Garage Michael J. Quill Depot | Livery Select Bus Service | |
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System MTA Regional Bus Operations Operator Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA)
New York City Transit Authority (NYCT) Vehicle Nova Bus LFS articulated Began service September 13, 1992
May 25, 2014 (Select Bus Service) | ||
The M60 Select Bus Service is a bus route in New York City, United States. It is part of MTA Regional Bus Operations, operated by the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority (MaBSTOA) under the New York City Transit brand. The M60 provides service between the Upper West Side of Manhattan and LaGuardia Airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, traveling between boroughs via the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. It is the only direct public transit option between Manhattan and the Airport.
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The M60 was introduced in 1992 as an airport connector, and is usually advertised as such. Much of the M60's passenger load, however, is from its crosstown service along 125th Street in Harlem; the M60 is the busiest of the four bus routes that run along the 125th Street corridor. On May 25, 2014, the M60 was converted into a Select Bus Service (SBS) route to improve service to-and-from the airport, and service along 125th Street.
Route description and service
The M60 begins in the Morningside Heights section of the Upper West Side in Manhattan at West 106th and Broadway. It turns east at 120th Street, and north at Amsterdam Avenue, before turning east onto 125th Street in Manhattanville. Along 125th Street in Harlem, the M60 provides limited-stop service, with the M100, M101 and Bx15 providing local service. At the east end of the street, it enters the Triborough Bridge, crossing into Queens. It then travels along Astoria Boulevard (the service road for the Grand Central Parkway) and 23rd Avenue to 94th Street, providing limited-stop service in the neighborhoods of Astoria and East Elmhurst. The Q19 provides local service along Astoria Boulevard, and the Q33 and Q48 along 23rd Avenue. At 94th Street, the M60 turns north and enters the airport, serving Terminals B, D, and C (in that order) before returning to Manhattan. The M60 features the longest distance between two local bus stops in the city; between Second Avenue and 125th Street in East Harlem and the Astoria Boulevard subway station at 31st Avenue in Astoria.
The M60 connects with several subway lines in Manhattan – the IRT West Side Line, IND Eighth Avenue Line, IRT Lenox Avenue Line, and IRT Lexington Avenue Line – as well as the Harlem–125th Street station of the Metro-North Railroad. It also connects with the BMT Astoria Line (leading to the BMT Broadway Line) in Astoria.
Originally operating out of the Mother Clara Hale Depot and later the Manhattanville Depot both in Upper Manhattan, since January 2015 the M60 operates out of the Michael J. Quill Depot in Midtown.
History
In 1991, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) held a public hearing to discuss a bus route between Manhattan and LaGuardia Airport. The M60 was approved for implementation in mid-1992, and began service on September 13, 1992 between Lenox Avenue−125th Street and the airport. In 1994, it was extended west and south to Claremont Avenue and 118th Street near Columbia University and the 116th Street subway station. The route was shifted onto Broadway in 1995. Between 1997 and 2004, the bus route had an increase in ridership of 237%, leading to a decrease in trip headways from 20 minutes to 15 minutes in 1998, and under 10 minutes by the 2000s. On October 12, 2009, the first luggage rack-equipped bus in the city debuted on the M60, as part of a ten-bus pilot program on airport bus services to improve passenger flow. In 2012, 60-foot (18 m) articulated buses began replacing the standard 40-foot (12 m) buses on the route.
In 2009, the MTA and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) identified the M60 as a potential corridor for Phase II of Select Bus Service (SBS), the city's bus rapid transit service. The M60 was identified under studies to improve crosstown service on 125th Street (which like other crosstown bus corridors was noted for slow travel speeds), and under the LaGuardia Airport Access Alternatives Analysis conducted with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to improve bus service to LaGuardia Airport. A separate outside study in 2011 by the Regional Plan Association proposed creating dedicated busways along the Grand Central Parkway to speed up M60 service. That year, studies and community outreach were conducted, and plans to implement the M60 SBS were announced on October 11, 2012. At the time, the M60 was the heaviest used of the four 125th Street crosstown buses. The plan would turn the M60 local into a limited-stop service along 125th Street, with the number of stops along the corridor reduced from eleven to six. It would add dedicated bus lanes and other improvements to speed travel times, and make the fleet entirely articulated and fully equipped with luggage racks.
Plans for the SBS route were scrapped in July 2013 after opposition from the Harlem community and state senator Bill Perkins, over the potential loss of parking space on 125th Street, and due to a lack of collaboration by the DOT with the community. In October 2013, the plan was reinstated after the proposed bus lanes along 125th Street between Morningside Avenue on the West Side and Lenox Avenue in central Harlem were eliminated. The M60 SBS began service on May 25, 2014. An inauguration ceremony was held two days later.