Farewell & Goodnight

Friday December 2nd, 2005 was another historic day for yours truly. I decided to do something I had never done before. What might you ask? I rode a Command bus! I’ll be honest, I am really bad in regards to riding buses.

When I was younger, I used to ride them because when I was with family, I rarely had to be on a subway. I either was in a car or a bus. As I grew older & became a railfan, my dedication as leaned heavily towards the rails. So what made me ride Command you ask?

I had to take part in the farewell to Command. The MTA as part of their overall plan to take over private bus routes had Command as the next to go. I had thought about joining the fan trip some had planned but decided I wanted to go alone. I had this grand vision of riding every Command route end to end over 3 days. However I didn’t but that came as no surprise.

The first route I planned on taking was the only limited stop route on their roster which was the B103. I had to do this route as it only ran Monday – Friday. I got a late start to the day so the B103 was the only route I planned on doing for Friday. The plan was to ride it via a round trip. The timing however didn’t work out since I got out of my house way too late.

My plan of action was to take the 6 down to 14th St/Union Sq & take the L out to the Rockaway Pkwy station so I could catch the last ever westbound bus. However as I was on the L, I realized I wouldn’t make the last ever westbound bus which departed at 5:03. I now knew I needed an on the fly adjustment as far as my plan goes.

The new course of action had me jumping off the L at Broadway Junction so I could catch an A to Jay St/Borough Hall. I figured I could make one of the last eastbound buses. The last eastbound bus departed at 6:10PM. I knew that I would easily make either the next to last or last bus unless a huge roadblock came up.

I’m happy to report that my adjusted plans worked out great. I got there with plenty of time to spare & I ended up catching the next to last ever eastbound B103. The bus was scheduled to depart at 5:40PM but it left a couple of minutes earlier.

When the doors closed at the first stop & we are on our way, I took a deep breath & got ready to soak up the entire experience on bus #4925. In the end, I enjoyed the entire ride & felt happy I got a chance to say I rode a Command bus.

My only regret would be the fact I never took a picture of 4925. However I won’t let that take away from the moment that ended up being my one & only ride on a Command bus.

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