Q53 Bus

Decent experience given how PACKED it was on a nice summer day; stood in front of the line near the driver nearly the entire way.

The Q53 is a good bus for its length. Its very fast on woodhaven boulevard and cross bay, and at times better than the A train. The only problem is that its beyond crowded… In my opinion it should receive SBS (selectbusservice) to speed up boarding time and avoid fare beaters

It’s rare that buses outperform trains, but now I understand why many Google Maps itineraries favored the 53 over trains for a trip to Rockaway Taco. Sure, it’s not a fair competition given the uncertain S train and the recent rough shuttle bus substitutions on the A, but the 53 deserves credit for making a distant area somewhat closer.
It moves fast enough on most sections of Woodhaven/​Cross Bay and deftly picks up speed for the tree-​laden stretch of Broad Channel. And the 10-​minute interval during much of the weekend is better than most buses provide.

I hardly ever take this bus straight into the Rockaways but going the other way it does go pretty fast to get me to Queens Center Mall or if I am making a transfer to get to the 7 train with out going all the way into Manhattan. Last night for example, Coming back from Summer Stunna, it saved me some time by not going all the way to manhattan 42^nd street then transfer to another train.
–So yeah this bus is cool, but maybe going all the way to Far Rockaway seems like it would take forever, might as well stay on the train in that case. In the weekday early evenings, this bus is crowded as hell though. IN that case, I rather take the slower number 11 bus or 21 just to try to get a seat or just to get a bit of space.

Took this bus to woodside to a job interview a few years ago. The bus line is ok.