about the Q33

Now just a local Queens bus route, the Q33 was for many years one of five public bus lines that served LaGuardia Airport.  The Q33 started its journey at 74th St. and Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights from lane one of the newly-remodeled transit station. After about ten blocks moving east on colorful and gritty Roosevelt Avenue, the Q33 turned north on 83rd St. and cut a path through a working class neighborhood that relies heavily on buses and trains to circulate in this great city. The Q33 passes by the depot it calls home right across the street from the start of runway four at LaGuardia. It used to make stops at all terminals but the Marine Air, and terminated at the Central Terminal Building before returning to Jackson Heights.

On September 8, 2013, the Q33 was reduced to a neighborhood route.  It no longer enters the airport.  The MTA’s introduction of new Q70 (limited stop) bus service the same day is seen incorrectly by that agency as a duplicative and superior means of reaching the airport.  The decision to cut off the most critical portion of the Q33’s path reduces its greatness and negatively impacts large populations that used it to reach LaGuardia.

A ride on the early-morning Q33 bus to LaGuardia was about as good an example of the toiling class preparing for a difficult day of surviving as you’d probably ever witness.  Those days are gone now.

The Q33’s death as an airport link was an unfortunate development.

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