Q103 (New York City bus)

### **Start**

Hunters Point – Borden Avenue and Vernon Boulevard / Vernon Boulevard–Jackson Avenue (7 and <7> trains) and Long Island City LIRR station

### **End**

Astoria – 27th Avenue and 2nd Street

The **Q103** constitutes a public transit line in Queens, New York running primarily on Vernon Boulevard, between Hunters Point and Astoria. It is city-operated under the MTA Bus Company brand of MTA Regional Bus Operations.

The route was originally the Vernon Boulevard Line, a streetcar line until 1939, when it became a bus line. The route was then operated by Queens Surface Corporation until its operations were taken over by the MTA in 2006.

## Route description

The bus route begins at Borden Avenue and Vernon Boulevard, near the Vernon Boulevard–Jackson Avenue subway station and the Long Island City Long Island Rail Road station. It then continues mostly on Vernon Boulevard, except for when it uses 41st Avenue, 21st Street, and 40th Avenue. It then continues until it turns to 8th Street and then 27th Avenue, which it goes on until it ends.

## History

The Long Island City Shore Railroad was organized by Henry Silleck Jr. and 14 other people. They were granted a franchise for the present Vernon Ave. line for the 34th Street Ferry through Ravenswood via Vernon Avenue to the 92nd Street Ferry. The franchise provided for a single or double track and required the directors to secure the consents of two-thirds of the property owners along Vernon Avenue; they were not to charge more than six cents, had to build immediately, and begin operation within a year. The company began construction in the fall of 1874, and in June of 1875 the first horse cars began running on Vernon Boulevard, at Long Island City. It was then known as the Ravenswood Avenue Line.

The railroad was losing money and was almost going bankrupt, but was bought by William Steinway on April 17, 1883.

The Steinway streetcar system was electrified beginning on January 1893, and the first electric trolley began running on the line on September 7, 1893. A single truck car, #100, was selected and made the run in 20 minutes, which were faster than the old horsecars.

### Decline and conversion to bus service

Beginning in the 1920s, many streetcar lines in Queens and in the rest of the city were replaced by buses, particularly after the unification of the city's three primary transit companies in June 1940. The Vernon Boulevard streetcar was replaced with buses on September 29, 1939.

The Steinway Railway Company's stock and property were transferred to its subsidiary Steinway Transit company, which operated the buses.

The bus company would become Queens-Steinway Transit Corporation in 1986, and Queens Surface Corporation in 1988.

### MTA takeover

On February 27, 2005, the MTA Bus Company took over the operations of the Queens Surface routes, part of the city's takeover of all the remaining privately operated bus routes.

Weekend service was added and the span of weekday service hours were extended from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on June 29, 2014 on a pilot basis. On March 20, 2015, it was announced that the changes would be made permanent.

In December 2019, the MTA released a draft redesign of the Queens bus network. 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 plan, the Q103 would be discontinued and be replaced by an extended Q39 bus to Astoria.