The LaGuardia Link (aka Q70) bus, which runs from Woodside to LaGuardia Airport with a stop in Jackson Heights, has been a tremendous success.  Good planning and marketing have made LGA a reliable 30-40 minute ride from midtown and the Q70 is slowly changing the public’s perception of LaGuardia’s accessibility. The plans for an AirTrain to Willets Point will, of course, provide another option with similar, perhaps longer, travel times.

What role will the LaGuardia Link play once the AirTrain opens? We suggest the city build on the Q70’s success by extending it to other parts of the city. One possibility is to send it down the almost straight shot that is Greenpoint Ave into, at least, Greenpoint and perhaps further into north Brooklyn, where it would facilitate inter-borough travel and become the area’s quickest trip to LGA.

At Greenpoint Ave & Manhattan Ave it would connect to the G train, where airport-bound riders from points south would save a few minutes by cutting out a transfer. It would, ideally, get more LGA-bound Brooklyn riders onto the trains – currently they must transfer first at Court Square, a station that already has bottle neck, and again at Woodside or Roosevelt Ave. From Kensington to Downtown Brooklyn to Williamsburg there would finally be an easily marketable, convenient one-connection route to LaGuardia.

The bus could even, perhaps one day with proper signal priority and other improvements, connect to the L at Bedford Ave or Lorimer Street, offering quicker connections for riders of that line and even attracting LGA-bound riders from the 14th street corridor in Manhattan. Additional riders would also board for the direct connection between the outer-borough hubs of Williamsburg and Jackson Heights, or perhaps to reach the LIRR at Woodside.