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New bus line in Rosedale to shorten long commute

By Juan Soto

Rosedale and Far Rockaway residents will keep an eye on the New York City Transit/MTA Bus meeting that is scheduled to take place Monday at MTA headquarters.

During a public hearing, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will decide whether to create a new bus line to connect straphangers in those two neighborhoods to subway stations in Jamaica.

The new Q114 would be a limited-stop bus line. The new service could be up and running by the end of the summer.

Right now, neighbors in Far Rockaway and Rosedale take the Q111 and the Q113, which connects Beach 20th Street and Seagirt Boulevard with Jamaica and Parsons Boulevard. The bus route goes along Guy R. Brewer Boulevard.

But even if the new line is created, for some Rosedale residents the commute to Jamaica will still be approximately an hour long, as it is now.

“It takes me an hour just to get from my home to the subway station by bus,” said Jacqueline Campbell, a Rosedale resident. “My commute is two hours into the city and two hours back home.”

Campbell is a member of the Rosedale Civic Association. She proposed the idea of adding a bus line, but the way the MTA designed the line, the new service will alleviate delays for some Rosedale residents but not neighbors like Campbell.

She explained that the new route will end at Brookville Boulevard and 147th Avenue.

“What about riders that go beyond that point?” asked Campbell. “Right now, instead of taking me maybe 25 to 30 minutes to get to the subway, it takes me an hour.”

Campbell wrote letters to the MTA, requesting that the new bus line go as far as Francis Lewis Boulevard, approximately 20 more blocks than the proposed new service.

“This solution does not help,” Campbell said.

City Councilman Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton) said the Q111 and Q113 “are overcrowded and on a bad day one can wait for a bus 30 minutes.”

He expects to be at the Monday meeting.

“Southeast Queens residents have the longest travel time to the city, and this new bus line is a step in the right direction,” Richards said. “This can save our neighbors 20 or 30 minutes of travel time.”

The councilman said that “for too long, we had inadequate public transportation.”

Reach reporter Juan Soto by e-mail at jsoto@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4564.