Take the E or F train to the Kew Gardens/Union Turnpike station. From there, take the Q46 bus, which runs along Union Turnpike directly to St. John's. See below for details on these subway and bus routes.
Subways: E or F Lines from Manhattan
The E train runs along 8th Avenue in Manhattan and is accessible from Penn Station (34th Street stop), the Port Authority Bus Terminal (42nd Street stop) or Grand Central (by taking the #6 train one stop uptown to 51st Street and transferring to the Lexington Avenue stop on the E train). The F train originates in Brooklyn and runs along 6th Avenue in Manhattan. The trip on both subway lines takes about 30 minutes from 34th Street to Union Turnpike.
There is elevator service at the Union Turnpike station. One elevator takes you from the platform to the mezzanine level; a second elevator goes from the mezzanine to the street.
The Q46 bus originates and terminates at the Union Turnpike station. Depending upon whether you use the stairs to exit from the station or the elevator, you will catch the Q46 at either its originating stop (stairs) or the second stop on the way to St. John’s (elevator).
Exiting by stairs: The exit closest to the bus stop is located at about the middle of the subway platform. The exit is marked with a sign to “78th Avenue and Queens Boulevard, Q46.” From the mezzanine level, follow the sign “North Side, Courthouse.” The bus stop is right at the top of the stairs.
Exiting by elevator: The elevator exit at street level is at the corner of Union Turnpike and Queens Boulevard in front of a tall, glass-fronted building with a large Duane Reade sign. Cross Queens Boulevard, a multi-lane road, and walk about 1.5 blocks to the Q46 bus stop.
Q46 Bus
The buses run roughly every 5-6 minutes on weekdays and 8-10 minutes on weekends. There are quite a few limited (LTD) buses that make selected stops only, but these run only on weekdays.
The trip from the Union Turnpike/Kew Gardens station to the school takes approximately 16-18 minutes according to the published schedule (although a test trial mid-afternoon during the week took only 12 minutes both ways). The actual schedule can be viewed here.
The locations of the bus stops at St. John’s are shown on this map. If you prefer not to walk from the bus stop to your campus destination, check the golf cart map to see which bus stop is closest to a golf cart stop.