Have you ever landed at LaGuardia early, only to stand outside terminal D pacing in circles for 30 minutes while waiting for the M60 bus to show up? Although LaGuardia may still be a pain to access by public transit, The Metropolitan Transportation Authority just took a bit of the guess work out of getting to or from LaGuardia, with the launch of Bus Time for Manhattan based routes.
The next bus stopping at LGA Terminal D was so far away, Bus Time gave up
MTA Bus Time, which has slowly been rolling out across the bus fleet for quite some time, launched today on Manhattan based routes. Among these routes is the crucial M60 LaGuardia route, which connects the airport with several subway lines in Queens, and eventually Manhattan via the Triborough (Robert F. Kennedy) Bridge. The M60 stops at all terminals at LaGuardia, including the Marine Air Terminal. The availability of Bus Time at LaGuardia now gives passengers the option of remaining inside the terminal while waiting for the next bus (or giving up to take a taxi), rather than standing outside, constantly staring down the road looking for the next bus. The M60 can be tracked at the MTAs website, by texting 503875 to 511123 for terminal D, 503897 for terminal C, 503850 for terminal B, and 503853 for the Marine Air Terminal.
We took a look at Bus Time this morning and found that it would have alerted passengers to the fact that service on the M60 route was seriously screwed up, with the gap between arrivals at terminal D at about 36 minutes, when service should be about every 10 minutes. After than 36 minute wait, four buses arrived within minutes of each other, and another large gap in service started. Bus Time may not fix this problem, but at least passengers will have advance notice of the long wait.
