Historically the challenge with the city’s bus schedule was notoriously sluggish buses that didn’t arrive on time. Now, thanks to congestion pricing, more buses are arriving at stops too early.
The shift in traffic patterns has led the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to redesign some of its bus-stop timetables so that early-arriving buses don’t have to wait to get back “on-time” and riders overall can enjoy speedier commutes.
Transit officials launched a new pilot program this month that seeks to make buses more efficient by reworking timetables that were designed before congestion pricing improved traffic. Trip times on buses traveling into Manhattan below 60th Street and within the tolled zone have ticked up since its Jan. 5 launch, and transit officials say they’re working to build on those gains.
“Literally buses are being forced to stop and linger for minutes at certain locations just to maintain schedule, so the bottom line is we’re examining the schedules to see if we can speed those trips up,” said MTA board chair and CEO Janno Leiber.
The pilot program is starting with seven routes — the M11, M31, M42, M50, M66, M101 and the Q32 — that carry commuters outside of the zone into Manhattan’s business district or that travel along major thoroughfares within the zone. The Q32, which launches in Jackson Heights, Queens and ends at Penn Station, is one of several routes that cross the East or Hudson rivers that have seen a marked increase for faster, more reliable trips, MTA data shows.
Manhattan’s pokey buses in particular got a weekday boost last month with peak-hour bus speeds increasing for nearly all crosstown buses operating below 60th Street, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Bus speeds for those lines ticked up between 1% and 5% last month compared to the same time in 2024, according to MTA data.
The M50, for instance, has for years been among Manhattan’s slowest buses, despite service changes, but in January weekday speeds for the route increased by 4% compared to a year earlier, MTA data shows. The change is a modest gain to 5 mph, but it’s at least trending in the right direction.
In 2011, the route earned the dubious title of slowest bus in the city, at 3.5 mph.
“It’s no coincidence that the improvements in bus performance and customer satisfaction align with the launch of the congestion relief zone,” said Frank Annicaro, the senior vice president of the MTA bus company, who acknowledged that the data is preliminary but promising.
