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1/6/2022
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul yesterday announced plans to advance the proposed Interborough Express, a major expansion of transit service in Brooklyn and Queens.
Hochul directed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to immediately begin the environmental review process for what she described as a “transformative” project. The review would be the first step in building a transit service that would connect communities in Brooklyn and Queens to as many as 17 subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road.
Hochul called for the project during her first state-of-the-state speech. The Interborough Express would use the existing right of way of the Bay Ridge Branch, which is a freight-rail line that runs through Brooklyn and Queens, connecting the neighborhoods of Sunset Park, Borough Park, Kensington, Midwood, Flatbush, Flatlands, New Lots, Brownsville, East New York, Bushwick, Ridgewood, Middle Village, Maspeth, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights with several new stations in communities not currently served by transit rail.
If adopted, the Interborough Express would improve transit and job access to underserved communities along this corridor that is currently home to about 900,000 residents and 260,000 jobs, and with growth expected by at least 41,000 people and 15,000 jobs in the next 25 years, Hochul administration officials said in a press release.
In addition to transit service, the existing Bay Ridge Branch corridor can service cross harbor freight rail and would dramatically reduce truck congestion regionally and expand goods movement facilities, thereby fortifying supply chains still struggling to recover from the pandemic, they said.
To that end, Hochul also directed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to complete an environmental review for the Cross Harbor freight-rail tunnel.