16 THE QUEENS COURIER • JANUARY 27, 2022 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Courtesy of MTA
Governor Hochul unveils additional details about planned
Interborough Express that would connect Queens, Brooklyn
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Governor 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.
Th e governor promoted her signature
infrastructure initiative during a
Th ursday, 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 along,” 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 off ered an early look on how
the new line — dubbed the IBX — could
shape out over the coming years.
Th e IBX will run from the Bay Ridge-
Sunset Park waterfront through central
and eastern Brooklyn, and up to Jackson
Heights, Queens, along 14 miles of freight
rail right of way.
Th e scheme would connect 17 subway
lines on its route and serve between
74,000 and 88,000 riders every weekday
for a roughly 40-minute journey end-toend,
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.
Th e MTA’s Long Island Rail Road owns
11 miles of 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.
A trolley or a bus would need to be
physically separated from the existing
trail lines, according to Federal Railroad
Administration regulations, while a heavy
passenger rail would not have to do that.
Th at takes up more space, so those
two modes would have to run above the
freight track or on existing streets for
some tighter portions of the line.
A passenger train would largely run
along the western side of the tracks, but
make a quick switch over to the east
around East New York, before going back.
Any project would also have to account
for the Buckeye Pipeline, which carries jet
fuel to LaGuardia and JFK airports and
runs along the line, and occupies one of
four tubes of the route’s East New York
Tunnel.
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 nonprofi t Regional Plan
Association in the 1990s.
Th e new report claims that there would
not be enough space on the Hell Gate
Line to carry the new service every 5
to 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.
Th e 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.
Th e 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.
A separate study by the Port Authority
of New York and New Jersey is looking at
building a freight tunnel across the harbor
to New Jersey, which would increase
the daily freight traffi c to up to 21 trains
by 2035.
Th e AECOM study has accounted for
the IBX to run alongside such increased
freight traffi c, Lieber said.
A rendering of an IBX stop on Roosevelt Avenue in Queens.
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