page_title: M60 (New York City bus)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: M60 (New York City bus) / History
caption_attribution_description: NYCTA Orion 7 hybrid #6410 coming off of the Triborough Bridge, on the M60 line.
context_page_description: The M60 Select Bus Service is a bus route in New York City. It is part of MTA Regional Bus Operations, operated by the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority under the New York City Transit brand. The M60 provides service between the Upper West Side of Manhattan and LaGuardia Airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, traveling between boroughs via the RFK-Triborough Bridge. It is the only direct public transit option between Manhattan and LaGuardia Airport.
  The M60 was introduced in 1992 as an airport connector and is usually advertised as such. Much of the M60's passenger load, however, is from its crosstown service along 125th Street in Harlem; the M60 is the busiest of the four bus routes that run along the 125th Street Crosstown Line. On May 25, 2014, the M60 was converted into a Select Bus Service route to improve service to-and-from the airport, and service along 125th Street.
context_section_description: In 1991, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) held a public hearing to discuss a bus route between Manhattan and LaGuardia Airport. The M60 was approved for implementation in mid-1992, and began service on September 13, 1992 between Powell Boulevard and the airport. On May 1, 1994, it was extended to Columbia University and the 116th Street subway station. The M60 was extended west along 125th Street, south on Amsterdam Avenue west on 120th Street, south on Claremont Avenue to West 116th Street, and then north on Broadway to the terminal. The route was extended in response to requests from residents and groups from Morningside Heights and West Harlem. 20% of M60 riders surveyed said that they had used taxis, car services, personal cars or Carey Bus before its introduction and 25% said that they walked or did not make the trip. These 45% of riders surveyed were new NYC Transit riders.
  In June 1995, the route was extended 0.4 miles (0.64 km) to West 106th Street and Broadway, and was rerouted to Broadway from Claremont Avenue as residents on that street believed that the route had decreased their quality of life. Three options had been considered to reroute or extend the M60: using Riverside Drive, extending the route to West 110th Street, and extending the route to West 106th Street, which was decided upon. The M60 was extended south via Broadway and West End Avenue to West 106th Street, making limited stops, and laying over at West 106th Street and Broadway. The extension provided direct service between the Upper West Side and LaGuardia.
  Between 1997 and 2004, the bus route had an increase in ridership of 237%, leading to a decrease in trip headways from 20 minutes to 15 minutes in 1998, and under 10 minutes by the 2000s. On October 12, 2009, the first luggage rack-equipped bus in the city debuted on the M60, as part of a ten-bus pilot program on airport bus services to improve passenger flow. In 2012, 60-foot (18 m) articulated buses began replacing the standard 40-foot (12 m) buses on the route.
  In 2009, the MTA and the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) identified the M60 as a potential corridor for Phase II of Select Bus Service (SBS), the city's bus rapid transit service. The M60 was identified under studies to improve crosstown service on 125th Street, which like other crosstown bus corridors was noted for slow travel speeds. It was also identified as a corridor for improvement by the LaGuardia Airport Access Alternatives Analysis, which conducted with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to improve bus service to LaGuardia Airport. The reason for the creation of the LaGuardia Access Alternatives study was the slow bus service on the M60, Q33, Q47, Q48, and Q72, which all went to LaGuardia Airport.  A separate outside study in 2011 by the Regional Plan Association proposed creating dedicated busways along the Grand Central Parkway to speed up M60 service.
  The M60 is one of three SBS routes that were planned under the LaGuardia Alternatives Analysis. The Q70 Limited became an SBS route on September 25, 2016, and the Bx41 SBS route had been planned to be extended to LaGuardia Airport under the LaGuardia Alternatives Analysis. However, the Bx41 extension has not been implemented yet due to a lack of funding. According to the city government, the three routes" would provide "shorter term, lower cost transit improvements" for LaGuardia Airport. At the time, the airport was the New York area's only large airport without any rapid transit connections to Manhattan.
  Studies and community outreach for Select Bus Service upgrades were conducted through 2011, and plans to implement the M60 SBS were announced on October 11, 2012. At the time, the M60 was the heaviest used of the four 125th Street crosstown buses. The plan would turn the M60 local into a limited-stop service along 125th Street, with the number of stops along the corridor reduced from eleven to six. It would add dedicated MTA bus lanes and other improvements to speed travel times, and make the fleet entirely articulated and fu
caption: A standard-length Orion VII bus on the M60 in 2007, prior to Select Bus Service implementation.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A530", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:01:12 13:41:19", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "185", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2967", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8564", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:01:12 13:41:19", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:01:12 13:41:19", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "117/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "149/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "149/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "80", "EXIF FocalLength": "18353/1000", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2592", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1944", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "11520", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "81000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2592", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1944", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2819"}