LaGuardia has no train of its own, so every published transit route out of it is a bus that hands you to a railway. Five routes appear on the airport’s page and each one exists to reach a different set of tracks: the subway, the Long Island Rail Road, or Metro-North. Read them that way and the map stops being a list of numbers.
Only one of the five is published as free. Two hand you to a commuter railway where a reduced ticket of $5.25 applies inside the city, and one of them is listed as serving a terminal the airport says is closed. This page sorts them by what they connect to rather than by their numbers.
Five buses, and the railway each one hands you to
The free LGALink Q70 reaches the subway and the Long Island Rail Road at Woodside. The M60 SBS reaches the subway and Metro-North at Harlem-125 St. The Q90 reaches the LIRR at Flushing-Main St. The Q72 reaches the subway at Rego Park, and the Q33 reaches the subway from a terminal with no flights.
| Route, as LaGuardia lists it | Terminals served | What it connects to |
|---|---|---|
| LGALink Q70, published as free | B and C | Subway at Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Ave and 74 St-Broadway; LIRR at Woodside |
| M60 SBS | A, B and C | Subway at Astoria Blvd and along 125 St; Metro-North at Harlem-125 St |
| Q90 | B and C | LIRR at Flushing-Main St |
| Q72 | B and C | Subway at Junction Blvd and 63 Dr-Rego Park |
| Q33 | A only | Subway at Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Ave and 74 St-Broadway |
Four of the five serve Terminals B and C, which are the two that take passengers, per LaGuardia as the page stood in September 2026. The Q33 is published for Terminal A alone, and LaGuardia describes Terminal A on its own page as currently closed to the public with no commercial flights, so that row cannot be used as written.
The Q70 is the only one the airport calls free
Across the whole page, one route carries the word free and the other four do not. The LGALink Q70 runs from Terminals B and C, and the airport reaches for it in three separate answers: it is the route named for getting to the subway, for getting to Manhattan, and for getting to JFK.
That last one is worth spelling out because it is an airport recommending a competitor’s train. In LaGuardia’s words, a traveler takes “the free LGA Link Q70 to Jackson Heights station to connect to the subway (E train), which provides further access to the JFK AirTrain or Newark-bound trains and buses”.
Nothing on the page prices the other four, because their fares belong to the transit operator rather than the airport, which publishes only the $5.25 commuter rail ticket according to LaGuardia. What LaGuardia does publish is how to pay: contactless credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Wallet and the OMNY card, with no ticket machine step named between the bus and the train.
Two buses end at a commuter railway, and the ticket is $5.25
The Q70 and the Q90 both exist to reach the Long Island Rail Road, at Woodside and at Flushing-Main St. For a rail trip that stays inside New York City, LaGuardia publishes the reduced fare itself: a CityTicket at $5.25 off-peak and $7.25 at peak, valid on the LIRR or Metro-North within the city.
Both of those transfer points are in Queens, so both are inside the city and both keep the reduced ticket. That is the quiet reason these two buses matter: they put a traveler on a commuter railway at a city fare rather than a suburban one.
The M60 is the exception in the other direction. It reaches Metro-North at Harlem-125 St, which is also inside the city, so the same $5.25 applies to a trip that ends there. Ride past the city line and it does not, because the airport publishes the ticket as valid only “within New York City”.
What a cab costs to the same places the buses reach
Two of the bus destinations appear on the airport’s own taxi estimate table, which makes the comparison unusually direct. Jackson Heights, where the Q70 and the Q33 connect, is estimated at $14 to $19. Jamaica, further out on the same side of Queens, is estimated at $32 to $40.
Against a free bus and a city subway fare, $14 to $19 is what convenience costs on the shortest of these trips. Those are estimates rather than fares, and the airport says so, adding that they leave out tips, tolls and MTA congestion pricing.
The fare itself is set by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). Its charges put $11.50 on the meter of a cab leaving LaGuardia before it moves: a $3.00 initial charge, a $5.00 LaGuardia surcharge, a $2.00 access fee on pickups, a $0.50 MTA State Surcharge and a $1.00 Improvement Surcharge. That becomes $14.00 on weekdays between 4 and 8 p.m. and $12.50 from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., totals that are our sum rather than figures the TLC prints. The airport’s taxi page still lists $1.00 at peak and $0.50 at night.
The neighbouring airport prices its rail link very differently, because it owns one. JFK publishes AirTrain plus LIRR at $14.00 off-peak and $16.00 at peak, a single figure covering both legs. LaGuardia cannot publish an equivalent, because the first leg is a free bus and the second belongs to somebody else.
Where the published map stops
The airport groups its routes into four destination panels: Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx, Long Island, and Westchester, Putnam or Connecticut. Brooklyn has no panel at all, so the borough is reached by carrying on past a connection the airport describes and into a network it does not. The taxi table does cover it, at $28 to $50 for Downtown, which leaves the odd position of a borough priced by cab and unrouted by bus.
No journey time appears for any of the five routes, and no frequency. The page names the buses, the terminals and the stations, and leaves the clock entirely to the operator. Next door the opposite holds: JFK times its own rail link at roughly 30 minutes from Jamaica and prices it at $14.00 off-peak, because it owns both halves of the trip.
On accessibility it is more forthcoming. LaGuardia states that all MTA buses serving the airport are accessible and equipped with ramps, and publishes two numbers for checking whether a connecting station is step-free: 511, and +1 (888) 465-1169.
Picking a bus by where you are going
- Anywhere on the subway: the Q70 from Terminal B or C, because it is the only route the airport publishes as free.
- Long Island by rail: the Q70 to Woodside or the Q90 to Flushing-Main St, both of them LIRR transfers inside the city.
- Harlem or Metro-North: the M60 SBS, which reaches 125 St and the railway there.
- Ask for a CityTicket at $5.25 off-peak on any rail leg that stays inside New York City, and expect to lose it the moment the train crosses the line.
- Ignore the Q33 unless something changes. It is published for Terminal A only, and that terminal takes no commercial flights.
- Carry a contactless card or OMNY, since the airport names no ticket machine between the bus and the train.
- Do not plan a connection to the minute. No frequency or journey time is published for any of the five routes.
Editorial note: prices, schedules, and policies on this page were checked against the official sources named in the text in September 2026. Treat every figure here as a reference point rather than a quote: operators change fares and hours without notice, and many vary by season, by event and by demand. Confirm the current price with the operator before you travel. Westchester Ride does not sell tickets or parking and does not accept payment to rank any operator.
Common questions about the LaGuardia buses
Six answers, each taken from what LaGuardia published in September 2026.
Yes, and it is the only route on the airport’s page described that way. The LGALink Q70 serves Terminals B and C and connects to the subway at Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Ave and 74 St-Broadway, and to the Long Island Rail Road at Woodside.
The M60 SBS, which the airport lists as serving all three terminals and reaching Harlem-125 St, where travelers transfer to the Metro-North Railroad. It also stops along 125 St at Lexington Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard.
Two routes do it. The Q70 reaches the LIRR at Woodside and the Q90 reaches it at Flushing-Main St, both from Terminals B and C. Both transfer points are inside New York City, so a CityTicket at $5.25 off-peak applies.
It is the reduced commuter rail fare for travel inside New York City, published by the airport at $5.25 off-peak and $7.25 at peak on the LIRR or Metro-North. It stops applying the moment a train crosses the city line.
With contactless credit or debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Wallet or an OMNY card. The airport names no ticket machine step between the bus and the train, and states that all MTA buses serving the airport are accessible and fitted with ramps.
The airport does not say. It publishes the routes, the terminals each one serves and the stations each one reaches, and no frequency or journey time for any of the five, leaving the timetable entirely to the transit operator.
An airport with no train of its own publishes five buses and prices exactly one of them.
Related guides
The Metro-North route this site’s readers use most, the run into Manhattan and the $28 cab to Brooklyn are covered separately.
