Just over a year after completing an overhaul of Queens’ bus network, MTA officials said on Monday that they found “The World’s Borough’s” buses to be running faster and more reliably than before.
Evan Bialostozky, the MTA’s senior director of network redesigns and special projects for bus service planning, said that since the “Queens Bus Network Redesign,” local buses are moving faster on weekdays by an average of 1.7%. At the same time, he said, their off-peak speeds jumped by nearly 2%.
Bialostozky said the findings came from a comparison in bus performance between the springs of 2025 and 2026 — before and after the redesign took effect. He highlighted the data in a presentation during the Oct. 26 MTA Board committee meetings.
“Many bus routes are faster, many bus routes are more reliable,” Bialostozky said. “Overall, riders are spending less time waiting for the bus and less time on the bus. Riders with the longest trips are benefiting from the new network. Extended routes and adjusted routes are getting people to key destinations faster.”
Furthermore, 24 of the 25 bus routes that saw the greatest speed jumps across the city during the period of the MTA’s analysis were in Queens, according to the agency. Forty-one Queens bus routes experienced speed boosts of 3% during that time as well.
MTA New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow, also speaking during Monday’s committee meeting, said the redesign sought to accomplish four key objectives: “faster travel, better connections, more reliable service, and simplified service” for the borough’s roughly 800,000 daily bus riders.
MTA officials say Queens Bus Network redesign made ‘The World’s Borough’ buses faster, more reliable
