Bus Festival 2026 Brings NYC's Historic Fleet to Brooklyn Bridge Park

On Saturday, September 19, Brooklyn Bridge Park will host the Bus Festival 2026, a complimentary one-day event organized by the MTA New York City Transit and the New York Transit Museum. This festival will showcase vintage buses manufactured between 1918 and 2001. Notable exhibits include Bus 303, a restored 1918 open-top double-decker from the Fifth Avenue Coach Company, and a 1931 double-decker known as "Betsy." Also featured is Bus 3100, the first air-conditioned transit bus in the U.S., introduced in 1956 as a prototype. Other buses on display include Bus 100 from 1959, Bus 5227, part of the city's "Blitz Buses," and Bus 2185, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Regin Shepherd, Acting Director of the New York Transit Museum, emphasized the importance of this event for showcasing larger vehicles that cannot be housed indoors. A special pop-up shop will sell bus replicas, books, apparel, and other transit-themed merchandise. Photographs of the buses were captured by Trent Reeves, Patrick Cashin, and Filip Wolak, with the event taking place at the Emily Warren Roebling Plaza.