MTA says Queens buses got faster after the redesign. What Queens Council members asked about it

About a year after the MTA redrew the Queens bus map, the agency says buses in the borough are faster and more reliable. Officials presented the results at MTA board committee meetings Monday, amNY reported.

Comparing spring 2025 with spring 2026, local weekday bus speeds in Queens rose 1.7% on average, and off-peak speeds rose nearly 2%. Twenty-four of the 25 routes with the biggest speed gains citywide are in Queens. The new "rush" routes, which stop locally in neighborhoods without subway service and then skip stops to reach a subway or LIRR station, got 4.6% faster overall and 11% faster in their limited-stop stretches. In May, 71.2% of Queens trips arrived within five minutes of schedule, the best result since the MTA began publishing that measure, excluding 2020 and 2022.

The redesign added 17 routes, turned 25 into rush routes and changed dozens more. About 124,000 more residents now have a bus every 10 minutes from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., according to the MTA. "Many bus routes are faster, many bus routes are more reliable," Evan Bialostozky, the MTA's senior director for network redesigns, told the board. New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said the team had "delivered on all fronts."

Why it matters to residents: Queens has roughly 800,000 daily bus riders, and many neighborhoods there are far from a subway. A few minutes per trip adds up.

What our records add

Queens members questioned the redesign at the Council's March transportation budget hearing. At the March 17 hearing, Council Member Phil Wong told MTA officials he had seen stops removed and fewer buses since the redesign, rather than improvements, and asked what was being done on express bus reliability. An MTA official replied that the agency had dropped the rule that the redesign be cost-neutral, was spending $35 million a year more on Queens buses as a result, had added rush routes to connect riders to commuter rail and subway stations, and had seen speeds improve. The official said a fuller report would come out within a couple of months.

Express buses and fares. Earlier at the same hearing, Council Member Lynn C. Schulman said she would push for half fares on express buses. The MTA official pointed to the Queens rush routes that run to LIRR stations and to the City Ticket discount on the railroad.

Willets Point. At a March 23 Land Use hearing, Council Member Shanel Thomas-Henry asked city planners for the transportation plan for Willets Point under the new bus network, noting that the only nearby train is the 7 line and that its station is not accessible.

Fare transfers. At a May 6 General Welfare hearing, an MTA policy official said the agency was piloting a time-limited universal transfer window on the Queens bus network redesign, and was still studying how riders use it.

Queens bills on buses are waiting. Res. 158, from Council Member Sandra Ung, calls on the MTA to make bus and subway announcements in the city's four most commonly spoken languages. It has waited 271 days in the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Int. 339, from Council Member Mercedes Narcisse, would bar more than one bus lane camera ticket for the same infraction within an hour. It has also waited since Jan. 29. Our earlier stories covered bus countdown clocks and bus stop bills and the pause in MTA bus fare enforcement.

The ballot matters here too. Question 3 on the Nov. 3 ballot would speed city reviews of bus lane projects. Our guide to the five questions has the details.

What's next

The MTA is redesigning bus networks borough by borough, amNY reported. The Council does not run the buses, but its transportation committee questions MTA officials at budget and oversight hearings. The next budget round begins with preliminary budget hearings in the spring.