Update on the Queens bus network redesign

After more than five years of planning, the MTA is close to launching a modernized bus network for Queens. The transit agency says the redesign will create better service and connections and make buses easier to use. During the recent MTA media roundtable, we asked leaders for an update on that project. Their answers are below. They have been slightly edited and condensed for clarity. 

Epicenter NYC: About the Queens bus redesign network,what should people know about where we’re at right now?

MTA: The hope is that we should have something before the board — the board has to vote on it — relatively soon. Without question, before the end of the year.

Look, it is for 800,000 individuals in Queens. This is a huge, huge initiative, and I’m excited to be able to see some of our bus trips speed up, because fast service generally relates to happier customers. So we’re really excited to see the next phases.

But the reason this is happening is that nobody’s redesigned the bus network in more than 50 years. So there are bus lines that still go to trolley barns that were torn down in the ‘50s and ‘60s. So the system needed to be redesigned in a way that took account of where people are going, but also, what route would you take if you’re trying to move quickly– if you go down the busiest street, you’re going to go slowly. 

What’s the trade-off between the [pace and] number of bus stops? We have more bus stops per mile in New York than any other city in the United States, by like double. So our buses move more slowly because they stop every block. What’s the trade-off? How do you get a system that serves everybody where they are, but also moves quickly?

And we’re not just redesigning the routes. We’re going to have some new rush routes that give people a direct connection to the subway or the commuter rail station, so that if they leave, then take a bus to a commuter rail station to get to their job or a bus to the subway to get to their job, they can get to the subway faster.

So there’s some new routes, there’s some routes redesigned to try to make you go faster, but there’s also some new service coming to try to really change people’s lives, and it’s way overdue.

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To review and submit a comment on the final proposed plan, click this link.

In that meeting we also asked the MTA about whether the student OMNY cards would be expanded to all public school students. You can read the update here. 

Read more of our transit stories here.