MTA Bus Renames 8 Express Routes
Yesterday afternoon, MTA Bus announced that it will be renaming 8 of its express bus routes serving Queens & Manhattan. Here are the complete details via the presser I received:
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Bus Company is renaming eight express bus routes that serve Queens and midtown Manhattan, where they travel along two corridors, 6th Avenue and 3rd Avenue. The change will provide more clearly identifiable route numbering and minimize customer confusion. The new route numbers also allow the route branches to be easily identified at-a-glance by customers waiting at the bus stops as the buses approach.
All eight lines serve 6th Avenue between 34th and 57th streets and provide service to 3rd Avenue during peak hours. In Manhattan, each trip operates either on 3rd or 6th Avenues as noted by scrolling destination signs with text indicating “via 3 Av” or “via 6 Av.”
Currently, these express bus routes use the same route label number for both 3rd Avenue and
6th Avenue trips. This labeling makes it difficult for customers traveling to Midtown to identify the specific branch at a glance. All trips on each route makes the same bus stops in Queens, and then in Manhattan each trip either serve 3rd Avenue or 6th Avenue; therefore, at the bus stops in Queens, customers must carefully watch the scrolling bus destination sign to determine which branch the bus serves. Similarly, it takes an extra effort to differentiate the route branches on the various new customer facing and internal technological applications, such as Bus Time.The renaming of these express routes will make clear to customers which bus will operate on 3rd or 6th Avenue once it arrives in Manhattan. Buses that travel along 3rd Avenue are renamed with a double-digit route number beginning with “3” or “4.” Buses that travel on 6th Avenue retain their current route numbers.
Service patterns, hours of service, travel paths and stops remain unchanged for all eight express routes. The timeline of implementation and new route labels are listed below:
July 2016:
Current route number – New 3 Av route number:
QM4 – QM44
QM24 – QM34
September 2016:
Current route number – New 3 Av route number:
QM1 – QM31
QM2 – QM32
QM5 – QM35
QM6 – QM36
QM10 – QM40
QM12 – QM42
xoxo Transit Blogger
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