Work is about to start on a speedy transit connection between Brooklyn and Queens — the primary since because the creation of what’s now the G prepare line within the Nineteen Thirties.
Gov. Hochul, MTA Chairman Janno Lieber, and a number of native elected officers and transit advocates gathered in a little-used, open-cut rail passage in Dyker Heights Friday to announce the beginning of design work on the Interborough Specific, or IBX.
“People often dream big, but the execution becomes impossible,” Hochul advised reporters. “Folks quit on their desires — they take a plan, put it on a shelf, and it will get dusty over time.
“We’re here to say that that era is over: we’re turning these old tracks into something remarkable.”
Evan Simko-Bednarski / New York Each day Information
Gov. Hochul and MTA Chairman Janno Lieber be a part of native elected officers from Queens and Brooklyn on Friday to announce the start of the design part of the IBX challenge. (Evan Simko-Bednarski / New York Each day Information)
The IBX — a well-liked challenge of the governor’s — goals to offer what treasured few transit choices in Gotham can declare: a one-seat journey between Brooklyn and Queens with out a Manhattan detour.
To perform this, the plan is to piggyback alongside already current rail infrastructure, including gentle rail tracks to a pair of barely-used freight railways with the intention to carry riders between Sundown Park and Jackson Heights.
The MTA’s board voted earlier this week to approve a $166 million contract with a three way partnership between consulting agency Jacobs and design agency HDR to conduct the preliminary design work.
“That means a lot of planning is going to occur — looking at the stations, tracks, vehicles, signals, so we can get shovels in the ground and make this become a reality,” Hochul mentioned.
Evan Simko-Bednarski / New York Each day Information
A view of the longer term IBX right-of-way from 61st Avenue in Dyker Heights. (Evan Simko-Bednarski / New York Each day Information)
Alongside the 14-mille route, IBX will join riders to 17 of town’s subway strains — the A, C, E, N, Q, R, B, D, F, M, J, Z, and L in addition to the Nos. 2, 3, 5, and seven trains — and two stations on the Lengthy Island Rail Highway.
“A ride from end to end will take 32 minutes,” Hochul mentioned to applause. “That’s an hour again in your life.
“You’ll be able to see your kids a little bit longer at the end of a workday, maybe go for a run in the morning … pack school lunches,” she mentioned.
The majority of the MTA gentle rail will run alongside the outdated Bay Ridge Department of the LIRR, which has been a freight-only rail line since 1924. The northern part of the route will run alongside CSX freight tracks in Queens.
A map of the deliberate Interborough Specific, or IBX.
Alongside the best way, the road will run by way of a tunnel below the All Faiths Cemetery in Center Village — a plan that can both require the widening of the present freight tunnel to satisfy federal passenger-rail requirements, or else require an extra tunnel below the cemetery.
“Today is a huge milestone,” MTA chair Lieber mentioned. “I am so proud that we’re moving back into the transit-building business.”
“This is going to be the first end-to-end rapid transit line built in the city in New York since the G [train] opened in 1937,” he added. “The stations will be the first built in Brooklyn since the ’40s, and the first in Queens since we got the end of the E line in the 1980s.”
The total IBX challenge is anticipated to price $5.5 billion.
Initially Revealed: August 1, 2025 at 2:28 PM EDT
