Reviving Abandoned Queens LIRR Branch Would Cost $6.7B: Study

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Reviving an abandoned LIRR railway stretching from Rego Park down to Ozone Park would cost at least $6.7 billion dollars, according to a long-overdue MTA study released this week.

Connecting the tracks to the subway system to make a new branch of the "A" line would cost even more, at about $8.1 billion, the study finds.

The study says the railway would serve 11,200 riders a day as an LIRR option or 47,000 if it were instead connected to the subway.

Riders would be able to get from Howard Beach to Penn Station in 25 minutes with the LIRR option, or 45 minutes with the subway option, the study says.

Three years ago, the transit authority pledged to look into restoring Long Island Rail Road service to the Rockaway Beach branch, which closed in 1962, according to THE CITY.

The MTA awarded SYSTRA Engineering a $864,000 contract for the study, which should've been released last year, THE CITY reported on Oct. 1. The agency finally released the study, which is dated September 2018, one week after that story ran.

The high cost estimates, which don't include the cost of buying land needed to complete either project, could give momentum to a proposal to turn the abandoned railway into a park like Manhattan's High Line.

First proposed in 2011, the QueensWay Park would convert the three-mile stretch of rail into a public green space. The city and the state spent a combined $600,000 on a design and feasibility study for the park in 2013.

"Our hope is that the high costs provide an opening to consider a park," Karen Imas of Friends of the QueensWay told THE CITY.

the MTA study on LIRR RBB was finally released ! ! Contract awarded - Nov 2017, Results promised - June 2018, We finally got them - Oct 2019 but what's that you say, estimate for reactivation ranges from $6.8 - $8.1 BILLION...there you have it! #BuildtheQueensWay pic.twitter.com/VhLO4UuI13
— The QueensWay (@QueensWayNYC) October 9, 2019