Q112 (New York City bus)

The **Q112** constitutes a bus route in Queens, New York running primarily on Liberty Avenue and South Road, between Jamaica and Ozone Park.

The route was formerly a streetcar line referred to as the Liberty Avenue Line. In 1933, the railroad company reorganized as Jamaica Buses and began operating buses along the route under a franchise with New York City. The Q112 would be operated under a subsidy of the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) until January 2006, when Jamaica Buses was absorbed by the MTA Bus Company.

## Route description

The Q112 begins at Parsons Boulevard and 88th Avenue, and continues along Parsons Boulevard until it turns to Jamaica Avenue and then Guy Brewer Boulevard, while buses heading to the terminus use Archer Avenue, 153rd Street, and 88th Avenue. It then continues on Guy Brewer Boulevard until it turns to Tuskegee Airmen Way, Waltham Street, and then Liberty Avenue. It continues along Liberty Avenue for most of its length until it uses 99th Street and Rockaway Boulevard, where it ends. Buses heading westbound turn to Liberty Avenue.

## History

### As a streetcar line

The streetcar line was originally operated by the Long Island Electric Railway (LIER), which was incorporated in 1894. On October 11 of that year, the company applied for a line between the then-Long Island towns of Jamaica, Hempstead, and Far Rockaway. Construction of the line began in 1895.

On May 15 and 22 of that year, the Highway Commissioners of Jamaica granted the company the right to build a double track line on Liberty Avenue but imposed the following conditions, including that the company shall pave the street between the rails and two feet on either side with block paving stone, after 10 years the company shall pay the town 2% of its gross revenues, that cars shall be run both ways every 15 minutes between 9 A.M. and 5 P.M., the road shall be built and in full operation within two years, and the rate of fare shall be 5 cents from Jamaica to Brooklyn. The company at first objected to paying 2% after 10 years, but succeeded only in lengthening the time to 12 years. The streetcar line began operation on 1896. The company also made an agreement with President P.H. Flyin of the Nassau Electric Railroad Company of Brooklyn to connect their Liberty Ave. line with the terminus of his new Bergen Street car line, which had just reached Sheridan Ave. A second and more important agreement was made with the Kings County Elevated Ry. to run the L.I. Electric cars up on an incline to connect with the "L" cars to downtown Brooklyn, so that passengers might transfer without climbing stairs. The cost of this connection was to be divided between the two companies, schedules were to be arranged so that the trolleys and "L" cars would meet, and through tickets were to be sold for passage between Jamaica or Far Rockaway to Brooklyn Bridge. Through expresses making only three stops were to rush the Queens passengers to the bridge; It was even suggested that the Long Island Electric trolleys should be towed by steam "L" engines to Brooklyn during this same month the company placed its first order for trolleys, some of closed platform design seating 32 people, and some of open cars, seating 60.

An agreement was concluded to buy power from the BMT Jamaica Line, and trolley poles and wire were erected along Lefferts Avenue to bring the current to the new Liberty Ave. line. On Saturday April 21st, 1897, the incline was opened and the first trolley ascended from Liberty Avenue to the City Line station.

The New York & Long Island Traction line on Rockaway Blvd.
crossed Liberty Ave. and then ran west on 101st Ave. to the "L" terminus. Why not simply put in a connecting curve to the Traction rails on Rockaway Blvd. at Liberty Ave., and use their line to the "L"? The switch was quickly installed and on August 26, 1911; Long Island Electric operation began over the new route. The old route on Liberty Avenue west of Rockaway Blvd. was permanently abandoned. The company tore out the 2.07 miles of track at a cost of $27 and sold it for scrap.

### Decline and conversion to bus service

The railway went bankrupt and was sold in 1926 by the company's debtors, the Bank of Manhattan (now part of JPMorgan Chase), reorganizing as the Jamaica Central Railways in March of that year. Some days later it turned out that the postponement had been decided upon because the receiver some days before had petitioned the Transit Commission to abandon a part of the Liberty Avenue line between 100th Street and Rockaway Boulevard.

Around this time, many streetcar lines in Queens and the rest of the city began to be replaced by buses, particularly after the unification of city's three primary transit companies in June 1940. On April 21, 1931, Jamaica Central created a subsidiary known as Jamaica Buses, Inc. to convert its trolley lines to bus franchises.

On December 5, 1933 the route began operations as a single bus line. The Jamaica-Ozone Park service would become "Route C." The original terminus was 168th Street station on the BMT Jamaica Line.

Around 1960, Route C was renamed the Q112.

Between 1980 and 1985, Rockaway Boulevard-bound buses were rerouted off of Union Hall Street between Archer Avenue and Liberty Avenue, and onto Archer Avenue, Guy R Brewer Boulevard, and Liberty Avenue. Bus service continued to run via Union Hall Street between Jamaica Avenue and Archer Avenue, and between Liberty Avenue and South Road. This change was made because Union Hall Street was closed between these streets to traffic, and became part of the York College campus.

Between 1985 and December 1989, service was streamlined in Jamaica, and southbound buses stopped running via Union Hall Street, instead running via Guy R Brewer Boulevard along with the Q111 and Q113.

The terminal loop in Jamaica was rerouted in the late 1980s.

### MTA takeover

On January 30, 2006, the MTA Bus Company took over operations of the Jamaica Bus routes.

In December 2019, the MTA released a draft redesign of the Queens bus network. As part of the redesign, the Guy R. Brewer Boulevard routes would have been replaced with a "neighborhood" route, the QT67. The redesign was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City in 2020, and the original draft plan was dropped due to negative feedback. A revised plan was released in March 2022. As part of the new plan, the Q112 would be discontinued and be replaced with the Q57.