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Wednesday Headlines: If Not Free Then Fast Edition

Fast buses in the five boroughs, and other news.
Wednesday Headlines: If Not Free Then Fast Edition
Free bus dreams aren't over, but fast could be on the cards. Photo: Marc A. Hermann / MTA

Fast buses are officially a priority for Gov. Hochul, not just New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The pair are planning to release a new blueprint today to speed up MTA bus service in New York City by creating dozens of bus priority corridors, installing bus rapid transit(ish) treatments along five corridors, adding seating and shelters at hundreds of bus stops, enhancing bus route enforcement via cameras and cops, buying thousands of new buses and improving management of bus maintenance and operations.

Learn more about the plan here.

Elsewhere in the Empire State:

  • The New York City Department of Sanitation can put stickers on cars blocking street cleaning now. (NY1)
  • Transit workers and the MTA are viewing the tenor of contract negotiations differently. (amNY)
  • Congestion pricing tolls were used to fund new Brooklyn subway elevators. (amNY)
  • The Garden State’s new e-bike rules begin this month as New York eyes similar regulations. (Gothamist)
  • The clock is ticking for Albany to adopt ranked choice voting. (The Times Union)
  • Syracuse inadvertently employed a sex offender among its ranks of traffic maintenance workers because the city doesn’t run background checks. (Syracuse.com)
  • Rochester officials want public input on possible automated traffic enforcement. (WXXI)
  • Ithaca police are investigating the death of a man found deceased on a Trailways bus that left New York City. (Finger Lakes Daily News)

Photo of Austin C. Jefferson
Before becoming Albany Bureau Chief in late 2025, Austin C. Jefferson was a state politics reporter for City & State NY, covering state government, elections and major legislative debates. His reporting has also appeared in the Daily Freeman, Chronogram Magazine and The Legislative Gazette. Having grown up in the Hudson Valley, he's always happy to argue about where Upstate New York truly begins.

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