Sq.).
It's good to see how the Bronx Division has really embraced the artics: there are some heavily used routes in the Bx, particularly the Bx12 and Bx40. Subway lines run north-south in The Bronx, thus the longer crosstown routes intercept several subway lines and are very important as feeders.