Q69 and Q100 buses
The Q69 and Q100 Limited bus routes constitutes a public transit line in western Queens, New York City. Beginning at Queens Plaza in Long Island City, the routes run primarily along 21st Street through the neighborhoods of Long Island City and Astoria. The Q69 makes all local stops, while the Q100 makes four limited stops along the shared corridor between Queens Plaza and Ditmars Boulevard. At Ditmars Boulevard, the Q69 turns east towards Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst near LaGuardia Airport. The Q100, meanwhile, continues north of Queens across Bowery Bay to the city jail complex on Rikers Island in the Bronx, providing the only public transit service to the island.
The Q69 was formerly privately operated by the Triboro Coach Corporation, and the Q100 by the Queens Surface Corporation, under subsidized franchises with the New York City Department of Transportation. The Q19A was originally two bus routes, the Q19A and Q33A, which required a transfer in between them at the Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard subway station. They were combined into a single Q19A route by 1960. The Q101R, meanwhile, was created in the 1980s to replace service to Rikers Island, and originally ran non-stop between 21st Street–Queensbridge and Rikers Island. From 2005 to 2006, the routes were taken over by MTA Regional Bus Operations under the MTA Bus Company brand, and renamed to their current designations in 2008. Since then, limited stops were added to the now-Q100 route to improve service along 21st Street.
Route description and service
The Q69 and Q100 both begin on Queens Plaza in Long Island City, sharing a south–north corridor along 21st Street through Long Island City and Astoria. The Q69 provides local service along 21st Street between Queens Plaza and Ditmars Boulevard, while the Q100 provides limited-stop service along the street. Both routes operate out of the LaGuardia Depot in East Elmhurst.Q69
The Q69 begins at 28th Street and Queens Plaza South, near the Queensboro Plaza subway station. Northbound service makes a clockwise loop south along Jackson Avenue and west on 44th Drive, then travels north on 21st Street. At Ditmars Boulevard, the Q69 turns east through the neighborhood of Steinway. It terminates at 82nd Street and Astoria Boulevard in the Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst neighborhoods, near the Marine Air Terminal of LaGuardia Airport. Travel into the airport requires a transfer to the or. The Q69 does not operate during overnight hours.Former Q19A
Before the MTA takeover, the Q69 was known as the Q19A. The Q19A was originally two separate routes. The original Q19A ran between Queens Plaza and the Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard subway station at 31st Avenue. The second route, originally called the Q33A, operated on the eastern portion of the line along Ditmars from the station to 82nd Street in Jackson Heights. During off-peak hours, the Q33A was extended to 102nd Street and Astoria Boulevard, the terminus of what was then the Q19B route and at that time the terminal of the. Through bus riders not destined for the subway had to transfer between buses. The Q33A was also called the 82nd Street Crosstown–Ditmars route. It was later designated Q51. At the Ditmars Boulevard station, the bus stops for both routes were initially located in the middle of the block on 31st Street near the subway entrance.In May 1949, Triboro Coach appealed to the police commissioner for permission to move the bus stop to the intersection of Ditmars Boulevard and 31st Street. Following approval, the bus stop was moved north to the corner of Ditmars and 31st Street. In October 1949, the bus stop was shifted back to the station stairs following protests from commuters. This move was intended to be temporary, but the stop at the corner was not reinstated. At the end of April 1950, Triboro decided to shift the bus stop back to the corner, this time due to several accidents with the pillars of the Astoria elevated line. The original setup at the middle of the block was more convenient for subway riders, as the bus stop was adjacent to the station. As late as 1962, there were calls to reinstate the former setup. The Q19A and Q51 bus routes were merged into a single route around 1960.
Q100
The Q100 begins at Jackson Avenue between Queens Plaza South and 42nd Road, at the Queens Plaza station. After running west through the Queens Plaza area, it turns north onto 21st Street, stopping at the 21st Street–Queensbridge station at the Queensbridge Houses, then making four more stops along the street. At the end of 21st Street in the Ditmars section of Astoria, the Q100 turns east onto 20th Avenue, making a single stop at 31st Street in front of the Astoria Con Edison/New York Power Authority facility. It then turns north onto Hazen Street, connecting with the at 19th Avenue. Travel north of 19th Avenue is within the jurisdiction of the New York City Correction Department. The Q100 makes its final stop in Queens at the Rikers Island parking lot. It then crosses the Rikers Island Bridge onto the island itself, passing through both security checkpoints, and terminating at the Rikers Island visitors center.Though the Q100 is the limited-stop service along the corridor, it runs much less frequently than the Q69. It operates on 10-15 minute headways during daytime hours, 30 minute headways during early mornings and evenings, and 1 hour headways during overnight hours.
The Q100 is the only public transit option to Rikers Island. Otherwise, travel must be done by ferry, car, or privately operated shuttles between either foot of the bridge. Prior to MTA takeover, the then-Q101R operated non-stop between 21st Street–Queensbridge and the Queens Rikers Island parking lot. Although service on the route was expanded in February 2009 to better serve communities along the route, much of the ridership of the Q100 still consists of inmates' family members – who are predominantly women and children – as well as prison employees. The bus also transports some released inmates, particularly women.
History
In the 1930s, the New York City Board of Transportation separated bus service in Queens into four zones. Zone A in Western Queens was awarded to Triboro Coach, including the Q19A franchise along Ditmars Boulevard and 21st Street between the Ditmars Boulevard station and Long Island City. Service on the Q19A began on August 18, 1934, competing with the parallel 31st Street and Vernon Boulevard streetcar lines of the Steinway Railway. In 1938, Triboro began operating a bus route along Ditmars Boulevard east from the Ditmars station to 49th Street in Steinway/East Elmhurst. In 1939, the company proposed the Q33A route along Ditmars as an extension to their existing franchise.During the late 1940s and early 1950s, there were often complaints of overcrowding and bad headways on the Q19A, such as from the Taminent Democratic Club of Long Island City. The overcrowding resulted in passengers waiting for several buses until an empty one arrived. By 1959, the Q33A was renumbered Q51. Around this time, the Q19A and the Q51 were combined into a single Q19A service.
Prior to the creation of the Q101R, the operated by Steinway Transit served Rikers Island, running local down Steinway Street to Queens Plaza, and across the Queensboro Bridge to 59th Street and Second Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. Service to Rikers began around 1967; the bridge from Queens to the island was opened on November 22, 1966. Some local residents complained of having to share the route with Rikers-bound passengers. As a result, the service began being labeled the Q101R in the early 1990s, with the Q101 truncated to Hazen Street and 19th Avenue, no longer serving Rikers Island. Originally, the Q101R ran non-stop between Long Island City and the Rikers Island parking lot running via Steinway Street. Steinway would merge with sister company Queens Transit Corporation to become Queens-Steinway Transit Corporation in 1986. The company became Queens Surface Corporation in 1988.
On February 27, 2005, the MTA Bus Company took over the operations of the Queens Surface routes including the Q101R, part of the city's takeover of all the remaining privately operated bus routes. On February 2, 2006, the operations of Triboro Coach including the Q19A were taken over by MTA Bus. As part of the takeover, the Q101R and other former Steinway Transit routes in western Queens were moved to the former Triboro Coach depot. On April 6, 2008, the Q101R was renumbered as the Q100, and on April 20, 2008, the Q19A was renumbered the Q69. On June 22, 2008, the Q100 stop on 20th Avenue at the Astoria power plant was added. Q100 limited-stop service along 21st Street began on February 1, 2009.