Work is set to begin on a rapid transit connection between Brooklyn and Queens — the first since since the creation of what is now the G train line in the 1930s.
Gov. Hochul, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber, and a host of local elected officials and transit advocates gathered in a little-used, open-cut rail passage in Dyker Heights Friday to announce the start of design work on the Interborough Express, or IBX.
“People often dream big, but the execution becomes impossible,” Hochul told reporters. “People give up on their dreams — they take a plan, put it on a shelf, and it gets dusty over the years.
“We’re here to say that that era is over: we’re turning these old tracks into something remarkable.”
Evan Simko-Bednarski / New York Daily News
Gov. Hochul and MTA Chairman Janno Lieber join local elected officials from Queens and Brooklyn on Friday to announce the beginning of the design phase of the IBX project. (Evan Simko-Bednarski / New York Daily News)
The IBX — a favored project of the governor’s — aims to provide what precious few transit options in Gotham can claim: a one-seat ride between Brooklyn and Queens without a Manhattan detour.
To accomplish this, the plan is to piggyback along already existing rail infrastructure, adding light rail tracks to a pair of barely-used freight railways in order to carry riders between Sunset Park and Jackson Heights.
The MTA’s board voted earlier this week to approve a $166 million contract with a joint venture between consulting firm Jacobs and design firm HDR to conduct the preliminary design work.
“That means a lot of planning is going to occur — looking at the stations, tracks, vehicles, signals, so we can get shovels in the ground and make this become a reality,” Hochul said.
Evan Simko-Bednarski / New York Daily News
A view of the future IBX right-of-way from 61st Street in Dyker Heights. (Evan Simko-Bednarski / New York Daily News)
Along the 14-mille route, IBX will connect riders to 17 of the city’s subway lines — the A, C, E, N, Q, R, B, D, F, M, J, Z, and L as well as the Nos. 2, 3, 5, and 7 trains — and two stations on the Long Island Rail Road.
“A ride from end to end will take 32 minutes,” Hochul said to applause. “That’s an hour back in your life.
“You’ll be able to see your kids a little bit longer at the end of a workday, maybe go for a run in the morning … pack school lunches,” she said.
The bulk of the MTA light rail will run alongside the old Bay Ridge Branch of the LIRR, which has been a freight-only rail line since 1924. The northern section of the route will run alongside CSX freight tracks in Queens.
Along the way, the line will run through a tunnel under the All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village — a plan that will either require the widening of the existing freight tunnel to meet federal passenger-rail standards, or else require an additional tunnel under the cemetery.
“Today is a huge milestone,” MTA chair Lieber said. “I am so proud that we’re moving back into the transit-building business.”
“This is going to be the first end-to-end rapid transit line built in the city in New York since the G [train] opened in 1937,” he added. “The stations will be the first built in Brooklyn since the ’40s, and the first in Queens since we got the end of the E line in the 1980s.”
The full IBX project is expected to cost $5.5 billion.
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