Dozens of Queens commuters and local government officials packed Queens Borough Hall’s Helen Marshall Cultural Center in Kew Gardens on Wednesday, July 24, for a public hearing on the MTA’s Queens Bus Network Redesign. More than 150 speakers signed up to speak in person and via Zoom during the event.
The hearing, led by MTA officials, gave community members the floor to voice their opinions and concerns about the final draft of the Queens bus network redesign proposal.
MTA officials said they have held over 70 public engagement sessions before Wednesday’s hearing and that the redesign is focused on four key customer priorities: reliable bus service, faster travel, better connections between bus service providers and more simplified service. The final proposal will increase the 113 existing bus routes servicing over 800,000 daily Queens commuters to 121. The redesign focuses on four route types: local routes, limited routes, SBS-crosstown routes and the newly proposed rush route.
Queens electeds speak out
Local elected officials, including state Sen. John Liu, Council Member Selvena Brooks-Powers and Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas (D-34), voiced their reservations during the hearing.
Brooks-Powers, who chairs the City Council’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the final draft plan neglects the transport needs of Far Rockaway residents in her district.
“For far too long, as I have said many times, the city has neglected outer borough communities. The final proposed draft plan is a start, but we need another express bus route from the Rockaway peninsula bringing commuters to downtown Manhattan,” she said.
She added that the current redesign only offers routes to Midtown Manhattan and residents in her district need downtown access.
Brooks-Powers said she was pleased that an express route was added from the mainland — the QM65 — and asked that it could expand to Rosedale, Brookdale and Springfield Gardens. Furthermore, she advocated for new local bus routes to JFK Airport.
Liu also raised concerns about the proposal. Although he praised the QM65 proposal, “what was not mentioned in the proposal is that almost every other express bus line in Queens is being cut and it is making it more difficult for people to get to and from work and other obligations from Queens to Manhattan.”
Liu also referenced a letter he sent to MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber urging the restoration of cuts to some express service into Manhattan and rerouting the Q31 away from Bell Boulevard.
Meanwhile, while González-Rojas acknowledged that the current proposal has vastly improved since the initial plan in 2020, she said her constituents have complained about the frequency of bus service and the elimination of bus stops, “particularly near schools and apartment buildings where there is a concentration of older adults, located along the Q66 and the proposed Q63 line on Northern Boulevard,” she said.
Additionally, González-Rojas said that the elimination of the 35th Avenue and 84th Street stops on the Q49 bus poses a challenge for seniors who rely on the stop. Members of her district — which encompasses Astoria, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Corona and Woodside — have also advocated for a faster, six-minute bus service.
Community feedback
Many community members voiced concern about the potential route change of the local Q10 bus, which services JFK Airport. Currently, the local Q10 travels along Lefferts Boulevard from Kew Gardens to JFK; however, the redesign plan would run the Q10 on a limited line that makes fewer stops and stays on Lefferts Boulevard, and the Q9 line will replace it south on 130th Street.
Mohammed Z., a JFK airport worker, explained that the Q10 local bus is vital in airport workers’ daily commute.
“Please don’t remove the Q10. It’s going to be tough and give us a hard time,” he said over Zoom.
He was not alone in his views.
“I think that the [removal of] the Q10 will be eliminating all of a neighborhood,” said Allison Hynes. “This bus services students and seniors. They would have to take the Q9 bus to Q112 and the Q112 sucks — that would be an added fare and I don’t think that’s fair.”
Many residents were also worried about the impact of bus stop removals in areas that have limited transit access.
Andy Pollack, a member of Passengers United — a grassroots public transportation advocacy group — said Little Neck and Douglaston residents are concerned about the proposed partial elimination of the Q30 bus service.
“The residents of Little Neck and Douglaston do not want to see their direct bus line be cut going to the only direct bus that helps people get to and from Atlantic Terminal Brooklyn every day,” he said. “I am urging and begging the MTA: do not eliminate the Q30 bus. This final plan would be very disastrous.”
Other residents shared their concern that the proposed bus stop removals would impact seniors and residents with disabilities.
Heather Beers-Dimitriadis, chairperson of Community Board 6, said that although she was initially supportive of the removal of the Jamaica-bound Q60’s stop on 66th Avenue and Queens Boulevard, her observations of commuters changed her mind.
“The passengers that use the stop — specifically daytime passengers — are patients of local neighborhood doctors who are using rollators, wheelchairs, walkers and canes,” she said.
Beers-Dimitriadis said the landscape of Rego Park and Forest Hills poses a challenge for seniors who utilize the Q60.
“We need to remind the DOT to check the bus stops to make sure that they are up to date for any wheelchair, cane, walker and stroller,” added Christopher Graves.
Despite the criticism toward the final re-design proposal, some residents had positive remarks.
Dolores Orr, chairperson of Community Board 14, which encompasses Far Rockaway, said the community is excited about the possibility of Q22 bus service extending to the Far Rockaway Long Island Railroad Station.
“We are the only neighborhood in Queens that did not have the city ticket. We got the city ticket and now we have a bus to take us to the railroad station,” Orr said.
David Ferreira, a Ridgewood resident and Community Board 5 Transportation Chair, said that the reconstruction and reconfiguration of the B20, a major line that goes between Brooklyn and Queens, is welcomed in his neighborhood.
“It’s been a challenge forever between navigating extremely narrow streets on Decatur and Summerfield Streets and dealing with sharp turns of traffic,” Ferreira said. “With all the new mixed-use developments going up on the block, getting this folded into the new B7 route on Cooper Avenue will significantly alleviate traffic from our local streets with fewer double-parked cars, ambulances, vans and so on,” he said.
Ferreira urged MTA officials to continue to review ongoing traffic congestion issues in Ridgewood, to better develop bus routes.
MTA officials said that revisions to the proposal will be made following the community feedback.
The MTA board will vote on the proposed final draft plan at a later date.
