B35 (New York City bus)

The Church Avenue Line is a public transit line in Brooklyn, New York City, running mainly along 39th Street and Church Avenue between Sunset Park and Brownsville. Originally a streetcar line, it is now the B35 bus route, operated by MTA New York City Bus' Jackie Gleason Depot in Sunset Park.

b35
Church Avenue Line
A B35 bus in Brooklyn
Overview
System	MTA New York City Bus
Operator	New York City Transit Authority
Garage	Jackie Gleason Depot
Began service	after 1897 (trolley line) October 30, 1956 (bus service) September 2005 (limited-stop service)
Route
Locale	Brooklyn
Start	Sunset Park – 1st Avenue
Via	39th Street, Church Avenue
End	Brownsville – Gaston Boulevard
Length	6.7 miles (10.8 km)[1] (eastbound)
Annual patronage	9,894,228 (2017)[2]
Transfers	Yes
Timetable	B35
Route map  B35   B35  Sunset Park / Industry City – 1st Ave & 39th St 39th Street / 2nd Avenue 3rd Avenue / Gowanus Expressway 4th Avenue 5th Avenue Jackie Gleason Depot Intermittent stops 6th Avenue 7th Avenue 8th Avenue 9th Avenue 10th Avenue Fort Hamilton Parkway 12th Avenue 13th Avenue 14th Avenue / 39th Street 13th Avenue / 37th Street Church Avenue / 36th Street / Chester Avenue Church Avenue / 14th Avenue / Story Street Church Avenue / McDonald Avenue  B35  ​ East 3rd Street East 5th Street Ocean Parkway East 7th Street Coney Island Avenue Westminster Road Rugby Road East 18th Street ​ Ocean Avenue Flatbush Avenue Bedford Avenue Rogers Avenue Nostrand Avenue ​ New York Avenue Local stops Brooklyn Avenue East 38th Street East 39th Street East 42nd Street Local stops Troy Avenue East 46th Street East 48th Street Utica Avenue Local stops East 52nd Street East 55th Street East 56th Street Kings Highway Ralph Avenue Remsen Avenue Local stops East 92nd Street East 93rd Street / Linden Boulevard East 94th Street East 96th Street Rockaway Parkway East 98th Street East 98th Street / Hegeman Avenue Hegeman Avenue / Thomas S. Boyland Street Rockaway Avenue / Chester Street Thatford Avenue Osborn Street Brownsville – Mother Gaston Boulevard  B35   B35  Legend Local & Limited stops Local stops  B35  Local Terminal  B35  Limited Terminal  B35  Late-night local terminal  LTD  Limited buses make all stops west of McDonald Avenue Subway connection LIRR connection ← B32  {{{system_nav}}}  B36 →

Route description

The B35 bus route starts at a cut-off lane on 39th Street slightly east of 1st Avenue in Sunset Park, near Industry City and the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. This terminus is shared with the B70. The B35 and B70 then run east on 39th Street until 3rd Avenue, where the B35 remains on 3rd Avenue and the B70 operates via 3rd Avenue and 36th/37th Streets, serving the 36th Street (BMT Fourth Avenue Line) station. At 4th Avenue, the B70 goes back to 39th Street and continues east on 39th Street until 8th Avenue. Here, the B70 heads south along 8th Avenue to Dyker Heights while the B35 continues east on 39th Street to 13th Avenue and 14th Avenues, where it switches to Church Avenue.

Once on Church Avenue, the B35 continues east along that street. It serve multiple neighborhoods and interchanges with multiple bus and subway lines along the way. The line continues along the length of Church Avenue until East 98th Street, where buses turn south along East 98th Street and on Hegeman Avenue to the terminal at Hegeman Avenue and Mother Gaston Boulevard in Brownsville, just south of New Lots Avenue. Despite the front destination signs on the buses saying "Brownsville-M Gaston Blvd", the map of the route on the schedule says that buses continue on Hegeman west to terminate at Rockaway Avenue, even though the bus stops along eastbound Hegeman Avenue say that B35 buses to Sunset Park stop there.

The B35 also offers daily Limited-stop service (instituted in September 2005) between McDonald Avenue in Kensington and the route's Brownsville terminus at Mother Gaston Boulevard throughout the day. Limited-stop buses, however, make all stops between 1st Avenue and McDonald Avenue, and local service east of McDonald Avenue is provided by B35 local buses which only go to McDonald Avenue while Limited-stop service is running.

History

The line was built after 1897,[3] connecting the 39th Street Ferry to the Canarsie Depot at Hegeman Avenue and Rockaway Avenue and a tunnel under Ocean Parkway. The streetcars continued to operate until October 30, 1956 when buses were substituted.[4][5][6][7]

The Gravesend and Church Avenues Line ("13-Gravesend-Church") was physically a branch from the main line though it operated as a separate service, starting from the 16th Avenue loop at Gravesend Avenue (present-day McDonald Avenue) in Kensington heading north along Gravesend Avenue and joining the main line at Gravesend Avenue and Church Avenue. The operation as a separate line ended on June 1, 1949 though the same physical service was continued as a branch of the newly renumbered "35-Church Avenue Line" (renumbered from the "8-Church Avenue Line") until the end of Brooklyn streetcar operations.

Service on the McDonald Avenue portion of the line immediately after its demise was covered by a free transfer to the then-extended B69 Prospect Park West, 8th Avenue, and Vanderbilt Avenue bus route (the line has since been truncated at Windsor Terrace, then rerouted via 7th Avenue and extended back to Kensington-Cortelyou Rd). After the truncation of the B69, the B67 McDonald Avenue and 7th Avenue bus route was extended to Cortelyou Road (which is slightly north of the old 16th Avenue Loop) which remains the same presently.

In 2018, the B35 Limited was considered for conversion from 40 ft (12 m) buses to articulated buses (or 60 ft (18 m) buses). 3 New Flyer XN60 buses were delivered for clearance testing by the beginning of summer 2018, with full operation of artics beginning September 2, 2018. The XN60s are the first CNG powered articulated buses in New York City,[8] being assigned to Jackie Gleason Depot. The B35 Limited is also being considered for conversion to Select Bus Service, a bus rapid transit system operated by NYC Bus.

Bus lanes for the B35 on Church Avenue between East 7th Street and Marlborough Road were put into effect in October 2019.

References

1. Google (May 10, 2017). "B35" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
2. "Facts and Figures". mta.info. August 28, 2011. Retrieved December 17, 2016.
3. Rand McNally, Brooklyn and vicinity, 1897 Atlas of the World
4. Branford Electric Railway Association (September 29, 2008). Brooklyn Streetcars. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-2045-8.
5. Casey, Leo (October 30, 1956). "NYCTA 1956 Press Release" (PDF). New York City Transit Authority. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
6. "City Trolley Cars Near End of Line: Transit Agency to Switch to Buses on Last 2 Runs in Brooklyn in Fall" (PDF). The New York Times. April 20, 1956. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
7. Brian J. Cudahy (January 2002). How We Got to Coney Island: The Development of Mass Transportation in Brooklyn and Kings County. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-2208-7.
8. http://www.mta.info/news/2018/01/08/mta-testing-10-new-all-electric-buses-reduce-emissions-modernize-public-transit