The Proposed Final Plan for an MTA Queens Bus Redesign wipes the Q102 off the map completely, replacing it with a combination of other routes. Along Main Street on Roosevelt Island, changes are small, but once off the Island, they’re radical and troubling for many. Here’s what’s happening.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
For years, Q102 buses shadowed RIOC red buses around Roosevelt Island, or was it the other way around? While the duplication seemed excessive with passengers eschewing fares on the MTA bus for free rides courtesy of the state agency, the Q102 quietly did something special. It carried passengers across the bridge into Queens.
Turning south on Vernon Boulevard, riders connected with other routes, but more importantly, the bus took them to Queens Plaza. There, numerous bus and train routes bunched together in a concentration of accessible options.
That feature is lost in the proposed Queens redesign.
After the Q102
A new route, the Q104, makes sensible changes on Main Street but easily serves local stops as its predecessor always did. The most significant alteration cuts off the bus route south at the Tram where a new stop will be created.
That’s a smart move because frequent red buses already carry passengers past Cornell Tech to Southpoint. But once the new route completes its trail back up Main Street, turning across the Roosevelt Island Bridge into Queens, radical changes occur.
The redesigned Sunnyside-Roosevelt Island route, dubbed Q104, throws away every Q102 stop in Queens.
Instead of turning right toward Queens Plaza, the buses turn left toward Costco at Broadway. While this may work for Costco shoppers and Bel Aire diners, it greatly reduces options for passengers needing – or preferring – accessible subway stations and greater transportation choices.
- Find full details on pages 381 – 384 in the Proposed Queens Bus Redesign Document.
After heading up Broadway after Costco, the Q104 meets its first subway connection at 31st Street at a wheelchair-accessible N and W station. But this station is aboveground, meaning riders will be subjected to whatever weather conditions exist at any time.
After that, the only choice is an M and R station at 46th Street and Newtown Road.
Slim pickings, indeed.
Can This Plan Be Changed?
Theoretically, it can. That’s what the 60-day comment period is for, but that’s a legal requirement. Realistically, nothing will change.
“I have always said buses are the engine of equity in our city. They disproportionately serve seniors, people with disabilities, residents of low-income neighborhoods, especially communities of color.
MTA Chair Janno Lieber
In other words, the MTA believes they’ve accomplished this, and maybe they have. But not for Roosevelt Islanders.
Back in the good old days, in 2019 when the redesign first threatened the Q102, then-RIOC President/CEO Susan Rosenthal set up a red bus that took residents to an MTA meeting in Queens. There, they made their voices heard.
But RIOC, a self-serving state agency, does not engage with Roosevelt Islanders anymore.
Just a couple of months ago President/CEO Shelton J. Haynes met with Lieber and NYC Transit President Richard Davey, then our Jackass of the Month winner. Jointly, they announced OMNY for the Tram and scrambled to avoid questions.
There is no evidence that the coming bus redesign was considered or that Haynes even knew about it.
“I have been writing to the MTA for 3 years begging them not to eliminate barrier-free, accessible direct bus service to and from Queens Plaza for folks who live and work on Roosevelt Island,” one Roosevelt Islander noted.
But with RIOC currently riven with disputes and investigations, the agency has the clout and authority of Daffy Duck on a bad day. Roosevelt Islanders can’t be heard above the clatter of in-fighting and racist accusations.
When Representation Was the Promise
There was a time when representation felt like the answer.
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