Q70 soon to be free ride to LGA
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The Q70 bus to LaGuardia Airport will be free to riders starting May 1, Governor Kathy Hochul announced this week. Photo via MTA
By Jacob Kaye
As the Port Authority continues to weigh a number of alternative public transit options to LaGuardia Airport, those taking to the skies or coming home will soon have a free way to access the airport – at least, temporarily.
Starting May 1, the Q70 bus to LaGuardia Airport will be free to riders, Governor Kathy Hochul announced this week. The bus offers a direct connection between the airport and the 74th Street-Broadway/Jackson Heights Roosevelt Avenue station.
“I thought that it made a lot of sense that the Q70 bus could be this interim means to let people know that this is a good way to get from the airport to the next station, 10 minutes away,” Hochul said.
The governor said Wednesday that she got the idea from a recently published editorial from the New York Daily News’ editorial board suggesting the free service.
“When there are ideas that are out there that make sense to us, we’re not going to debate it and study it and think about it for a long time — I’m a person of action,” Hochul said.
The “LaGuardia Link” bus is equipped with luggage racks and also connects with passengers using the Long Island Rail Road via the 61st Street Woodside station.
The temporary change in service comes as the Port Authority follows a directive from the governor to reconsider its original plan to build an AirTrain from the Mets-Willets Point subway station to the airport, which is currently undergoing an $8 billion renovation.
Following Hochul’s October request, the Port Authority crafted 13 additional transit options to get passengers to the airport quicker and to limit traffic on Queens streets.
Those alternatives, which include a new AirTrain route, bus service, ferry service, extended subway lines and emerging technologies like small group pods that would run on a track, were presented to the public in early March.
Several weeks later, the agency held two public workshops on the options. The first was held at the LaGuardia Marriott Hotel on March 16. Members of the public made their way through the hotel’s ballroom and were able to ask questions about each plan, which were displayed on poster boards.
Queens State Senator Jessica Ramos, who led the opposition against the original AirTrain plan, told the Eagle at the public workshop that increased bus service to the airport should be a given, regardless of what alternative is eventually chosen.
Ramos celebrated the move to make the Q70 free on Wednesday.
“Free rides on the Q70 is a no-brainer, it’s something my neighbors and people who work at or around LaGuardia have consistently been asking for,” Ramos said in a statement to the Eagle. “The fundamental problem of needing a top-of-the line path to LaGuardia is still something to be worked on, but as I’ve reiterated, it's also an opportunity to address generations of neglect and transit challenges.”
“This move is another promising step in the right direction,” she added.
The Port Authority’s review of the plans is ongoing. Though many of the alternatives were reviewed by the Federal Aviation Administration during its review of the original AirTrain, the alternatives presented in March do not have any price tags attached to them, nor any concrete studies.
The current review process has no fleshed out timeline – the review is not a codified process, unlike the FAA’s review, which has legally defined parameters.
On Thursday, Hochul said that the project is “going to need real leadership between the MTA and the Port Authority and the Governor's Office.”
“And we'll get that done,” she added.
