The Ordinary’s free shuttle connecting Domino Park and Prospect Park has already hit the brakes, stopping service less than a week after launch and leaving Brooklyn riders wondering what happened. The two-week promotion had been pitched as a direct, no-stop workaround for a long, transfer-heavy subway trip, only to be abruptly paused with an Instagram caption that simply read, “we tried.”
What The Service Promised
The pop-up line, branded as “The Ordinary Bus,” rolled out on May 26 and was scheduled to run through June 9, ferrying riders from Kent Avenue and South 5th Street near Domino Park to Eastern Parkway outside the Brooklyn Public Library. According to the route details posted on theordinarybus.com, weekday buses were supposed to run from noon to 7 p.m., with extra morning trips added on weekends.
Local coverage noted that the skincare brand framed the shuttle as a no-stop, direct alternative to subway journeys that often require trekking through Manhattan to get between the waterfront and Prospect Park, as FOX 5 New York reported when the route debuted.
Service Paused After Less Than A Week
Just days into its run, the experiment was pulled. The company announced the pause on Instagram with the caption “we tried,” according to News 12.
Gothamist reported that the free rides had been slated to last the full two weeks and that the shutdown was communicated through that same Instagram channel. Neither outlet received a detailed explanation for why the service stopped almost as quickly as it started.
Riders And Neighbors Pushed Back
Even before the plug was pulled, the route itself drew heat. Critics pointed out that the bus ran straight down a north to south corridor while skipping over neighborhoods along the way, meaning an express line did little for people in the middle.
Local outlet Greenpointers raised questions about whether a private brand activation should be filling in for public transit planning. Some Brooklyn residents also described the shuttle as unreliable even during its brief run. The reaction underscored a simmering tension between splashy, ad-driven experiments and the slower grind of building out lasting public transportation options.
Permits And Policy Questions
Behind the scenes, City Hall has been trying to get the operation on the books. City officials are “working with The Ordinary to guide them through the permitting process, including registering and applying for a New York City bus stop permit,” according to Gothamist.
The timing also dropped this brand stunt right into the middle of a broader policy push. The rollout coincided with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s effort to speed up buses and make them fare free, a program the administration has been staffing and promoting, as Streetsblog has reported. That context helps explain why private ventures that touch existing or potential transit corridors tend to draw swift scrutiny.
For now, the brand’s own site still lists the shuttle as running through June 9 and teases a live bus tracker as “coming soon,” according to theordinarybus.com. Whether The Ordinary Bus actually returns remains an open question, but its blink-and-you-missed-it debut has already highlighted just how many logistical and political hurdles stand between a clever idea and a bus that reliably carries thousands of New Yorkers every day.
