NEW YORK — Construction has begun on the Bronx's first busway, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Flynn announced Wednesday, a project that had been stalled for more than a year.
The Tremont Avenue busway is scheduled to begin operating Sept. 19. Between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily, the corridor will be restricted to buses, large trucks, Access-A-Ride vehicles, emergency vehicles and bicycles. City officials project service up to 60% faster on the Bx36 route and savings of up to six minutes per trip.
About 39,000 riders use the route each day along one of the borough's busiest east-west corridors. The Bx36 currently crawls at speeds as low as 5 mph during peak hours, amNewYork reported. Construction was originally supposed to start last year but was held up under former Mayor Eric Adams.
The project is part of Next Stop: Fast Buses, Better Service, the joint city and state bus plan Mamdani unveiled with Gov. Kathy Hochul in July. That framework commits the administration to published performance metrics and monthly reviews at Metropolitan Transportation Authority board meetings, and sets a target of automated camera enforcement on priority corridors by 2028.
Under the same plan, the New York Police Department is expanding targeted bus lane enforcement from 14 corridors to 20 beginning this year, according to the mayor's office.
City officials say the redesign is as much about street safety as speed. A comparable conversion on Lexington Avenue between East 96th and East 60th streets, completed in 2019, produced a 26% increase in bus speeds and a 35% drop in pedestrian injuries, the DOT said.
Tremont Avenue is designated a priority corridor under the bus plan and is slated for further upgrades. DOT and MTA representatives said route-specific performance indicators will be released as part of the broader Next Stop reporting.
The announcement is the latest in a series of transit moves from City Hall this month, including a study with the MTA on cooling subway platforms in Lower Manhattan.