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Queens-based transportation group wants expand local bus routes to help Ridgewood area students

The Queens Public Transit Committee wants to expand and revise the Q55 and Q38 bus routes.
Photo via Wikimedia Commons

A transit group in Queens has presented a plan to improve the notoriously slow Q58/Q58 Limited bus route and help passengers — especially students — access more bus lines and train stops by expanding two bus routes in Ridgewood.

The Queens Public Transit Committee (QPTC), a grassroots organization focused on bettering all modes of transportation across the borough, has provided the Community Board 5 (CB 5) Transportation and Public Transit committees a plan that would expand the Q55 bus route and revise the Q38 route to better service members of the community.

“As many of you are aware the Q58 route is constantly unreliable and slow but is still used by many passengers, especially students to gain access to many northeastern Queens high schools and colleges, as well as many Ridgewood passengers to access Elmhurst and Flushing,” said Carl Perrera, second treasurer of the QPTC. “Even the addition of the Q58 Limited service did not adequately help address the traffic delays that occur along Grand Avenue and Corona Avenue segments of the route.”

Perrera believes that expanding the Q55 route into Jamaica would provide students from Glendale and the lower Ridgewood area direct transfers to buses that connect to many of the high schools and colleges across northeastern Queens.

“For example, extending the Q55 route to Jamaica would provide Q55 student passengers at Sutphin Boulevard/Archer Avenue faster access to Queens College via a Q20A, Q20B, Q44SBS, Q25, Q25 Limited or Q34 bus transfer and provide Q55 student passengers access to Queensborough Community College via a Q30 bus transfer,” Perrera wrote.

This change would also provide students who ride the Q55 direct access to St. Francis Prep High School via a Q30 bus transfer, Holy Cross High School via a direct Q31 bus transfer, and Archbishop Molloy High School via a direct Q44-SBS, Q20A or Q20B bus transfer.

According to QPTC, a route extension such as this would also provide Q55 riders with transfers at 168th Street/Jamaica Avenue that can connect them to many Nassau County buses located at the 165th Street Terminal, such as the N6X to Nassau Community College — which would also serve central Queens students commuting to this college.

The second portion of QPTC’s plan includes revising the route of the Q38 bus to serve the entire Ridgewood Area, as well as extending the Rego Park Branch to Flushing via College Point Boulevard and revising and extending the Eliot Avenue Branch to Flushing via the Horace Harding Expressway, Kissena Boulevard/Main Street to Roosevelt Avenue.

“These route revisions would first provide many more Ridgewood passengers especially from the Cypress Avenue area, where the B18 used to operate many years ago, access to the subways where they now have no bus service at all and now these commuters have to walk about a half a mile to Decatur Street/Summerfield Street to access the B20 route or walk a half a mile to 60th Lane/St. Felix Avenue to access the Q39 route,” Perrera said.

With this revision of the Q38 bus route, QPTC believes, many students from Ridgewood and Middle Village would be able to use the Q38 route to transfer to the Q16 route in Flushing for access to Holy Cross High School and the Q27 route for access Queensborough Community College, as well as the Q20A, Q20B, Q44SBS, Q25, Q25 Limited, Q34 and Q17 routes for access to Queens College.

Additional transfers would also be available from the Q38 to the Q26 route for access St. Francis Prep. and Archbishop Molloy High School via a transfer to the Q20A, Q20B, or Q44SBS routes.