Good news this week for Staten Island commuters: the MTA has completed its study on improving the borough’s express bus service — something Tri-State Transportation Campaign and the Straphangers Campaign called for 16 years ago — and released a plan to speed up bus trips by streamlining routes and consolidating bus stops. The Staten Island Advance reports:

Staten Island express buses will travel directly to and from Midtown or lower Manhattan, routes will be combined and underused stops will be eliminated as part of a drastic plan meant to improve the borough’s complex and outdated network.

Staten Islanders will have several months to comment on the proposed changes before any are implemented sometime next year.

The average end-to-end route running time would be cut by about 20 minutes under the concept outlined by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The network redesign is comprised of 19 routes that will serve nearly all existing Staten Island express bus riders. Eleven routes will go to Midtown and eight will travel to downtown Manhattan, where riders can transfer to local buses or the subway.

The Bus Turnaround Coalition (of which TSTC is a member) responded with a statement this morning, calling the MTA’s plan “the update and improvement commuters need to get to work and home faster and more efficiently.”

See the MTA plan as well as a series of maps that summarize planned route changes.

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