Brady PieperA state transportation agency in New York City has finalized a plan to modernize, restructure and energize bus service in Queens.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board is approving the Queens Bus Network Redesign plan to significantly upgrade the borough’s nearly 70-year-old transit system. Seeking to increase and improve service for residents that are reliant on public transit, the MTA will now work to provide a faster, more sustainable and interconnected bus service that enhances mobility options for all New Yorkers.
“With the implementation of this redesign, we will be organizing our borough’s transportation infrastructure and addressing longtime inequities by improving bus services in historically underserved communities,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said in the Board’s meeting. “These service improvements will promote a greener, healthier and more sustainable environment by encouraging Queens residents to use the bus.”
Approval for the bus system redesign comes after a nearly five-year process to plan, coordinate and collaborate with local residents and stakeholders. Through over 250 public events and several rounds of public contributions, the process found the bus system to be obsolete and unable to satisfy the borough’s residents, operating on decades-old commuting trends and population patterns.
The Queens Bus Network redesign features four key priorities that will guide MTA through the development, procurement and implementation processes – reliable service, faster travel, better connections and simplified service.
Kickstarting the effort, the MTA will engage with riders about changes to the bus system through a broad outreach campaign, which will include pop-up events and multilingual digital and print advertisements. The authority will also employ customer ambassadors to connect with and inform riders at selected bus stops.
Queens residents that rely on bus service, totaling an estimated 800,000 riders, will have access to a variety of expanded, reorganized and existing bus lines along with several new transit options to incentivize healthy and sustainable mobility. The MTA will also relabel some routes as “Rush,” which refers to bus services that are designed with local and non-stop portions to quickly make connections.
The redesign’s proposed final plan addendum outlines four new local routes that were not included in the original plan – Q74, Q80, Q89 and Q90. These routes will complement MTA’s new Q51 Linden Boulevard route, connecting Cambria Heights and South Jamaica to Ozone Park, and Q98 line from Ridgewood to Bushwick.
The MTA will implement the project in two phases in 2025, coinciding with the authority’s regular seasonal bus schedule updates. Concluding the redesign, the agency and its partners will conduct a post-implementation analysis.
MTA’s investment in Queens’ bus network will also advance the authority’s mission to effectively and efficiently finance transportation infrastructure, especially as construction costs and inflation continue to rise.
Additional information on the full Queens Bus Network Redesign and future route changes can be found on the MTA’s project webpage.
Photo courtesy Tdorante10, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
