NEW YORK CITY — New Yorkers who rely on public transportation will soon have a faster and easier time commuting to LaGuardia Airport, the city announced Thursday.
Three potential new select bus service routes, where riders pay before getting on board, will more quickly connect straphangers from Harlem, Fordham in The Bronx and Jackson Heights to LaGuardia, Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said.
“LaGuardia Airport is a transportation hub and a city unto itself that needs a better connection to the transit network and the region’s economy,” Sadik-Khan said in a statement. “These routes will open the terminal doors to new neighborhoods and bring more reliable local service to people across three boroughs.”
The plan, detailed by the DOT, the MTA and the Port Authority, would shorten bus travel times between around 10 and 40 minutes by upgrading the M60 route from Harlem, and adding new routes in the Bronx and Queens.
The Q33 route in Jackson Heights will be shortened, in order to reduce crowding by separating local passengers from passengers traveling to the airport, the city said.
Under the new select bus service routes, a 32-minute trip from 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in Harlem on the M60 will be cut down to 23 minutes, the agencies said, while a trip from 74th Street and Roosevelt Avenue will go from 23 minutes to nine minutes on a new direct route.
And an 83-minute trip from Fordham Plaza in The Bronx to the airport will be cut a whopping 40 minutes, thanks to a new direct route, the agencies said.
The city says its previous four select bus service routes — on the Bronx's Fordham Road, on First and Second Avenues and on 34th Street in Manhattan and on Staten Island's S79 route — have increased bus speeds by as much as 20 percent.