New York’s MTA Moving Ahead With Interborough Express
14-mile Light Rail Line Between Brooklyn and Queens Will Let Riders Avoid Manhattan
The Interborough Express (IBX) will be the most significant addition to New York City public transportation since the Long Island Rail Road’s Rockaway Beach Branch became part of the subway system in the 1950s.
The project calls for light rail transit (LRT) alongside an underused freight railroad through transit-deprived neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. The proposed route would connect with 17 subways lines and the Long Island Rail Road. It would be New York’s first light rail route but, more importantly, it would let residents ride between these boroughs without having to go through Manhattan.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is championing IBX, describes it as “transformative.” If it gets built, IBX promises to shorten travel times between the boroughs, reduce road and subway congestion, and expand economic opportunities for people who live and work along the route. In her State of the State address in January, the governor instructed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to begin design and preliminary engineering work later this year
These next steps will be crucial to the project’s success since they will determine whether and how the route gets built. As part of this, significant issues that could affect the line’s usefulness to the traveling public must be addressed. These issues include:
· A short tunnel under a cemetery.
· Transfers between IBX and the subway system and LIRR.
· A pipeline that runs through another tunnel.
IBX grew out of a Regional Plan Association proposal for a new transit line from Bay Ridge in Brooklyn to Co-Op City in the Bronx called Triboro Express. The route would follow the Long Island’s Bay Bridge branch and CSX’s Fremont Secondary onto the Hell Gate Bridge. However, MTA plans to use the bridge to run Metro North commuter trains into Penn Station.
…a huge time saver for people wanting to travel within the two boroughs. For example, it takes 67 minutes to get from Bushwick to Brooklyn Army Terminal via Manhattan but would take only 41 minutes with IBX and a connecting subway.
MTA announced in 2019 it would study the feasibility of restoring passenger service over the Bay Ridge Branch. In 2020 it awarded the study to AECOM, a global engineering and construction company, which submitted its findings to the agency in January 2022. After reviewing AECOM’s report, MTA selected light rail over conventional (heavy) rail and bus rapid transit (BRT) as the preferred mode.
The project not only is moving forward it may begin before the next MTA Capital Program takes effect in 2025, if funding can be identified. “There are efforts underway to accelerate the project even though it is in its infancy,” MTA Chair and Chief Executive Officer Janno Lieber told WCBS News in December.
The design process could take up to two years. If the project is approved for construction MTA will then have to develop a financing plan.
For much of the 20th Century the IBX route was part of a busy multi-track freight line that led to float bridges in Bay Ridge. There, switching crews moved freight cars on and off barges for transit between the New Haven and Pennsylvania Railroads. Both the railroad and float bridges were downgraded after the New Haven was merged into Penn Central in 1969. The remaining tracks are still used for freight but mostly for shipments to and from Long Island.
IBX trains will run between Bay Ridge and Jackson Heights, a 14-mile distance, entirely in Brooklyn and Queens. The plan calls for 19 stations, most at locations where passengers can transfer to the subway or the Long Island Rail Road.
An end-to-end trip would take around 40 minutes, according to the feasibility study. It would be a huge time saver for people wanting to travel within the two boroughs. For example, it takes 67 minutes to get from Bushwick to Brooklyn Army Terminal via Manhattan but would take only 41 minutes with IBX and a connecting subway. Trains would run at five-minute headway during rush hour and every 10 minutes at other times.
Approximately 900,000 people live along the route and 260,000 work in Brooklyn and Queens. By 2040 IBX is expected to carry 115,000 daily weekday riders – 40 million people a year.
The project’s $5.5 billion price tag works out to $48,000 for each weekday rider. The rail line could be in service as early as 2027. However, both the budget and projected start-up date are overly optimistic.
Freight trains will continue to use the existing tracks, which will be separate from IBX. In fact, the route could see more freight traffic if the long-stalled Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel, a project first proposed more than a century ago, ever gets built. Governor Hochul has asked the Port Authority to complete an environmental study for the bi-state freight line that would run under Upper New York Harbor.
MTA chose light rail over conventional rail and bus rapid transit because it was less expensive to build than a subway and it could provide better service than the other modes. A conventional rail line would cost $3 billion more to build and require a lengthy tunnel under the All Faith’s Cemetery in Middle Village Queens, the consultants concluded. BRT would unable to meet projected demand or provide reliable service; a bus has around one-fourth the capacity of a light rail train – 90 vs. 360.
All Faith’s is a 225-acre cemetery that dates to 1852 and contains the remains of 540,000 people. The New York Connecting Railroad, which connected the Hell Gate Bridge route to the LIRR Bay Ridge branch, built a tunnel under the burial ground 520 feet long and 30 feet wide. That tunnel does not have enough room for the IBX tracks, and sharing the CSX tracks for the short distance would disrupt both passenger and freight operations.
MTA’s consultants said building a separate 1 ½ mile tunnel for IBX would be too costly. They proposed routing the tracks onto the streets to get past the cemetery. However, this would force trains to compete with motor vehicles for road space and restrict movement to 25 miles per hour, the local speed limit. It would add several minutes to the trip and expose trains and riders to collision risk.
Effective Transit Alliance (ETA), an advocacy group that works to advance transit projects, has called the street running the biggest threat facing the project as a whole. They propose widening the existing tunnel under All Faiths and building a separate bridge over Fresh Pond Yard and the LIRR Lower Montauk line. This would improve speed, increase reliability, and accommodate increased service in the future, they contend.
The open cuts at the mouths of the All Faith’s tunnel are 60 feet wide, which leaves ample room for four tracks – two for freight and two for IBX. The widening could be done using cut and cover methods rather than boring, which is more expensive, and would not disturb the graves, ETA says. Cost would be less than $50 million.
Another obstacle is a one-foot diameter pipeline used to deliver jet fuel to LaGuardia Airport. It runs along the Bay Ridge branch ROW south of All Faith’s Cemetery and occupies one tube of the East New York Tunnels, which run under Atlantic Avenue and the LIRR Atlantic Branch.
For obvious reasons, IBX cannot share the tunnel with the pipeline. Consultant recommended tunneling one of the light rail tracks under the pipeline. ETA says it would be more practical and cost much less to relocate the pipeline.
Many – if not most – IBX passengers would transfer to a subway line or the LIRR for part of their trips. Advocates raised concerns over how easy those transfers will be. Poorly designed transfers, they argue, would discourage ridership.
Broadway Junction in Ocean Hill, Brooklyn, is one of the busiest transfer points in the New York subway system, with no less than five lines converging. At this time, no IBX station is planned at that location. Passengers would have to walk a quarter mile on the street to get from the IBX to the transfer hub. ETA calls for free transfers between IBX and subway routes with dedicated passageways, escalators, and elevators.
An MTA spokesperson said nothing has been “set in stone” and the design phase would answer many of the questions being raised about the route. IBX is a worthwhile project that could improve the lives of hundreds of thousands New Yorkers who live or work in its vicinity. Like other infrastructure projects, it has shortcomings, but they are correctable and worth fixing. Investing an additional $100 - $150 million could yield substantial dividends. I’ll be watching.
Ellis Off the Rails
I will be away for most of February, first in Texas, where the birth of our first grandchild is imminent, and then in Florida, where we plan to celebrate my mother’s 95th birthday. I will write as time permits but I will not adhere to a weekly schedule until I return home.