In 1988, the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot was renamed in memory of the Brooklyn native whose most famous role was acerbic bus driver Ralph Kramden on the classic television show The Honeymooners. In fact the logo for the depot is based on the title sequence for the show. The depot takes up several blocks on 5th Avenue in Sunset Park, across 36th Street from Green-Wood Cemetery. It is one of five that serves Brooklyn and its entire revenue fleet of 321buses is powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) which is cleaner burning than traditional diesel powered buses. In 1999, the depot was the first to have the CNG fueling systems installed

The depot handles almost all but the most extremely specialized maintenance in order to get 271 buses on the road for the weekday AM rush and 281 for the PM rush. Inside it is hard to really judge the scale of the immense building since it is filled with buses either ready to be put into service at a moment’s notice or in some state of repair.

We visited the facility over the weekend on a Transit Museum tour led by depot superintendent Fitzroy Lyte. After a bit of a snafu that required all the members of the tour to show ID, wait, sign in and wait some more all out in the cold, we were able to begin the tour.