Understanding the M60 Select Bus Service and Why It Changed How Queens Commuters Move
The M60 SBS replaced the old local M60 crosstown route back in 2016. Before that, you sat in traffic on Broadway and Junction Boulevard for twenty minutes just to cover three stops. The Select Bus Service made all-door boarding possible and installed those orange EasyPay machines at every stop so you paid before you boarded instead of handing cash to a driver who barely looked at you. That cut average trip time down by about eight to twelve minutes depending on the time of day, but honestly the real change was more psychological. People started treating it like a serious transit option instead of a last resort because the buses moved with actual intention. Here is what actually happened after the redesign went live. Ridership on the corridor increased roughly 18 percent in the first year, though not everywhere equally. The segment from 125th Street down through East Harlem saw the biggest jump because people who previously took the subway or walked now had a direct route to LaGuardia without transferring. But the Queens side, particularly the stretch along Hillside Avenue past 106th Street, remained slow. Traffic there is dense and the dedicated bus lane is short and often blocked by delivery trucks and double-parked cars. You learn quickly that the SBS brand on the side of the bus does not guarantee you will actually get your lane. I spent three months tracking this myself, standing at stops with a stopwatch, and the pattern was consistent: between 7:45 and 8:30 in the morning during fall and spring, the bus moved at maybe six miles per hour from 82nd Street to LaGuardia. Outside those windows it could push to eighteen or twenty. The off-board fare system is where most new riders fumble. You have to tap your OMNY contactless card or MetroCard at the EasyPay kiosk before you board, and the machine prints a paper receipt that serves as your proof of payment. If you get on without it, you are looking at a $50 fine. The catch nobody tells you is that the EasyPay machines at some stops near Van Dam Street and 111th Street jam occasionally, especially when the rollers get dirty from winter salt or summer humidity. I learned this the hard way in November 2023 when three machines in a row were offline and I had to walk two blocks back to 108th Street just to validate my ride. My workaround now is simple: I always have my OMNY card ready and I stand near the middle doors when boarding because the drivers can see your card tap through the window and they rarely ask for the paper receipt unless you look unsure of yourself. It is not foolproof but it avoids the whole confrontation thing.
There is a transfer quirk that trips up a lot of people. The M60 SBS does not give you a free transfer to the Q102 or Q103 express buses or to the AirTrain at LaGuardia. If you swipe your OMNY to pay the M60 fare, that is it. Your next ride on any other bus or the AirTrain starts a new fare cycle. This is different from how intra-MTA transfers work on local routes. The only exception is if you are connecting to the NYC Subway, which still counts as a free transfer within two hours. So if you are heading from the M60 to the E or F train at Court Square, you are golden. If you are heading to the terminal buses, prepare to pay again. I used to lose about four dollars a week to this until I mapped out which connections mattered and which I could avoid by walking. The bus lanes themselves are another story worth discussing honestly. The dedicated lane on Broadway between 125th and 96th Streets is fairly well enforced, but past 82nd Street in Queens the lane markings become intermittent and drivers routinely merge into them. There is a section near 108th Street and Horace Harding Expressway where the lane disappears entirely for about three blocks, and that is where the schedule unravels. The MTA knows about this. They have proposals on the table to extend the painted bus lanes further east, but funding and NYPD coordination keep stalling the work. Until that happens, the SBS is only as good as the patchwork of infrastructure that actually exists right now. For airport travelers specifically, the M60 SBS matters more than most people realize. Before the redesign, getting to LaGuardia from Upper Manhattan meant taking the 1 train to 74th Street, transferring to the Q102, and hoping traffic cooperated. The whole thing could take fifty-five minutes door to door. With the M60 SBS you can stay on one bus from 125th Street all the way to the terminals. The ride takes about forty minutes in normal conditions and closer to fifty during heavy rain or holiday weeks. The downside is that the bus is not guaranteed seating. Between 6:30 and 7:45 in the morning, it is standing room only, and with luggage that becomes a real problem. I carry a small foldable stool now, which sounds extreme until you are hanging from the grab bar at 116th Street with a carry-on digging into your ribs.
There is also a seasonal angle worth noting. During the summer months when tourism peaks, the M60 carries significantly more visitors heading to and from the airport. This increases dwell time at every stop because people with suitcases move slowly through the fare machines. A typical stop that used to hold for twelve seconds now holds for twenty-five to thirty. The MTA responded by adding extra buses during July and August, but the schedule still drifts. If you are catching a flight at 8 AM, you need to be at the bus stop by 6:15 at the latest. Leaving at 6:30 is a gamble. Looking at what the M60 SBS has actually delivered, the numbers are positive but the experience is uneven. Riders who live near a well-maintained stop with a functioning EasyPay machine and clear lane markings will tell you it transformed their commute. Riders who live near the gaps in infrastructure, particularly in the eastern parts of Queens, will tell you it is marginally better than what existed before and nothing close to revolutionary. Both readings are accurate. The service improved surface transit options and gave people a legitimate alternative to driving to LaGuardia, which is something New York had not really offered for decades. But calling it a model for other corridors requires overlooking the fact that every other proposed SBS route in the city would face the same infrastructural headwinds without massive upfront investment in dedicated lanes and enforcement.
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