The MTA’s Queens Bus Network Redesign is a Huge Negative for Riders

By Allan Rosen

While there are a few improvements for some, such as the Rush routes, the plan is mostly negative. Many will have to walk further to access a bus and have extra transfers and longer travel times when the result should be improved service for the vast majority.

MTA Board members were given misleading and incomplete information before they approved the Queens Bus Network Redesign in late January. They weren’t even given the option to approve the redesign without the bus stop cuts or delay express bus changes until post-congestion pricing data becomes available. 

This is not the transit revolution “world-class system” they promise. It is a mere tweaking of the existing system. It ignores the needs of riders while cutting service under the guise of simplicity and efficiency.

Inaccurate Statistics and Omissions

The MTA claims the Queens bus system is nearly 70 years old, erasing decades of history. The truth? Some Queens routes have been in operation for about 100 years, long before the agency existed. The number of “800,000 daily riders” counts every boarding, including transfers and round trips, inflating the real weekday passenger numbers, which are closer to 300,000 to 400,000. If the MTA can’t get such simple facts correct, how can we trust them when they claim the redesign is an improvement?

Then there’s their so-called “extensive outreach process,” which reached barely one to two percent of affected riders. Instead of publicizing the changes on the buses and at bus shelters, the MTA published information only on their website, largely excluding seniors and those without internet access.

Rather than modifying some beneficial proposals from their initial draft by having actual back-and-forth discussions with the public to make them acceptable, the MTA merely eliminated them. All comments were just received with a thank you and promise that they would be considered. Only a very small percentage of riders are even aware there was a study and that changes are coming this summer and fall.

Even their press release about the MTA Board approving the Queens Bus Network Redesign contains many errors and misleading statements.

A 45-Year-Old “Innovation”

The MTA is acting like their new “Rush routes” are a groundbreaking idea, but the same concept was first proposed in 1980 under the name “Zone Express.” It took 45 years to implement something that should have happened decades ago.

The Rush routes would be an improvement if the local stops remained intact. Instead, the MTA has essentially converted all local routes into Limited routes with bus stops spaced about every quarter of a mile. The result is that some will have to walk up to three-quarters of a mile to and from a bus route. This follows European bus stop spacing standards rather than domestic standards, thereby ignoring the needs of Queens residents. The average local bus trip is only 2.3 miles. Some will have to walk almost the entire distance they are riding, or they will no longer use the bus. The dollar vans, however, will continue to stop for passengers when they are flagged down.

Similarly, redesigning the Queens bus network isn’t a new idea either. A nearly identical study from 1982-1983 was abandoned because the MTA claimed it lacked sufficient funding to implement the proposals. The only difference is back then, about half of the borough’s buses were privately operated so the study wasn’t as extensive. Today’s redesign study includes almost every route in the borough.

1,800 Bus Stops Gone — And Thousands of Riders Stranded

At its core, this isn’t a reimagining — it’s a gutting of service. Nearly one-third of all bus stops — nearly 1,800 in total — are being eliminated. The MTA claims that 84% of riders will still use the same stops, but that means, according to their numbers, 136,000 people will be forced to walk farther daily. They even eliminated a few stops at transfer points. The claim that buses will travel faster is also a lie, except for the Rush routes, which will be significantly faster (this does not include walk times). Their estimate of each bus stop elimination saving — from 20 seconds to one minute — is grossly overestimated. It assumes that all buses always stop at every bus stop. The truth is that buses only stop when someone is getting on or off. The number of buses regularly skipping stops in outlying areas is substantial, so eliminating many stops doesn’t result in faster bus running times. The MTA also fails to consider the additional inconvenience especially in inclement weather, and that longer walking increases your chance of missing a bus, possibly adding 20 minutes to your trip.

For the elderly and disabled, massive bus stop eliminations aren't just an inconvenience — they’re a direct attack on their mobility. An independent study (see Appendix C starting on page 37) shows that the first and last mile of a trip can take twice as long for riders with mobility problems. Yet the MTA still went forward with these cuts, violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A petition with over 3,300 signatures and hundreds of reasons against massive bus stop eliminations has been ignored. So much for their claim of a “rider-driven” process.

The MTA does not even consider walk time as part of your trip. They only mention frequency, reliability, bus speeds, and number of connections and fares, as trip factors. Walk time is a crucial part of your trip.

A state law requiring non-emergency vehicles to give the right-of-way to buses leaving bus stops would save buses more time than massive bus stop eliminations. That proposed law needs a sponsor and is supported by the MTA, but even if introduced and passed, the MTA would still go ahead with bus stop eliminations.

Fake “New Routes” and Hidden Service Cuts

The MTA brags about adding 17 new routes, but this is another deception. Many of these “new” routes are just existing routes with fewer stops or routes split into two and given a new route number. A real new route connects neighborhoods that were never linked before, but by that definition, the MTA has added only a few.

Meanwhile, the MTA claims that 20 routes will see expanded service…but at the expense of other routes being cut back. In other words, they are simply shuffling service around, not expanding it.

Queens has grown massively in 70 years, but instead of increasing service, the MTA is just rearranging it. Their claim is the budget doesn’t permit more comprehensive changes. The truth is they are only considering operating costs without any projections for increased revenue resulting from the improvements. If anticipated additional revenue were subtracted from proposed operating costs, many more improvements could be made without a substantial impact on the budget. The budget is also used as an excuse for terminating some routes just a few blocks from major traffic generators or transfer points.

A Direct Bus to Manhattan? Cut. Express Bus Service? Slashed.

The MTA used outdated traffic data to justify eliminating a direct local bus to Manhattan, just as congestion pricing is set to reshape traffic patterns. Meanwhile, express bus service — already surging in ridership post-pandemic and even more since congestion pricing — is being cut back despite growing demand.
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Hiding the Real Numbers

Perhaps the biggest red flag? The MTA refuses to release key data — like existing and proposed revenue miles and hours — that would reveal whether service is actually being increased or cut. Instead, they call it “proprietary information” and expect the public to take their word that service is increasing and that more trips will require fewer connections rather than more connections. They haven’t even released the proposed new transfer points to ensure no one pays an additional fare because of the redesign. How can we trust them that the list will be complete? It would make far more sense just to add a second free bus transfer for everyone or switch to a time-based fare instead of making the fare system unnecessarily over-complex and new residents not knowing where second bus transfers are allowed.

The redesigned service is costing a mere $13 million more per year. The MTA is refusing to disclose if that money is actually going to better service or just for wasted inefficiencies like increased non-revenue miles for buses heading to and from depots.

A Plan Built on Lies and Omissions

The MTA wants Queens riders to believe they are getting a bold new transit future. In reality, this is a service reduction, masked as progress, that will force thousands of riders into longer walks, longer waits, and longer commutes — with few improvements and no meaningful expansion of service to fill service gaps or reduce or eliminate transit deserts. No matter what the effect on ridership or travel times, as they have done in the past with Select Bus Service, the MTA with no doubt will distort statistics to show that the redesign is a success.

At least one new route suggested by the public but not studied (with no promise to study it as part of the Brooklyn Bus redesign according to the MTA Staff Summary) is a proposed Q35A connecting Rockaway with the Sheepshead Bay subway station in Brooklyn. That route could cut bus travel times from up to two hours to under 30 minutes and reduce the number of buses required from three to one without someone having to pay a double fare to make the trip. Now, that would be reimagining the bus system. 

Enough is enough. The people of Queens deserve real improvements, not a mere tweaking. It’s time for investigative reporters, elected officials, and transit advocates to expose this scam before it’s too late.


The writer is a Board Member of the transit advocacy group, Passengers United. He has retired from the MTA after nearly 25 years, previously being their Director of Bus Planning, and has over three decades of transportation experience. Since retiring, he has had hundreds of transportation-related articles published.