TA

Apologies -- I just have to vent this gripe.

After riding the express E train from Midtown to Roosevelt Ave / Jackson Heights (which was by comparison, pleasant and fast), I was amazed how frustrating and ridiculously slow the Q33 bus is as a public transport option to LGA.

OK, I realize that this bus has an obligation to serve a lot of different people, not just airport travelers. And I realize that traffic along Roosevelt Ave, and Northern Blvd was bad around rush hour.

But the lack of convenient, fast, public transport options to LGA is an embarrassment to NYC. The bus was packed, and it took us in all seriousness 45 minutes to go the 3 miles from the station to LGA, along tiny streets, stuck in traffic, stopping every 50 yards. For a good portion of the trip I could actually have walked faster.

Sorry for overgeneralizing, but is this not a poor reflection on the city, that you cannot reach one of the most important transportation hubs by a reasonable public means? (and perhaps exaggeratingly to go even further, I thought to myself, "crumbling infrastructure" for much of the ride)

Does the city assume that it's just all business travelers who can easily afford a cab ride, so they don't have to focus on this? There were some foreign travelers on the bus, going to the airport, and I could help but wonder what they must think. Well, at $2.25, I guess you have little to complain about, but still.

sorry for the venting.

xanthuos

I would suggest taking the N/Q instead to Astoria Boulevard and transferring to the M60 bus.

vatraveler

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8320/4.5.0.81 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

M60 is faster, but it can be terribly overcrowded.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

I agree the M60 can be out of control crowded. You would think that the MTA would run an express bus from Jackson Heights directly to LGA say every 30 minutes during peak hours and maybe once an hour before 5 or 6AM. But given the management skill of the MTA hell will probably freeze over first.

justforfun

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that someone has been getting paid a lot of money over the years to keep LGA isolated.

Analise

Is the city embarrassed? No. We just deal with it and allow time to get to LGA. 45 minutes? Try sitting on the Q33 or Q47 when all of a sudden you're stuck because an ambulance stopped in front of your bus because of an emergency. You'll get really ticked off about it but then realize that these guys are saving someone's life. It puts everything into perspective.

magiciansampras

I'm sure the taxi cab association has an interest in keeping LGA bus-only.

themicah

It's $2.25. Two dollars and twenty-five cents. Actually $2.09 after the 7% bonus.

Seriously, if you find the bus too slow, just take a taxi or black car between LGA and the subway. It'll add $10-15 to your tab, but will cut a bunch of time off.

Blumie

I take both the M60 and the Q33 to LGA a lot -- probably 50 times a year for the past several years -- and I find that the vast, vast, vast majority of the time they're remarkably efficient. Even when the Q33 hits heave traffic, which it does a lot, it typically only adds about 15 minutes to the trip (although I know from my experience that it feels like a lot more). It is exceedingly rare when I can't get between LGA and my office near Bryant Park or my home in Chelsea in an hour. Very few U.S. cities have as good, or as inexpensive, public transportation to the airport as NYC has to LGA.

neuron

given the MTA shortfalls, I doubt there will be any service improvements for a long time.

I take the M60 quite a bit, the service in Queens is fast but it does get crowded quickly - would be nice to get articulated buses on this route, though there may be a logistical issue preventing its use.

magiciansampras

Really? I consider BOS and DCA to both have better public transportation to their respective cities. In Boston with the silver line, buses, and blue line I can get to Back Bay very quickly. In D.C. having a metro station literally connected to the airport is huge. The only pain in the butt place in the city to reach is Georgetown. I'd even give PHL a shout-out with its SEPTA train station right across the street and various public buses into the city.

I think the main drawback for LGA is that you are really bus-dependent. If it was a very short ride to the subway, like it is at BOS, it would be much better IMHO.

Blumie

First, I said "very few," not "none!" Boston and DC are much smaller than NYC, so the trips are faster, but I consider their public transportation options similar to NYC's -- Boston, in particular, where one must ride a bus (either the Silver Line or the MassPort shuttle bus) to get to the subway.

People seem to have an aversion to buses, presumably because buses can and do get stuck in traffic. But when you consider that a bus-to-subway trip from LGA rarely takes more than an hour to most parts of Manhattan for $2.25, compared to $30-$40 for a 30- to 60-minute taxi ride, it's a pretty darn good system, IMHO.

magiciansampras

My only gripe with your analysis here is that the bus --> subway at BOS is far different than the bus --> subway at LGA. With BOS you literally don't leave Logan's grounds - it's a 2 minute ride. It's a different beast at LGA where you have to go on city streets.

That said, BOS would be much more convenient if you could just walk to the subway, like you can in DCA.

Blumie

I don't disagree that I'd love to see subway or train service directly to LGA (and to BOS -- I hate that MassPort shuttle bus!), but I do firmly believe that the public transportation options currently available to LGA are very good, and far better than people like the OP give them credit for.

magiciansampras

I agree with that.

Then again, I'm close to the m60 terminus so going to LGA I always get a seat.