The proposed Interborough Express (IBX) light rail between Brooklyn and Queens is inching forward, with officials hoping the project can be designed and engineering challenges resolved starting this year, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Tuesday.
The governor’s 2024 State of the State policy book, accompanying her big speech to a joint legislative session in Albany Tuesday, notes that the MTA will “initiate formal design and engineering” on the IBX, which aims to convert the underutilized Bay Ridge Branch rail spur, owned by the Long Island Rail Road and currently used by CSX freight rail, into a light rail line between Brooklyn and Queens, sharply reducing commute times between the two boroughs.
The line would run 14 miles between Bay Ridge and Jackson Heights, running through many neighborhoods with few transit options while also connecting to 17 other subway lines. The MTA estimates the line would see 120,000 daily riders by 2045, and cost $5.5 billion to construct.
“The [IBX] represents one of the most impactful infrastructure projects initiated by Gov. Hochul,” the policy book reads, “with the potential to substantially cut down on travel times, reduce congestion, and link nearly 900,000 residents in Brooklyn and Queens to more than 17 transit connections.”
Gov. Hochul announced she would pursue the IBX in her 2022 State of the State address, crystallizing a longtime dream by rail advocates. The proposal was based on a long-floating plan by the Regional Plan Association called the Triboro, which would extend the line further into the Bronx, but the Boogie-Down portion was cut due to conflicts with the MTA’s Penn Access project on the same existing tracks.
The governor in 2022 directed the MTA to commence an environmental review for the project, which she has since described as her “baby,” and in the following year’s State of the State, she said the project would move forward as light rail.
Unlike a subway, a light rail can travel at the street level, and the MTA plans to briefly divert the right-of-way onto Metropolitan Avenue and 69th Street in Middle Village for about 2/3 of a mile before returning to the pre-existing tracks. How the MTA would actually go about doing that is one of the key engineering problems they must get to the bottom of, even before worrying about potential lawsuits from local residents.
5 comments:
Meanwhile there is no direct link to Laguardia airport. Subway to 74 St and then the bus.
I'm sure this will enrage Car totalitarians.
Notices how it stops before Ditmars - which links this to the lack of LaGuardia access noted above.
That community is shrinking though, cannot last much longer.
So dumb. The mta can't even keep the subways running smoothly. 3 derailments within like a month.
Through the ghetto bringing the garbage to
Bay Ridge? There goes the neighborhood. The goombas will be packing up their Christmas decorations and getting out of town.Hope the Asians like dealing with the trash!
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