BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Gov. Kathy Hochul and
the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority released a fi rst
analysis of the recently-revived
project to run mass transit
along freight rail lines in
Brooklyn and Queens known
as the Interborough Express.
The governor promoted
her signature infrastructure
initiative during a Thursday,
Jan. 20, press conference at
the Brooklyn Army Terminal
near the southern end of
the underused infrastructure
she hopes to upcycle to passenger
transport.
“Now we have an opportunity
— a once-in-a-generation
opportunity — to make the
investments that should have
been made all alone,” Hochul
said. “But also to just reimagine
some of the infrastructure
that has been lying fallow
for so many years that no
one saw the possibilities of.”
The 2020-commissioned
feasibility study for the MTA
by consultancy fi rm AECOM
offered an early look on how
the new line — dubbed the
IBX — could shape out over
the coming years.
The IBX will run from the
Bay Ridge-Sunset Park waterfront
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COURIER L 10 IFE, JAN. 28-FEB. 3, 2022
through central and
eastern Brooklyn, and up to
Jackson Heights, Queens,
along 14 miles of freight rail
right of way. The scheme
would connect 17 subway
lines on its route and serve
between 74,000-88,000 riders
every weekday for a roughly
40 minute journey end-to-end,
according to the report.
Passenger rail fi rst rolled
out on these tracks in 1876 as
part of the New York and Manhattan
Beach Railway, but the
line was converted to freight
operations in 1924 and currently
carries no more than
three freight trips per day.
The MTA’s Long Island
Rail Road owns 11 miles of
A rendering showing a light rail proposal for the Interborough Express at the Wilson Av L train stop in Bushwick,
Brooklyn. MTA
track operated by the New
York and Atlantic Railway,
while three miles at the northern
end in Queens are owned
by Florida-based freight company
CSX. AECOM looked at
three modes of transport for
the new route and how they
would fi t in with the current
industrial trains: A regular
rail line, light rail, and bus
rapid transit.
Hochul fi rst announced
the project in her State of the
State address on Jan. 5, but her
scheme chopped off a section
extending further to the Bronx
that was part of the so-called
Triboro originally proposed
by the non-profi t Regional Plan
Association in the 1990s.
The new report claims that
there would not be enough
space on the Hell Gate Line to
carry the new service every
5-15 minutes in addition to Amtrak,
freight, and the planned
Metro-North service there.
To accommodate more trains,
the MTA would have to build
costly new tracks and bridges.
The study’s fi ndings will
feed into the MTA’s upcoming
environmental review of the
project, which could unlock
federal funding, the agency’s
chairperson and chief executive
offi cer Janno Lieber told
reporters.
The transit guru was hesitant
to give a specifi c cost for
the IBX, but said it would be
in the “single-digit billions,”
or below $10 billion.
Lieber said the environmental
review could put the
IBX on pace to become part
of the MTA’s next fi ve-year
capital plan starting in 2025,
and construction would take
three to fi ve years.
ROLLING ON
Gov details Interborough
Express plan in new study
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