QueensLink City Hall Rally

City Hall, Manhattan - This moment stands as the most crucial opportunity in the decades-long fight for transit equity. QueensLink is proud to announce that on Wednesday, September 6th in City Hall Park at 1pm, several elected officials and organizations will stand with QueensLink to demand better public transportation access for millions of New Yorkers.

The following parties will attend the event:

• NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams
• NY State Senator James Sanders Jr.
• NY State Assemblymember Khaleel Anderson
• NY State Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato
• NYC Councilmember and Transportation Committee Chair Selvena Brooks-Powers
• NYC Councilmember and Veterans Committee Chair Bob Holden
• NYC Councilmember Joann Ariola
• NYC Councilmember Nantasha Williams
• Far Rockaway Arverne Nonprofit Coalition (FRANC)
• Rockaway Initiative for Sustainability and Equity (RISE)
• Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC)
• Queens Economic Development Corporation (QEDC)

These advocates are calling on Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul to greenlight an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to study the widespread benefits of QueensLink’s visionary rails & trails proposal. Such a high-profile event serves not only as a testament to QueensLink's growing momentum, but also to the crucial need for expanded subways in transit deserts such as South Queens. A recent QueensLink EIS petition has amassed 1000+ signatures, and the organization continues to engage in regular community outreach events.

As Rick Horan, the Executive Director of QueensLink, announced, “we’re proud to work with these dedicated public officials to help connect communities all across the city. Our vision combines park space and subways in a truly captivating manner, and we firmly believe that QueensLink's emphasis on transit equity, climate change mitigation, and small businesses will benefit everyone."

Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato remarked that “my constituents face the longest commute times in the entire city, and it is long past due that we get our fair share. QueensLink will offer a lifeline that will connect my constituents, and all of Queens, to jobs, essential services, and educational opportunities. It is time that an EIS gets funded!”

“Mass transit is the artery that feeds the neighborhoods of this city, and for too long parts of New York have been prevented from free-flowing travel. The QueensLink and projects like it are forward thinking ways to grow the city with transit-oriented neighborhood planning. We can not let this opportunity to reactivate rail lines pass us by,” said Council Member Nantasha Williams.

QueensLink is seeking to reactivate the long-defunct Rockaway Beach Branch of the LIRR, by extending the M train south from Queens Center Mall to the Rockaways. The proposal would create Queens’ first North-South subway connection with parks, walking paths, and biking trails along the way. The organization has amassed support from 40+ local elected officials and organizations. It is a project of QueensRail, a volunteer-run 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 2015 to improve transit in South and Central Queens.

For more information, please visit www.QueensLink.org