Q60 (New York City bus)

The Q60 bus route constitutes a public transit line running primarily along Queens Boulevard in Queens, New York City, extending from Jamaica into Midtown Manhattan. It is city-operated under the MTA Bus Company brand of MTA Regional Bus Operations.

This article is about the current bus route and former streetcar route. For the subway route along Queens Boulevard, see IND Queens Boulevard Line. For additional information on the current bus services, see List of bus routes in Queens.

q60
Queens Boulevard Line
Overview
SystemMTA Regional Bus Operations
OperatorMTA Bus Company
GarageJFK Depot
Vehicle
Began serviceJanuary 29, 1913 (trolley line)[1]
April 17, 1937 (bus)[1]
Route
LocaleQueens; Manhattan
StartEast Midtown, Manhattan – Second Avenue and 60th Street
ViaQueensboro Bridge, Queens Boulevard, Sutphin Boulevard
EndSouth Jamaica, Queens – 109th Avenue and 157th Street
Service
Operates24 Hours[2]
Annual patronage4,735,158 (2017)[3]
TransfersYes
TimetableQ60
← Q59  {{{system_nav}}}  Q64 →

The route was originally the Queens Boulevard Line, a streetcar line operated by the Manhattan and Queens Traction Company (also known as the Manhattan and Queens Transit Company) from 1913 to 1937, when it became a bus line. The route was taken over by Green Bus Lines in 1943 and operated by that company until its operations were taken over by the MTA in 2006.

Route description

Streetcar route

The streetcar line began at Second Avenue in East Midtown Manhattan. The line proceeded across the Queensboro Bridge into Long Island City, Queens. It then traveled along the entire length of Queens Boulevard, situated in the median of the road, to Jamaica Avenue in Queens. It then traveled a short distance east on Jamaica Avenue, south on 139th Street, and east on Archer Avenue to Rockaway Road (later Sutphin Boulevard) at the Jamaica terminal of the Long Island Rail Road. The line proceeded south on Sutphin Boulevard to 109th Avenue (previously Lambertville Avenue and Pacific Street) and 157th Street (previously Norris Avenue) in South Jamaica.[1][4][5][6][7]

The streetcars used the outermost roadways of the Queensboro Bridge's lower level, and ran to an underground terminal between 59th and 60th Streets. These tracks were shared with the Third Avenue Railway's 42nd Street Crosstown Line. Other streetcar lines ran in the inner roadways of the lower level.[8][9] The bridge was also shared with elevated rapid transit service between the Queensboro Plaza station (now a subway station) and the Second and Third Avenue elevated lines. The southern (eastbound) roadway has since been converted to vehicular use, while the northern (westbound) roadway is now a pedestrian and bike path.[10]

Current bus service

The current Q60 bus service follows the former trolley route from East Midtown to South Jamaica via Queens Boulevard and Sutphin Boulevard. During daytime hours, alternate buses begin or end service at Sutphin Boulevard and Archer Avenue. The bus route shares Queens Boulevard with two New York City Subway lines: the IRT Flushing Line (7 and <7>​ trains) between Queensboro Plaza and Roosevelt Avenue, and the IND Queens Boulevard Line (E, ​F, <F>, ​M, and ​R trains) between Grand Avenue and Hillside Avenue. The segment of Queens Boulevard between Grand Avenue and 63rd Drive is also shared by the Q59 bus, while the segment west of Roosevelt Avenue is shared with the Q32. The Q60 shares the Queensboro Bridge with the Q32 and Q101, and shares Sutphin Boulevard with the Q6 and Q40, which travel farther south to the vicinity of John F. Kennedy International Airport.[2][11][12][13][14]

History
Two former Green Bus Lines buses (since retired) on Q60 service under the MTA.

Streetcar service

In 1909, the Manhattan and Queens Traction Company was granted a perpetual franchise by the city to build a streetcar line along Queens Boulevard towards the Queens-Nassau County border.[15][16] On March 30, 1909, the Queensboro Bridge opened between Long Island City in Queens and Midtown Manhattan.[8] Beginning on September 17 of that year, several trolley lines began service over the bridge.[8] Construction on the Queens Boulevard Line began on November 2, 1912.[17] On January 29, 1913, the Manhattan and Queens Traction Company began service over the bridge and along Queens Boulevard between Second Avenue and the intersection of 48th Street and Greenpoint Avenue in Woodside, Queens, near the current 46th Street – Bliss Street subway station.[1][4][8][17] The line was extended east to Winfield (now a subsection of Woodside) on April 26, Grand Avenue in Elmhurst on July 28, and 71st Avenue in Forest Hills on August 27.[1] On January 23, 1914, the line was extended to Hillside Avenue at the end of Queens Boulevard. On January 31 it was extended south to the Jamaica LIRR station.[1][4] In April 1916, a shuttle service was instituted between Jamaica station and South Street (now South Road).[6] The line was extended along Sutphin Boulevard to its final terminus at 109th Avenue and 157th Street on April 26, 1916.[1][4] In 1917, a spur of the line along Van Dam Street in Long Island City (called the Van Dam Industrial Spur or the Industrial Center line) was inaugurated.[1]

The Queens Boulevard line was originally planned to extend along 109th Avenue and Central Avenue (later known as Linden Boulevard) to St. Albans and Cambria Heights at the Nassau County line, a total distance of 15.5 miles (24.9 km).[6][16][17] In 1918, an extension of the line was constructed east along 109th Avenue to 167th Street (near Merrick Boulevard). These tracks, however, were never used in service.[1]

Decline and conversion to bus service

Beginning in the 1920s, many streetcar lines in Queens and in the rest of the city were replaced by buses, particularly after the unification of the city's three primary transit companies in June 1940.[18][19] The Queens Boulevard line began losing patronage and profits in the 1910s, due to the city-imposed 5-cent fare, and competition from parallel elevated rail and subway service running through Queensboro Plaza.[8][20] The line also ran through sparsely populated territory, leading to low passenger use.[4] Municipal buses replaced trolleys on a temporary basis during a worker strike in August 1920.[20][21] Later that year on December 10, the Public Service Commission permitted the railway to charge a two-zone fare (10 cents) for travel past Grand Avenue in either direction.[4] This was later extended east to Old Mill Road (now 63rd Road) in November 1923.[22] Around this time, the city began to undertake a major widening project for Queens Boulevard. The railway company, however, refused to allow the city to remove the trolley tracks from the road, delaying the project for a decade until the 1930s.[16][23][24]

As part of the widening project, in 1925 it was proposed to replace the trolley franchise with bus service.[25] By 1927, civic groups from communities along the Queens Boulevard line began to push a takeover of the line's operations by the Fifth Avenue Coach Company to convert it to bus service.[26][27][28] In October 1935, the city announced plans to convert the line into a bus route, as part of a deal with the railway to remove its tracks and facilitate the renovation project.[16] In 1936 the railroad company would reorganize as the Manhattan and Queens Bus Corporation.[5] On December 13 of that year, a ten-year bus franchise was awarded to the company by the office of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia. In exchange, the company would pay the city $318,000 in back taxes, and the two parties ended two decades of litigation over the removal of the trolley tracks.[15][29][30] Bus service began on April 17, 1937, replacing trolley service along Queens Boulevard.[1][8][31] The operations of the Manhattan and Queens Transit Company were acquired by Green Bus Lines in 1943, and the Q60 became part of Green Lines' operations.[32]

The Q60 was one of the busiest bus routes in the Green Lines system, along with the Q10 along Lefferts Boulevard.[12][13] In 1999, the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) planned to launch a tracking and countdown clock program on the Q60 route, separate from the MTA's efforts to install a bus tracking system. The DOT planned to put it in operation by 2002, but the system was never implemented.[33][34]

MTA takeover

On January 9, 2006, the MTA Bus Company took over the operations of the Green Lines routes, part of the city's takeover of all the remaining privately operated bus routes.[35][36][37] Under the MTA in August 2007, overnight service on the Q60 was added.[38]

On November 1, 2008, over 20 stops along the Q60 route were eliminated. According to the MTA, this was to improve travel times and maintain 750 feet (230 m) of space between bus stops as dictated by regulations. The changes led to complaints from local communities, due to many senior citizens who use the route.[39][40][41]

On April 19, 2010, alternate weekday daytime and evening Q60 buses began short-turning at Archer Avenue and Sutphin Boulevard, instead of continuing to South Jamaica.[42]

References
  1. Seyfried, Vincent F. (1950). "Full text of "New York and Queens County Railway and the Steinway Lines, 1867-1939."". archive.org. Vincent F. Seyfried. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  2. MTA Regional Bus Operations. "Q60 bus schedule" (PDF).
  3. "Facts and Figures". mta.info. August 28, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  4. "Several Queens Trolley Lines Quit 70 Years Ago". New York Division Bulletin. Electric Railroaders Association. 50 (10): 1, 4. October 2007. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
  5. Broderick, Lee (February 4, 1936). "Bus Must Use Trolley Route, Jamaican Say". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 6. Retrieved January 2, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "Install Shuttle Service: Better Trolley Facilities Assured for Jamaica Section" (PDF). The New York Times. April 30, 1916. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  7. Roger P. Roess; Gene Sansone (August 23, 2012). The Wheels That Drove New York: A History of the New York City Transit System. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 81. ISBN 978-3-642-30484-2.
  8. "Queensborough Bridge Centennial". New York Division Bulletin. Electric Railroaders Association. 52 (3): 1–5. March 2009. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
  9. Kerson, Paul E. (August 15, 1994). "Planned Airport Rail Can Use Little-Known East Side Terminal". The New York Times. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  10. "Queensboro Bridge Rehabilitation Program". New York City Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on March 30, 2008. Retrieved March 13, 2010.
  11. "Queens Bus Map" (PDF). Metropolitan Transportation Authority. September 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  12. "Analysis of Routes and Ridership of a Franchise Bus Service: Green Bus Lines" (PDF). utrc2.org/. City College of New York. October 2000. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
  13. Urbitran Associates, Inc (May 2004). "NYCDOT Bus Ridership Survey and Route Analysis Final Report: Chapter 4 Operating and Financial Performance" (PDF). nyc.gov. New York City Department of Transportation. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  14. "Appendix B: Route Profiles" (PDF). nyc.gov. New York City Department of Transportation. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
  15. "Buses to Replace Queens Blvd. Cars Within Six Weeks: Traction Co. Pays City $318,000 on Old Tax in City Hall Ceremony". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. December 13, 1936. p. 19. Retrieved January 2, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Queens Boulevard To Get A Bus Line: Mayor Surprises Harvey With Agreement for Early Removal of Disputed Car Tracks" (PDF). The New York Times. October 6, 1935. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  17. "New Queens Trolley Road: One Section of New Line to Jamaica Opened" (PDF). The New York Times. February 2, 1913. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  18. Sparberg, Andrew J. (October 1, 2014). From a Nickel to a Token: The Journey from Board of Transportation to MTA. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-6190-1.
  19. Seyfried, Vincent F. (1961). "Full text of "Story of the Long Island Electric Railway and the Jamaica Central Railways, 1894-1933 /"". archive.org. F. E. Reifschneider. Retrieved December 20, 2015.
  20. "Hylan Jitney Bus In Elmhurst Crash Overturns; 27 Hurt: Locked Wheels With Touring Car in queens Boulevard Jam. Both Cars Wrecked". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. August 30, 1920. Retrieved January 2, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. "City Bus Line for Jamaica: Service to Manhattan Starts Today Along Suspended Trolley Routes" (PDF). The New York Times. August 16, 1920. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  22. "5-Cent Ride Extended: New Fare Point Fixed on Manhattan & Queens Trolley System" (PDF). The New York Times. November 1, 1923. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  23. "Deadlock Delays Queens BoulevarD: Removal of Trolley Tracks Leads to a Controversy Which Prevents Improvement" (PDF). The New York Times. July 19, 1924. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  24. "Work On Queens Road Soon: Contractors to Get Order to Move Tracks on Boulevard" (PDF). The New York Times. March 9, 1927. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  25. "Opposes Bus Line Plan: Traction Company to Fight Queens Boulevard Project" (PDF). The New York Times. July 31, 1925. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  26. "Action Is Put Off On Buses In Queens: Delaney Board Favors Delay in Granting Franchises for Boulevard Line" (PDF). The New York Times. June 10, 1927. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  27. "Plan To Get Bus Line On Queens Boulevard: Civic Workers in Move to Supplement Trolley Service or Scrap It" (PDF). The New York Times. July 18, 1926. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  28. "Queens Blvd. Bus Plan Meets Favor: Civic Groups Approve Move to End Trolleys". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. April 17, 1927. p. 18. Retrieved January 2, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. "Mayor Signs Grant Dooming Car Line: Approves Franchise for buses to Queens Upon Payment of $318,000 Back Taxes" (PDF). The New York Times. December 13, 1936. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  30. "Franchise Hearing: Motor Omnibus Lines, Queens" (PDF). Long Island Daily Press. Fultonhistory.com. December 4, 1936. p. 28. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  31. "To Welcome Queens Bus Line" (PDF). The New York Times. April 14, 1937. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
  32. "Green Bus Lines, Inc., Triboro Coach Corporation, Jamaica Central Railways, Inc". sec.gov. GTJ Reit, Inc. February 9, 2007. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  33. Campanile, Carl (June 15, 1999). "TA'S IN ORBIT OVER ITS NEW BUS-TRACKER SYSTEM". New York Post. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  34. Topousis, Tom (November 15, 2000). "CITY'S DOT TO TRAIN EYE IN SKY ON BUSES". New York Post. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  35. Silverman, Norman (July 26, 2010). "The Merger of 7 Private Bus Companies into MTA Bus" (PDF). apta.com. American Public Transportation Association, Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 16, 2015. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
  36. Lueck, Thomas J. (April 23, 2005). "City to Buy Private Bus Company for Service in Three Boroughs". The New York Times. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  37. "Mayor Bloomberg Announces MTA Takeover of Green Bus Lines". The official website of the City of New York. January 8, 2006. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
  38. "Q60 Bus Schedule: Effective Summer 2007" (PDF). mta.info. MTA Bus Company. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 29, 2007. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  39. "MTA Bus Service Changes". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. December 2008. Archived from the original on December 24, 2008. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
  40. Goldman, Sam (November 20, 2008). "MTA Takes Over 20 Stops Away From Q60 Bus Route: Boards 2 And 6 Caught Off-Guard". Times Newsweekly. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  41. Goldman, Sam (December 18, 2008). "MTA Bus Co. VP Defends Q60 Changes: Claims Service, Reliability Will Improve". Times Newsweekly. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  42. "mta.info | Planned Service Changes". April 27, 2010. Archived from the original on April 27, 2010. Retrieved January 1, 2016.

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