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But why did they draw some routes in one color and some in another? The green, orange, and purple seem to have no rhyme or reason for what routes they are given to. They did mention that people wanted easier to understand maps, like frequency and light night bus maps in the Existing Conditions Report. Maybe this has something to do with that? I don’t know what though.

Q27 looks to end dead at QCC. The bus on Winchester looks to be a new route from Jamaica to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. The routes on the map are colored purple, green, orange and blue, with no seeming reason for it. The purple is only on routes on the eastern half of the borough, plus the Q35. Orange is in Jackson Heights and along other roads like Kissena, Lefferts, and Northern Blvds. Green is almost everywhere, and blue seems to be on Select Bus routes, plus the new Linden Blvd route, the Q8, and a few Brooklyn routes. Also the M60 is yellow for whatever reason.

https://mobile.twitter.com/JimRockaway/status/1206723003448463365/photo/3

The actual map hasn’t been published online. The MTA held a public meeting on December 16 at Queens Borough Hall, where they presented a PowerPoint on the redesign plan. It was one of the slides they had, and it was posted on Twitter by @JimRockaway. The routes aren’t outlined, just the streets buses wil operate on.

Based on the map the Greenpoint Ave half looks to head up Greeenpoint, then up Van Dam St to Queens Blvd. The map isn’t clear on what happens after that. Should find out tomorrow, since that when the Draft Plan is reportedly due to come out.

They look to be cutting service in the area altogether. From the map shown, the Q59 wont be replaced on Grand St, and the B24 looks to be rerouted from serving Metropolitan Ave, leaving it with no service, to cover Grand St Extension with the Q54 and rerouted Q38. Also, the “How we’re doing it” section of the Brooklyn Bus Redesign specifically mentions reducing subway competition and route redundancy, and the Q59 in Williamsburg is never more than a few blocks away from the or B62. I would say B32, but the map no longer shows that route either.

Looks like on the map the western part of the Q59, from 61 St to Brooklyn is covered by a rerouted Q38 that looks to run from Woodhaven Blvd station, down Eliot, and instead of turning around towards the Middle Village-Metropolitan Ave , it turns right on Fresh Pond, covers the Q39 to Rust St, and covers the Q59 into Brooklyn. It follows the Q54 route to Williamsburg after that. Looks like nothing covers the Grand St/Kent/Wythe Aves portion of the Q59.

According to an article in the Queens Chronicle, it looks like the Q58 will be split into two routes, not like how the MTA split the M5 into the M5 and M55, but similar to how Nassau has buses like the N48 and N49. Both will share terminals in Flushing and Ridgewood, but one would follow the current route via 108 St and Corona Ave, while the other would likely stay on Horace Harding to the Queens Center Mall, and then take Queens Blvd over to Grand Ave.

Another question that I have is, what will the MTA be doing with limited stop service? Currently the Q4, Q5, Q6, Q10, Q17, Q25, Q27, Q36, Q43, Q44 SBS, Q46, Q50, Q52 SBS, Q53 SBS, Q58, Q65, Q70 SBS, Q83, Q85, Q100, Q113, Q114 routes have either limited or SBS service. So far, from looking at the map: Q17 looks to be absorbed by a rerouted Q83 Q36 is basically cut and replaced by the Q110 (Q36 LTD was kind of pointless anyway) Q58 they are splitting, will they split limited service too? Q65 is would guess loses limited service and some frequency since it heads up to Beechurst instead of College Point Q114 only portion was absorbed into an extended Q22, limited cut, as stops made in the Rockaways/Nassau County were local Plus the MTA had mentioned in their Northeast Queens Bus Study a few years ago that they were considering limited zone service (Ex: Q46 local to Springfield, then nonstop to Kew Gardens). They might have considered some routes like this, and thats why some portions of the map are hard to read. They had said they were looking at the Q12, Q17, Q27, Q46, Q43, and Q88 for limited zone.

The MTA will be reducing service on Springfield south of QCC, the question is by how much. Based on previous proposals from them, its hard to gauge whether they would reduce service and still overserve, or reduce drastically. I leaned more towards overserve. I mean, in the Bronx Redesign Plan, they didn’t even change the Bx46, which by no means anywhere close to a successful route, and they proposed the Bx30 retain frequent service, at 12 minutes or better on weekdays, when that would bring rush hour service on Boston Rd between Gun Hill and Pelham Pkwy from the ~6 an hour on the W60/61/62 to ~12 to 14 an hour with the Bx30. They are most likely not going to put the right amount of service on these coverage routes in Eastern Queens (Springfield/Bell and Francis Lewis/120).

If I had to guess, as based on the map we have seen so far, the current Q27 will operate from Flushing to QCC, most likely with reduced service compared to now. The Queens bus map shows the Q27 frequency at 3 min (AM), 7 min (NOON), 4 min (PM/EVE), and 60 min (NITE), along with limited service at 8, 11, and 9 minute frequencies during the AM, PM, and EVE times, with afternoons being onto to 120 Ave. I would guess that the Q27, which would share frequencies since the Q26 looks to be extended to QCC, would lose a couple buses an hour, since the route will no longer be heading down Springfield. The current Springfield corridor is over served, especially between 73 Ave and Queens Village LIRR. I would guess that the new Springfield/Bell Blvd bus would run every 10 (AM), 15 (NOON), 10 (PM), 15 (EVE) on weekdays, with service every 15 to 30 minutes on weekends with no late night service, based on how over saturated the corridor is now, combined with the MTA using the redesigns to cut costs.

I would say a new one should be made once the plan is released, just to separate the speculation done here from the reactions to the revealed plan.

I think that is the Q102. Another question would be where do the Q101 and Q102 terminate after they reach 20 Ave? The loop by Hazen St is not on the map for the Q101.

I would assume that it would head up to Bay Terrace, but wouldn’t be surprised if it heads down to QCC, since the MTA looks to be trying to make it the local hub of sorts, or if it just ends right at Bell/Northern Blvds, since some of these ideas aren’t the most obvious. I would assume that the Q52 ends in Elmhurst, as at the area of the Belt and Cross Bay, there looks to be a little blue heading straight, underneath the green line. Would have assumed the Yellowstone bus was the Q73 (73 Ave) and the Ascan Ave bus would have been the new Q20. If the Q66 does that it would miss the connection in Flushing, so I don’t think so. If I had to guess it would be similar to the pre-1990s service pattern from Flushing to Woodside-51 St. Originally I figured the colors might have to do with level of service, like how the MTA had divided service into frequent, semi-frequent, local, and coverage categories. But in the Existing Conditions report, coverage wasn’t colored. Also the routes in blue seem to be random, as they look to be Select Bus Service, but also the Linden Blvd route has it, which I would say local service would be enough. To me the Q42 looks to head up to 165 St Terminal, so I don’t think the would, as the only turns southbound at Hillside from 164 St are to Parsons. The Q26 near Horace Harding isn’t bad, just a right on Francis Lewis and a left on 58 Ave to get back to Hollis Court heading north.

The M100 and M125 were included in the Bronx Redesign plan as the are in a Bronx depot. Only differences are that the M100 stays on Broadway and terminates at Amsterdam Ave/125 St instead of looping around by the M104 terminal, and that the M125 continues to the 3 Ave-149 St station to cover the former Bx15 route. I kind of feel that the M100 (in the MTA’s Bronx Plan) should either turn onto 125 St and terminate where the Bx15 does at 12 Ave, or should you around via LaSalle St and Broadway because the buses will need to turn around to head back to Inwood anyway, so why not directly connect to the train at the end. Also you have quite a few routes doing the M104 loop at 129 St.

It’s going to follow the current Q25 to 130 St and 23 Ave and then continue up 130 St to 20 Ave and head right on 20th to Francis Lewis. I personally think that the Q20 will be ending in Flushing and the Francis Lewis bus will be following this route to Flushing to connect with the 7, but the map isn’t too clear.

The Q64 is my home route. Its either perfect or something causes massive delays that utterly destroy all resemblance of a schedule. I remember last winter heading home from work, the line at Queens Blvd was around the block and bus time was showing one bus in total for either direction. Walked to Kissena before a bus drove by. They also have to do something about the stop spacing. I know the blocks aren’t the generic short city blocks, but they aren’t long ones either. To have a stop at every intersection from 164 St to Park Drive East except for 137 St is ridiculous.

Any ideas of what is going on in Forest Hills? There looks to be a Yellowstone route and a route on Ascan. If I had to guess, the 73 Ave route heads up Jewel, serves the subway and head over to one of the two. Not sure which one. Also the fact that the Q64 and 108 St routes are both orange, but not all the way to the subway make me feel that the MTA combined the Q64 and Q23. Notice how there is no line on Jewel between 108 St and Queens Blvd, where the Q64 turns back towards 164 St. If you look closely, there is also a little orange line under the green on Queens Blvd between Kew Gardens and 71 Ave.

The map looks like it has the Q111 terminating in Rosedale, maybe by Hook Creek Blvd and 149 Rd, just south of its full time terminal today. The bus to North Shore University Hospital isn’t the Q88. It comes up Winchester Blvd from Hillside Ave.

https://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/pol-we-re-really-depending-on-you/article_71314280-2329-5dd6-a452-7feacb4bc3d1.html Things mentioned in the article that you wouldn’t get from the map that has be shown: Q44 extended to Fordham Plaza Q50 extended to LaGuardia Airport (I get that the Bronx wants a airport route, but why this?) Q58 split into two routes, but they have the same terminals? More buses to Lower Manhattan from Eastern Queens including Bayside, Springfield Gardens, Queens Village Average stop spacing from 850 feet to 1,400 feet

On JimRockaway’s twitter, it looks like he said that the T stands for temporary as to differentiate the proposals from existing routes when they post the trip planner online

Looks like the Queens Redesign Draft Plan will be released later today. Article says there will be a public meeting today at 5:30 PM at Queens Borough Hall. https://queenscountypolitics.com/2019/12/16/queens-lawmakers-on-the-move-dec-16-2019/

I have a feeling that the MTA wont be releasing the Draft Plan for Queens by the end of November, as they changed the project timeline chart on the site from monthly to quarterly, instead having a Q4 release date. Probably going to be early to mid-December instead.