The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is reviving an ambitious light-rail project to connect Brooklyn and Queens with plans to spend up to $100 million on engineering.
The $5.5 billion Interborough Express, a rail link between Bay Ridge and Jackson Heights, has progressed sluggishly since Gov. Kathy Hochul first backed the proposal in 2022. Transit officials are now putting the project into gear with a request for proposals from would-be contractors for engineering and design work on the 14-mile people mover.
The initial phase of engineering and design work will span a year and a half, while transit officials simultaneously work to get the federal government to sign off on environmental reviews. The MTA expects to award the contract in the coming months. Once completed, the work will enable the authority to compete for crucial federal dollars to finance the Interborough Express, and then move onto actually finding a builder to make the light rail project a reality.
The MTA has earmarked $2.75 billion for the project as part of its proposed five-year capital budget to state lawmakers, another indicator that transit officials are eager to pick up the pace. But transit officials may have an uphill battle ahead of them in procuring billions of federal transit dollars, particularly with President Donald Trump back in the White House.
MTA documents show that the project’s construction will be divided into two phases: the first will prepare the 14-mile corridor for the light rail system by demolishing existing structures, constructing new tunnel and bridge structures and repositioning existing freight infrastructure. The second phase will install the light rail system, construct stations, an operation center, order light rail trains and other work to bring the system into service.
Once completed the light rail would give New Yorkers more options to commute between the boroughs without heading into Manhattan first; only the G train travels between Brooklyn and Queens. The light rail will have 19 stops and link up to 17 subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road — serving roughly 900,000 people along the corridor, according to the MTA.
The light rail’s footprint is mostly made up of existing infrastructure from the Long Island Rail Road’s Bay Ridge Branch and the Fremont Secondary line owned by CSX, a major U.S. railroad freight company. This cuts down on construction, but light rail is not without its challenges.
Namely, the project requires the MTA to operate a new class of train cars that need specialized maintenance and storage facilities. Annually, such work could cost $83.2 million in 2027 dollars, with the Brooklyn Army Terminal a potential location for light rail facilities.