In a State of the State address on Wednesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, announced a plan that would bring the Triboro transit line one step closer to reality by starting an environmental review. The plan, titled the “Interborough Express,” would stretch 14 miles and link Brooklyn and Queens, connecting with the Long Island Rail Road and up to 17 subway lines.
The Interborough Express is a less-ambitious version of the Triboro RX train first proposed by the Regional Plan Association in the 1990s, an urban planning organization focused on the tri-state New York City metropolitan area. The Interborough Express, in its current form, would cover around 60 percent of the Triboro’s 24-mile-long proposal, running from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to Jackson Heights, Queens. The end-to-end travel time was expected to be 40 minutes or less.
If the route’s stations resembled the Triboro RX plan, the alignment would look something like the following:
- The proposed Queens terminal at Jackson Heights, which would feature transfers to the 7, E, F, M, and R subway lines.
- Two new stations in the Elmhurst and Maspeth neighborhoods.
- A station at Metropolitan Avenue with a transfer to the M train.
- A station in the Glendale neighborhood.
- A station at Wilson Avenue with a transfer to the L train.
- A station at East New York with a transfer to the LIRR and L train, with connctions likely with the A, C, J, and Z trains nearby.
- A station at Livonia Avenue with transfers to the 3 and L trains.
- Three new stations in the New Lots, Flatlands, and Midwood neighborhoods.
- A station at Brooklyn College with transfers to the 2 and 5 trains.
- A station at Avenue H with a transfer to the Q train.
- A station at Avenue I with a transfer to the F train.
- A station at New Utrecht with a connection to the N and D trains.
- The proposed Brooklyn terminal at the Brooklyn Army Terminal with transfers to the N and R trains.
The route runs along existing right-of-ways owned by Amtrak, CSX Transportation, and the LIRR.
In her address, Hochul asked for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to conduct an environmental review for the route. This included identifying which option — heavy rail, light rail, or bus rapid transit — would be best for the corridor.
Today @GovKathyHochul announced her transformational vision for Brooklyn and Queens.
— MTA. Wear a Mask. Stop the Spread. (@MTA) January 5, 2022
The Interborough Express, running along 14mi of existing freight tracks, would stretch from Bay Ridge to Jackson Hts and could connect up to 17 subway lines + @LIRR, serving ~1M riders daily. pic.twitter.com/Tg2C1u3Mcd
Separately, Hochul also directed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to conduct an environmental review for a Cross-Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel to determine the feasibility to have the passenger service and freight operations work in tandem.
Building the route would require negotiations with freight operators in the area and costly upgrades to track and station facilities to cope with the influx of commuters. However, officials are confident that a deal could be worked out where passenger and freight operations occur simultaneously on the same track.
The Interborough Express would be major for Brooklyn-Queens commutes.
Currently, the only train line directly connecting the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens is the G subway line. All other subway lines connecting the two boroughs first run through Manhattan, which needlessly lengthens commutes. The only other option is to ride on crowded city buses, which are often delayed by traffic. The commuting problem between the two boroughs is compounded by the fact that 60 percent and 40 percent of Brooklyn and Queens households do not own cars.
Despite these conditions, 129,000 people make the commute between the two boroughs daily. In her statement, Hochul said, “This historic project would improve transit service and job access for underserved communities in Brooklyn and Queens, serving a corridor that is currently home to 900,000 residents and 260,000 jobs, with expected growth of at least 41,000 people and 15,000 jobs in the next 25 years.”
With the G train already becoming increasingly crowded, so many potential riders along its route, and non-Manhattan commutes increasingly becoming common, a heavy rail system would be much more future-proof and be able to cope with an influx of riders. Frequencies are also much more flexible in a heavy-rail system compared to a light rail or bus rapid transit — both of which are good only on mid- to low-ridership lines.
The many transfers along the route would also benefit Manhattan-bound commuters. Up to 80,000 Manhattan-bound commuters would benefit from the construction of the route.
Most of the residents along the route are 71-percent minority communities and one-third that are 1.5 times below the federal poverty level. Filling in the transit desert would help advance equity in the area.
The Interborough Express could also be very easily extended in the future along the Triboro route up to the Bronx and even to Staten Island.
Provisions already exist in the Bay Ridge area for future tunnels to be built to Staten Island. The route north to the Bronx would follow Amtrak and Metro-North’s Penn Station Access project, which involves bringing Metro-North’s New Haven Line to Penn Station via the Amtrak line with four new stations in the Bronx (stay tuned for a post on that). The stations would be in Co-op City, Morris Park, Parkchster, and Hunts Point. It is expected to be built after East Side Access is complete, bringing the LIRR into Grand Central Terminal.
The Interborough Express is just one of a few transportation-related items announced in Hochul’s address. She also announced plans to construct the aforementioned Penn Station Access project and to refurbish Penn Station, speed up construction of the Second Avenue Subway up to 125th Street, get Amtrak’s Gateway Program moving along, which would build two new rail tunnels under the Hudson River and refurbish two existing ones, and phase in congestion pricing.
Make sure to stay tuned to learn more about those projects.
One thought on “NYC’s Interborough Express Line One Step Closer to Reality”