Leaders, officials, advocate groups and the New York City Department of Department of Transportation (DOT) joined the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) at Fordham Plaza in the Bronx to preview the launch of the borough's local bus network redesign, which goes into effect June 26.
The redesigned network brings foundational improvements that will deliver more reliable bus service, improve connections, reduce wait times and increase bus speeds. It reallocates resources to the portions of the borough with the greatest impact and lays out an adaptable framework to meet real-time travel patterns of current and future bus customers.
“In 2019, over 420,000 customers relied on the Bronx bus network to get them to their destinations,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “Making sure that all New Yorkers have equal opportunity depends on equal access to reliable transit, and buses are vital – especially for seniors, schoolkids and people who don’t live close to subways. I am thrilled to launch a more efficient local bus network that would help deliver better service, and access to jobs, education and opportunity – both within the borough and throughout the city.”
Over recent decades, demographics have shifted in residential and business communities, and so have travel patterns. While service adjustments were made along the way, the redesign provides the larger-scale improvements needed to better meet the demand of today’s riders. The redesigned network consists of 13 significantly modified routes, two new routes and changes on most routes in respect to bus stops and schedules.
“Public transportation widens the scope of reachable destinations for education and employment,” said New York City Transit President Richard Davey. “The Bronx is one of the most bus-dependent boroughs within New York City and we look forward to these changes that will improve the quality of lives of those who rely on it. The redesign is a huge step forward in improving our bus network, but certainly not the last.”
The redesign focuses on:
- Bus stop balancing. Increasing stop spacing is an effective method that allows buses to travel at greater speeds. Bronx bus speeds are among the slowest in the nation, with distances between bus stops averaging 800 feet, compared to 1,000 to 1,680 feet, which is the international average.
- More direct routes. Streamlining circuitous routes and adjusting routes in known areas of street congestion improves travel time due to the reduction of turns and avoidance of traffic.
- Better connections. Route changes strengthen interborough travel to Manhattan and improve accessibility to other areas of the MTA’s transportation network, including subway stations that are ADA accessible. Improved east-west bus connections strengthen intra-borough travel.
- More all-day service. The new local bus network includes additional trips during off-peak hours, weekends and increases service frequencies on eleven routes and nine key corridors.
“The goal behind redesigning a bus network involves finding the ideal balance of incorporating redesign strategies with everyday ridership patterns,” said MTA Bus Company Acting President and New York City Transit Department of Buses Senior Vice President Frank Annicaro. “We are thankful for all the community members and leaders that participated in the feedback process, and the work of the project team that spent hundreds of hours reviewing and revising to deliver a modernized local bus network to the Bronx community.”
The MTA will continue its customer ambassador program leading to implementation and two weeks following the launch to assist customers in the transition to the new bus network. Customers will continue to have access to the project website, which includes informational material such as route profiles, a borough-wide map with color-designated routes, a link to the trip planning tool on the homepage and the new Bronx bus schedules.
The redesign plan included a robust consultation process that incorporated the comments of elected officials, community organizations and everyday riders. The MTA’s Bronx redesign project team collected and extensively reviewed rounds of feedback from six activity-based workshops, nine informational open houses, 28 community board meetings, dozens of on-street and in-station engagements to meet riders where they frequent, and thousands of comments from webmail, phone, mail, social and in-person and online surveys. The MTA says it will continue to monitor ridership patterns and incorporate necessary adjustments in the bus network to better match bus service with current and future travel demands.
“The Bronx Bus Network Redesign will speed up the commutes for hundreds of thousands of daily riders in the borough,” said New York City DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. “Working alongside the MTA, the DOT will be delivering exciting new bus projects along major corridors across the borough to get buses moving through traffic. We thank the MTA and Mayor Adams for their support and collaboration.”
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson added, “This is a great plan and the Bronx is a better borough because of it. The MTA has now built a 21st century network that is responsive to the transit needs of communities throughout the Bronx. The bus network redesign will truly provide a more reliable service to connect bus riders to and from many different locations including work, medical appointments, and visiting family members and friends. It will spur economic growth in our borough at a time when it is truly needed.”
The redesign is part of the MTA’s broader efforts of modernizing and improving the bus network across all boroughs to:
Redesign every borough’s bus network: Staten Island was the first of the boroughs to implement a new express bus network and is seeing improved bus speeds averaging 18 mph compared to 15.7 mph in 2018, prior to implementation. The Bronx Local Bus Network Redesign is the second project to implement new routes and will be followed by the Queens Bus Network Redesign project, which recently concluded a series of public workshops and will soon announce additional summer outreach engagements to continue collecting feedback for its New Draft Plan.
- Modernize bus fleets and facilities. With 60 zero-emissions all-electric buses arriving in the next two years across six different depots, the MTA says it remains committed to its goal of reaching a zero-emission bus fleet by 2040. The first of these new electric buses will begin arriving at depots in the second half of 2022 and will be at all six locations in 2023. Additionally, in support of this goal, the MTA announced a Request for Proposals (RFP) to facilitate the development of an electric bus charging facility on Gun Hill Road in the Baychester neighborhood of the Bronx.
- Improve accessibility and the customer experience. The MTA has continued to roll out new buses with digital screens, new accessibility features such as wider doors, more flexible seating options and ramps designed to make it easier to enter and exit the bus. In partnership with DOT, the MTA will continue to add countdown signs at bus stops across its entire bus network to provide customers with real-time information.
- Expand bus priority. The MTA and DOT recognize that bus lanes and busways are among the most effective tools for increasing bus speeds. In 2021, DOT implemented four new busways, including the implementation of the 181 St Busway Pilot in Washington Heights which has increased bus speeds by up to 34 percent, and installed transit signal priority (TSP) to more than 400 intersections throughout the city so far this year. Additionally, by the end of 2022, bus lane camera enforcement technology will be deployed to all five boroughs with additional expansion planned to increase coverage in 2023.
