More than three months after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced progress on a long-delayed street redesign in Midtown Manhattan, there has been little visible advancement, raising concerns that the project may have stalled once again.
The initiative, aimed at speeding up bus service on a one-mile stretch of 34th Street between Third and Ninth Avenues, was initially slated for completion this fall. The plan calls for a dedicated busway—lanes reserved for buses, emergency vehicles, and trucks during peak hours—to improve travel times for more than 28,000 daily bus riders on one of the city’s most congested corridors. Despite a recent statement from the city’s Transportation Department indicating that work would begin soon, no concrete timeline or details have been provided.
The project has faced a series of setbacks. In late 2022, the Trump administration halted the plan, citing truck and emergency vehicle access concerns and threatening to withdraw federal funding. Since then, city officials including the mayor’s office have engaged with federal agencies to address these issues. However, a spokesman for the Transportation Department declined to explain the current delay or offer an updated schedule, only confirming that work would commence “in the coming weeks.”
Local advocates and community members express frustration over the apparent lack of progress. Jason Froimowitz, chair of Manhattan Community Board 6, whose district encompasses part of 34th Street, said the city had promised physical improvements, such as signage installation, to occur over the summer, with full construction ending by fall. The board recently sent a letter requesting an update.
Councilman Shaun Abreu, who heads the City Council’s transportation committee, voiced similar concern, emphasizing that the thousands of daily bus riders were eager for tangible improvements. “If there’s a hold-up, the city owes New Yorkers a straight answer,” he said.
Mayor Mamdani made bus service a centerpiece of his campaign, pledging to make buses both faster and fare-free, although the fare-free policy faces opposition from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which manages the bus network and warns of cost implications exceeding $1 billion annually. Instead, city and state officials have unveiled a plan to increase bus speeds by up to 20 percent on 50 major routes citywide, with 34th Street included among them.
Buses currently average about five miles per hour on 34th Street, significantly slower than the citywide average of eight miles per hour. The proposed busway would operate daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., with traffic restrictions lifted during off-peak hours. The corridor includes major commercial nodes such as the Macy’s flagship store at Herald Square.
Efforts to implement a busway on 34th Street go back nearly two decades. Previous attempts under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Mayor Eric Adams stalled amid concerns about truck and business access, as well as federal opposition. The Trucking Association of New York supports the current plan, saying it would improve freight deliveries.
Similar busways elsewhere in the city have shown promising results. Following the 2019 launch of a busway on 14th Street, bus speeds improved by up to 24 percent, and crashes dropped by 42 percent, according to the Transportation Department.
The U.S. Department of Transportation confirmed it last communicated with city officials shortly after Mayor Mamdani’s June announcement, requesting administrative adjustments to align the project with federal transportation planning. However, the agency declined to specify what issues remain unresolved.
Transportation advocates argue that further delays impede riders’ ability to benefit from improved service. Danny Pearlstein, policy director for the Riders Alliance, said the repeated starts and stops undermine public trust in the plan. “An on-again, off-again busway doesn’t do anything for riders,” he said, calling for swift action to move the project forward.