First Step Complete In Queens To Brooklyn Train, Hochul Says

ASTORIA, QUEENS — A long sought subway line connecting Brooklyn and Queens is one step closer to becoming a reality, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced.

Stretching from Bay Ridge to Jackson Heights, and linking hundreds-of-thousands of low-income riders and people of color along the way, the transit line, which the governor dubbed the "Interborough Express," has been deemed "feasible" by a new Metropolitan Transportation Authority report, Hochul said on Thursday.

"What it's going to do is create a lifeline, a connection," Hochul promised of the project, which has been celebrated for serving riders (about 88,000 per-day, according to Thursday's estimates) in transit-starved outer-borough neighborhoods — unlike the city's other major transit investments, which are largely Manhattan-focused.

Now that the Interborough Express has been deemed doable by the MTA, which would eventually build and operate the line, the project can move forward to the community and environmental review phases; those processes will help the transit agency figure out some still-unknown details, Hochul explained, like what kinds of vehicles to use on the line.

"There's always another phase when you're building infrastructure," the governor said (with a slight smirk), noting that the completion of the feasibility study is still significant because it marks the "path forward."

Since that path forward poses many unknowns, MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber wouldn't give a full project timeline or price tag at the news conference; he estimated that the Interborough Express would cost in the "single-digit billions" (without further explanation has to how it will be financed), and take "three to five years" to complete once construction starts.

The MTA top brass, however, did guarantee that the project will "provide better access to jobs, education and economic opportunities," — alluding to the 260,000 jobs that would be linked by the 14-mile plan's 17 subway stops, according to the feasibility study.

He also noted that the transit line could ease congestion and pollution by reducing car dependency for commuters between Brooklyn and Queens (about half of whom current drive, the study said).

Lieber spoke about the Interborough Express as an equity-focused transit lined, and thanked different advocacy groups, like the Regional Plan Association, that have been calling for an iteration of this project for decades.

Some advocates in the Bronx, however, feel that the Interborough Express doesn't go far enough.

The Regional Plan Association's 1996 Triboro proposal included a route that (as named) extended through northwest Queens and into the Bronx — 10 additional miles of trains that Bronx residents and advocates say they need to, Gothamist reported.

Mychal Johnson, co-founder of the group South Bronx Unite, told the site that excluding the Bronx means the project falls short of its equity-focused transportation goals.

"We’ve got some of the worst public transportation in the city," he said of his borough, adding that as proposed the Interborough Express "is not creating a different way of looking at social infrastructure and the social racism that has taken place [in the Bronx] for way too long."

When the project was announced at the start of the month, State Senator Jessica Ramos, whose district includes neighborhoods that the train will service, said she was glad to see the project but urged Hochul to take it further into Queens and the Bronx along existing Amtrak lines — a point she reiterated this week in a NY Daily News op-ed.

"The outer boroughs are watching," cautioned Ramos, noting that neighbors in the rapidly-growing Queens and Bronx need better transit options.

"Our neighborhoods are practically bursting at the seams," she said of Queens, adding that "by delivering the longer Triboro, rather than the biborough Interborough Express, [Hochul] can show New Yorkers in three boroughs what an effective government can deliver."

Related Article: Queens To Brooklyn Train Proposal Back On Track, Hochul Promises