MTA Releases Final Plan Addendum for Queens Buses

By Katie McFadden

Rockaway may see some changes to its bus routes sometime next year. On Tuesday, December 17, the MTA released its proposed final plan addendum to the Queens Bus Network Redesign project, with new changes to proposals for the Q22, Q35, Q113 and Q52 SBS buses.

Since 2019 and with $30 million in funding allocated to completely transform Queens’ bus system, the MTA has been coming up with proposals with the goal of creating more reliable service, faster travel, better connections and simplified service throughout the borough. It has issued several iterations of the plan after the original proposal in 2019 received heavy pushback. The latest proposal was released in December 2023, and even that plan sent the MTA back to the drawing board after listening to more public feedback at a series of meetings.  On Tuesday, they revealed their latest “final” plan with some of that feedback taken into consideration, a plan which Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said, “is a perfectly imperfect plan. The work is still not done,” adding that he hopes more improvements can be made in the next decade, after this plan is rolled out.

Several of Rockaway’s bus routes will be impacted by the plan. In earlier versions of the plan, the MTA proposed to end the Q22 at Beach 116th Street instead of continuing to Riis Park as it does currently, as the Q35 already covers that area. Although there was pushback on that idea during public feedback, that part of the plan to end the route at Beach 116th Street remains, but the latest proposal now has the Q22 extending to the Far Rockaway LIRR, and now into parts of Bayswater, with two peak Q22 trips.

As with the last proposal, the Q35, which operates from Beach 116th to Brooklyn College, will run along Rockaway Beach Blvd. instead of Newport Avenue. It will also extend to the NYC Ferry landing on Beach 108th Street instead of ending at Beach 116th and there will be some stop changes. There was a request for a revised turnaround and layover and that has been added to the newest plan.

For the Q52, which runs from Edgemere to Elmhurst, there were requests to extend it further east in Edgemere, as it currently ends at Beach 54th Street. In the final proposal, the MTA agreed to extend it to Beach 50th Street in Edgemere with an OMNY-only stop. For the Q53 route, which runs from Rockaway Park to Woodhaven, there were requests to increase the frequency and add some stops, but the latest MTA plan calls for no changes to the route “due to resource constraints.”

The original plan called for the Q113 from Far Rockaway to Jamaica to be taken over by the Q114. The MTA decided to restore the Q113 limited service with revised stops along Guy R Brewer Blvd.

There were requests from the community to increase the frequency and service spans of the Manhattan express QM15 and QM16 buses, including adding weekend service, but the MTA did not make any schedule changes in this latest plan.

The full Queens Bus Network Redesign proposed final plan addendum will be up for a vote by the MTA Board sometime this winter. The MTA says there will be a town hall for feedback before the MTA holds this vote, but they say for the most part, this is the “final” final proposal. If it passes, bus riders can expect to start seeing service changes in two phases some time in 2025.

For the full proposed final plan addendum, see: https://new.mta.info/document/160201

For more info on the Queens Bus Network Redesign, see: https://new.mta.info/project/queens-bus-network-redesign