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Q58 (New York City bus)

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For additional information on the current bus service, see List of bus routes in Queens.

q58
q58
Flushing–Ridgewood Line
Fresh Pond Road Line
A Q58 bus
A 2015 XD40 (7252) on the Ridgewood-bound Q58 in Elmhurst, Queens, at Broadway/Justice Avenue in November 2019.
Overview
SystemMTA Regional Bus Operations
OperatorNew York City Transit Authority
GarageFresh Pond Depot
VehicleOrion VII NG HEV
New Flyer Xcelsior XD40
Began serviceJune 20, 1896 (Fresh Pond Road Line)
November 1899 (Flushing–Ridgewood Line)
July 17, 1949 (bus)[1] September 13, 2010 (Q58 Limited)
Route
LocaleQueens, New York, U.S.
Communities servedRidgewood, Maspeth, Elmhurst, Corona, Flushing
StartRidgewood Intermodal Terminal
ViaFresh Pond Road, Flushing Avenue, Grand Avenue, Broadway, Corona Avenue, Horace Harding Expressway, College Point Boulevard
EndFlushing – Main Street & 41st Road
Length8.3 miles (13.4 km)
Other routesQ59 Grand Street/Grand Avenue
Service
Operates24 hours
Annual patronage7,119,884 (2023)[2]
TransfersYes
TimetableQ58
← Q56  {{{system_nav}}}  Q59 →

The Q58 and Q58 Limited are bus routes that constitute a public transit line operating primarily in Queens, New York City, with its southern terminal on the border with Brooklyn. The Q58 is operated by the MTA New York City Transit Authority. Its precursor was a streetcar line that began operation in November 1899.[3] and was known variously as the Flushing–Ridgewood Line, the Corona Avenue Line,[1] and the Fresh Pond Road Line. The route became a bus line in 1949.[1]

The Q58 operates between two major bus/subway hubs: the Ridgewood Terminal on the border of Ridgewood, Queens and Bushwick, Brooklyn; and the Flushing – Main Street terminal in Downtown Flushing, Queens. It is the busiest bus line in the borough of Queens,[4] and the second busiest in the city, after the M15, with 7.12 million people riding the route in 2023.[2]

Route description

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The original route of the Flushing–Ridgewood streetcar began at 41st Road and Main Street in Downtown Flushing, just south of the Main Street station of the Long Island Rail Road, and several blocks south of the Main Street subway station on the IRT Flushing Line. It ran south on Lawrence and Rodman Streets, and west on Horace Harding Boulevard to Corona, crossing the Flushing River at Strong's Causeway. It then ran generally west along the winding Corona Avenue to Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst, and on Grand Avenue to Maspeth. Between Junction Boulevard in Corona and the intersection of Grand and Flushing Avenues in Maspeth, the line shared a right-of-way with the Grand Street Line. After a short portion on Flushing Avenue and 61st Street, it ran south down Fresh Pond Road to the Fresh Pond Road station of the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line, where a major trolley barn existed. It then followed the right-of-way of the Myrtle El and former Lutheran Cemetery Surface Line to its own dedicated barn at the Ridgewood Depot, located at Palmetto Street underneath the Myrtle–Wyckoff Avenue elevated station.[1][3][5][6][7]

The current Q58 bus route follows the former trolley route, with some exceptions. The right-of-ways of Lawrence Street and Rodman Street along the route have since been replaced with College Point Boulevard, while the Long Island Expressway was built over the corridor containing Horace Harding Boulevard and Strong's Causeway. Some northbound buses may terminate at Long Island Expressway and 108th Street, and some southbound buses may terminate at Fresh Pond Road and 67th Avenue. The former trolley barn at Fresh Pond Road is now the Fresh Pond Bus Depot in Ridgewood, where the route is now dispatched from (during 2019, the route was dispatched from the Grand Avenue Depot in Maspeth).[4][8][9][10][11][12] Due to using several different streets, including winding roads and many tight turns, the Q58 consistently ranks among the slowest bus routes in New York City, and has been cited for pedestrian safety issues.[9][13] Short strips of the trolley tracks still exist in Ridgewood, at 60th Place and at Woodbine Street underneath the Myrtle El. Tracks on the rest of the route were paved over.[14][15]

History

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Streetcar service

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A 1996 Nova Bus RTS-06 (9144) on the Ridgewood-bound Q58 bus entering service in Flushing.

The streetcar line was operated by the Brooklyn and Queens Transit Corporation, a subsidiary of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) and later Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) which operated many streetcar lines, and several rapid transit lines including some of the city's first subway lines.[3][16] The line began operation on June 20, 1896 as the Fresh Pond Road Line, running the same route except turning north at Junction Boulevard (then Junction Avenue) and Corona Avenue towards Bowery Bay (the current site of LaGuardia Airport).[3] In November 1899, the Flushing–Ridgewood routing began service. Around this time, the Junction Boulevard portion of the line became a shuttle known as the North Beach Line, while the Grand Street Line was truncated to the Maspeth Trolley Depot at Grand Avenue and 69th Street.[3] On October 19, 1919, the line was extended from the Fresh Pond Depot south to Ridgewood terminal at the Brooklyn-Queens line.[17] Between 1939 and 1940, the line served passengers going to the 1939 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park.[3][16][18]

Bus service

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Beginning in the 1920s, many streetcar lines in Queens, Brooklyn, and the rest of the city began to be replaced by buses, particularly after the unification of city's three primary transit companies (including the BMT) under municipal operations in June 1940.[8] Buses began running on the line as early as 1946.[19] On June 30, 1949, the New York City Board of Estimate approved the full motorization of the line with buses.[20] The Flushing–Ridgewood line was officially replaced by city-owned buses on July 17, 1949,[1][5] The line was designated B58 ("B" the designation for buses based in Brooklyn), and the line was renamed the Corona Avenue Line. The early fleet consisted of General Motors-built buses.[1][5]

On July 27, 1960, the B58 was moved to the newly opened Fresh Pond Bus Depot, after operating from bus depots in Brooklyn.[12] During the 1964 New York World's Fair, the B58 was rerouted to stop at the Rodman Street entrance of Flushing Meadows Park.[21][22] On December 11, 1988, the B58 was renumbered Q58.[23] Due to slow trips and high passenger load, limited-stop service was added to the route on September 12, 2010.[4][24] Community Boards 5 and 8 had been asking for the introduction of limited-stop service for the Q58 for years, but limited service was only added at this time because the Q58 had reached the headway required for limited-stop service. On January 6, 2019, the Q58 was moved to the Grand Avenue Depot, possibly in preparation for conversion to Select Bus Service (SBS), since the Grand Avenue Depot can hold the articulated buses used on the SBS system. However, the Q58 was moved back to the Fresh Pond Depot on January 19, 2020.[25]

A 2018 XDE40 (9506) on the Q58 at Broadway/Justice Avenue in November 2019, when the Q58 was assigned to Grand Avenue Depot

Bus redesign

[edit]

In December 2019, the MTA released a draft redesign of the Queens bus network.[26][27] As part of the redesign, the Q58 would have become a "intra-borough" route called the QT58, and it would be rerouted east of 108th Street to use Roosevelt Avenue rather than Horace Harding Expressway and College Point Boulevard. A new "high-density" route known as the QT6 would have been created, running parallel to the QT58 from Myrtle–Wyckoff Avenues to Grand Avenue–Newtown before running along Queens Boulevard, Horace Harding Expressway, and College Point Boulevard. The QT6 would have fewer stops than the QT58.[28] The redesign was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City in 2020,[29] and the original draft plan was dropped due to negative feedback.[30]

A revised plan was released in March 2022.[31] Under the new plan, the Q58 would use 111st Street and Roosevelt Avenue to cross Flushing Meadows Park. A new "crosstown" route with limited stops, the Q98, was also proposed; it would duplicate the QT6 proposal and would make many of the same stops as the existing Q58 Limited. West of the intersection of Grand Avenue and Queens Boulevard, the Q98 would follow the Q58. East of that intersection, the Q98 would run along Queens Boulevard, Horace Harding Expressway, and College Point Boulevard.[32] A final bus-redesign plan was released in December 2023.[33][34] The Q58 would retain its existing routing via Corona Avenue and the Long Island Expressway but would be a "limited" route, with slightly fewer stops than the existing Q58 local service.[35]: 281–282  The new Q98 route would still be a crosstown or Select Bus Service route; it would follow the Q58 west of the intersection of Grand Avenue and Queens Boulevard, and it would run on Queens Boulevard, Horace Harding Expressway, and College Point Boulevard east of that intersection. The combined frequencies of the Q58 and Q98 would be increased slightly compared with the existing Q58/Q58 Limited service.[35]: 370–371 

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Buses to Replace Crosstown Trolley". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. July 14, 1949. Retrieved September 30, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b "Subway and bus ridership for 2023". mta.info. April 29, 2024. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Roberts, John A. "A Grand Tale of Two Trolley Lines". Juniper Park Civic Association. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Pozarycki, Robert (September 16, 2010). "Q58 Limited Service Begins: MTA Aims To Make Commuting Faster". TimesNewsweekly. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  5. ^ a b c "Public Notices". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. June 23, 1949. Retrieved December 17, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Branford Electric Railway Association (September 29, 2008). Brooklyn Streetcars. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-2045-8.
  7. ^ "New L Train Service to Lutheran Cemetery: B.R.T. Opens a Line To-morrow That Takes Passengers Into Queens County". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. September 30, 1906. p. 33. Retrieved September 28, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ a b Sparberg, Andrew J. (October 1, 2014). From a Nickel to a Token: The Journey from Board of Transportation to MTA. Fordham University Press. ISBN 978-0-8232-6190-1.
  9. ^ a b Pozarycki, Robert (December 26, 2013). "Getting Nowhere Fast: Q58 Slowest Bus in Queens Again". TimesNewsweekly. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  10. ^ MTA Regional Bus Operations. "Q58 bus schedule".
  11. ^ "A Reader Clarifies Location Of Old Trolley Car Crossing". Times Newsweekly. July 31, 2003. Archived from the original on September 12, 2015. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
  12. ^ a b "$2 Million Bus Garage to Open". Long Island Star-Journal. Fultonhistory.com. May 24, 1960. p. 14. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
  13. ^ Giudice, Anthony (February 26, 2015). "Fixing Fatal Turns: MTA Eyes Bus Changes At Deadly Ridgewood/Bushwick Corner". TimesNewsweekly. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  14. ^ "#58 TROLLEY". Forgotten New York. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  15. ^ "Ridgewood Trolley Relics". Forgotten New York. January 3, 2000. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  16. ^ a b "Trolley Line Objects To Bus Route to Fair". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. May 10, 1939. p. 3. Retrieved December 17, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Surface Lines Re-Routed and Transfers Abolished". Brooklyn Standard Union. Fultonhistory.com. October 17, 1919. p. 1. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
  18. ^ Stephen L. Meyers (2006). Lost Trolleys of Queens and Long Island. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-4526-4.
  19. ^ "He Missed a Bus, City Misses a Bus, Cops Give a Lift". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. September 1, 1946. p. 3. Retrieved December 17, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Shifts to Buses Okayed by Board". Long Island Star-Journal. Fultonhistory.com. July 1, 1949. p. 7. Retrieved March 21, 2016.
  21. ^ "2 New Bus Routes Will Link Brooklyn With World's Fair" (PDF). The New York Times. February 5, 1964. Retrieved December 17, 2015.
  22. ^ "TA Schedules Fair Buses" (PDF). Long Island Star-Journal. Fultonhistory.com. March 23, 1964. p. 3. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
  23. ^ "All Aboard...Somewhere...for Subway Changes!". New York Times. December 12, 1988. p. B1.
  24. ^ Pozarycki, Robert (May 20, 2010). "A Faster Ride On Local Bus: MTA Makes Plans For Q58 Limited Line". TimesNewsweekly. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
  25. ^ "Transit Committee Meeting May 2010" (PDF). mta.info. May 24, 2010. pp. 116–120. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 25, 2010. Retrieved May 14, 2017.
  26. ^ Acevedo, Angélica (December 17, 2019). "MTA gives 'sneak peek' of transformative Queens bus network redesign plan". QNS.com. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  27. ^ "MTA Unveils Draft Proposal to Redesign Bus Network in Queens". Spectrum News NY1 | New York City. December 31, 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  28. ^ "Draft Plan, Queens Bus Network Redesign". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. December 2019. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  29. ^ "Queens bus network redesign remains on hold amid COVID-19 pandemic: MTA". QNS.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2020. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  30. ^ Duggan, Kevin (December 15, 2021). "MTA to release 'totally redone' Queens bus network redesign draft in early 2022". amNewYork. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  31. ^ Duggan, Kevin (March 29, 2022). "FIRST ON amNY: MTA reveals new Queens bus redesign draft plan". amNewYork. Retrieved March 29, 2022.
  32. ^ "Draft Plan, Queens Bus Network Redesign". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. March 2022. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
  33. ^ Brachfeld, Ben (December 12, 2023). "MTA unveils final proposal for Queens bus network redesign". amNewYork. Retrieved December 13, 2023.
  34. ^ Shkurhan, Iryna (December 13, 2023). "MTA unveils final plan to overhaul Queens bus network for the first time in decades". QNS.com. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  35. ^ a b "Final Plan, Queens Bus Network Redesign". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. December 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2020.
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