By Joseph Morales

                 The MTA has plans to reconstruct and expand the Jamaica Bus Depot in Downtown Jamaica, Queens to support not only an increased fleet but also brand new electric buses. The plan is to construct a depot that will house 300 total buses with 60 of them being electric, zero emissions buses and thus the depot will host 60 charging stations. The current Jamaica Bus Depot houses about 196 buses with none of them being of the zero-emissions variety. According to structural engineering firm STV who prepared the MTA’s Environmental Impact Assessment for the project, about 50 of the approximately 196 buses at the depot park on the streets around the depot’s property. STV’s website says that this adversely impacts “the day-to-day travel of residents, York College affiliates, and transportation and commercial operations in the surrounding neighborhoods.” As a result of the project, the MTA will be able to run buses that are not only easier to maintain but also run more efficiently. Electric buses are also quieter on the road and offer smoother rides for passengers.

               The MTA’s goal is to have a zero-emissions fleet by 2040. Considering the fact that the MTA has 15 all-electric buses now and this depot will be able to house 60 of these or 4 times that amount when complete in 2026, that is certainly a sign of progress. For the MTA to run more electric buses, the proper infrastructure such as charging stations must be present.  This depot’s location will also allow the MTA to run all-electric buses on routes that run through environmental justice communities such as Jamaica and other parts of Southern Queens that suffer more of the negative impacts of emissions such as higher asthma rates.  

               This means the MTA will be able to allocate more modern buses to communities in a more equitable manner. In 2018, former Brooklyn Borough President and current NYC Mayor Eric Adams accused the MTA of distributing the MTA’s oldest and least efficient buses to lower income areas of Brooklyn such as Brownsville and East New York and placing more modern buses in weather areas such as Park Slope and Greenpoint. A Daily News analysis at the time confirmed that the MTA ran more modern buses in the wealthier, western portion of Brooklyn and more older ones in Eastern Brooklyn. The MTA’s oldest bus at the time the RTS-06 had made up 20% of the buses of the buses that ran out of the Flatbush and East New York depots despite making up about 4% of the total MTA bus fleet. Though the disparities were stark as far as where electric buses were placed in Brooklyn, this was not the case in Manhattan with many buses running along Manhattan’s Upper West Side also averaging over 10 years old as well at the same time.   The Bronx also had relatively modern buses running along its streets for the most part including in low-income areas such as the South Bronx. The MTA distributes buses by depot not route, so if a depot has older buses, the routes that operate out of that depot will use those older buses. As depots operate a large number of routes, the disparities as to where modern buses were run could have been due to the lack of necessary fuel infrastructure, maintenance equipment and space at depots to accommodate newer buses which is an issue the Jamaica Bus Depot Expansion will address in the borough of Queens.

                 The MTA is expected to award a design-build contract to a contractor to design and construct the new depot by the end of the year. They will work with the NYCDOT on a main depot entrance and with CUNY to place a temporary parking lot at York College. The MTA will also complete an additional environmental assessment to address temporary bus parking and closing off Tuskegee Airmen Way where the current depot is located. 

                  A reconstructed Jamaica Bus Depot is a crucial step in ensuring more efficient, reliable and environmentally conscious transportation operation citywide. This should not be the first project of its kind. The MTA also has an RFP(Request For Proposal) active to build an electric bus charging facility on East Gun Hill Road in The Bronx adjacent to the Gun Hill Bus Depot at an abandoned golf center. In addition, the MTA hopes that by 2023, 60 battery-electric buses will enter service with supporting infrastructure located at 5 bus depots. By 2025-26, they plan to soar past that number and have 470 battery-electric buses in services with supporting infrastructure installed at 11 depots. By 2029, all new bus deliveries will be of zero emissions buses. 

              This is just the beginning of the MTA’s plans to bring electric buses to the entire city.

Works Cited

Guse, Clayton. “Brooklyn’s poorest residents get stuck with the MTA’s oldest buses.” New York Daily News, 17 March 2019, https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-metro-brooklyn-buses-old-rts-map-20190316-story.html. Accessed 2 October 2022.

“ASTHMA FACTS.” NYC.gov, https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/asthma/facts.pdf. Accessed 2 October 2022.

“MTA Zero-Emission Bus Fleet Transition.” MTA, 25 July 2022, https://new.mta.info/project/zero-emission-bus-fleet. Accessed 2 October 2022.

“MTA Issues RFP for Bronx Electric Bus Depot Development.” MTA, 22 March 2022, https://new.mta.info/press-release/mta-issues-rfp-bronx-electric-bus-depot-development. Accessed 2 October 2022.

Leonhardt, Andrea. “Adams Calls for Investigation into MTA’s Allocation of Old Buses in Poor Neighborhoods.” BK Reader, 19 March 2019, https://bkreader.com/2019/03/19/adams-calls-for-investigation-into-mtas-allocation-of-old-buses-in-poor-neighborhoods/. Accessed 2 October 2022.

“MTA New York City Bus Roster – Jamaica Bus Depot (New York City Transit).” Google Sites, https://sites.google.com/site/mtanewyorkcitybusroster/new-york-city-bus-roster/jamaica-bus-depot-new-york-city-transit. Accessed 2 October 2022.

“Jamaica Bus Depot Environmental Documentation and Air Permit Support | STV.” STV Inc., https://stvinc.com/project/jamaica-bus-depot-environmental-documentation-and-air-permit-support. Accessed 2 October 2022.