NYMTA Completes Queens Bus Network Redesign

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has fully implemented its Queens Bus Network Redesign, the largest bus redesign in the U.S., and one of the most comprehensive service changes in MTA history.

“With both phases of the redesign now in effect, MTA’s transformation of the Queens bus network—adding $34 million for new service — is now complete from Arverne all the way to Astoria,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “That means faster buses; greater reliability; and increased access to jobs, education, and shopping for the city’s most bus reliant borough, home to 800,000 daily riders—as many as the entire Los Angeles bus system.

The overhaul of the 70-year-old Queens bus network is shaped by six years of planning and community feedback consisting of 300 redesign events and nearly 20,000 comments. The new bus network includes 124 routes, consisting of 94 Local and 30 Express routes, a net increase of 11 routes from the existing network.

MTA will analyze changes in bus speeds, ridership, reliability, travel times, rider satisfaction, and other relevant variables over six months, beginning in October, and present a post-implementation analysis in the spring of 2026. Results will inform future adjustments to the network to ensure that service is aligned with stated goals.

“The Queens bus redesign is a major step forward for the many riders who depend on public transit every day,” said Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY). “These improvements were the result of years of community input and will bring faster trips, more frequent service, and stronger connections across Queens. This improved service will improve transit for New Yorkers across the borough and help ensure Queens families get the service they deserve.”

The redesign focuses on four customer priorities: reliable service, faster service, better connections, and simplified service. The network adds a new type of route, labeled “Rush,” in addition to the existing Local, Limited, Select Bus Service, and Express routes. Rush routes have both a local and a non-stop portion to quickly connect between outer borough neighborhoods and subway stations. The combination of these different routes creates a cohesive network that offers new travel opportunities.

The Queens Bus Network Redesign is part of a major effort to modernize New York City’s bus network across every borough. Over decades, demographics have shifted in residential and business communities and so have travel patterns. The redesigned networks deliver large-scale improvements to better meet the demand of current and future bus customers.

In 2018, a redesigned express bus network was implemented on Staten Island. In 2022, a redesigned local bus network was implemented in the Bronx. And in Brooklyn, the project team is reviewing feedback from the Brooklyn Bus Network Redesign’s Draft Plan released in December of 2022 to develop the Proposed Final Plan. Manhattan will be the last of the boroughs to begin its bus network redesign, to be followed by the Staten Island Local and Bronx Express bus network redesigns at a later date.