(Bloomberg) -- A new transit rail line that would run between Brooklyn and Queens is set to undergo a design and environmental review process, a step forward in providing rapid public transportation to underserved areas of New York City.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will release a request for proposals for preliminary engineering and design of the 14-mile Interborough Express project, or IBX, while at the same time embarking on the environmental review work with the federal government, MTA officials announced Tuesday during a press conference at the site of a future IBX station in Jackson Heights in Queens.
The $5.5 billion IBX project will provide light-rail service along an existing freight railway. About 60% of people who live along the route commute to jobs that are in Brooklyn and Queens, not Manhattan, Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chief executive officer, said during the press conference. The aim is to reduce commuting time and offer better public transportation through lower-income neighborhoods where more than 50% of residents don’t own a car.
“We’re turning it into something which is transformative for so many New Yorkers,” Lieber said. “It makes no sense that the 5 million people who live in Brooklyn and Queens have to go to Manhattan on the subway to reach the other borough. It makes no sense,” he said.
The MTA, which oversees New York City’s subway, bus and commuter rail lines, is able to seek engineering proposals with $52 million of state funding and $15 million of federal grant money, according to MTA documents. The IBX will connect to 17 different subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road.
Still, the IBX project faces funding risks. The MTA’s 2025—2029 capital budget allocates $2.75 billion for IBX, but about half of that $65.4 billion multi-year program is unfunded. If the MTA had to scale back capital spending, it would need to reconsider expansion projects like IBX because the priority is to maintain existing infrastructure, Lieber told reporters last month after the agency’s monthly board meeting on Sept. 25.
Along with the sizable funding gap in the MTA’s next capital plan, the agency’s current capital budget needs $15 billion after Governor Kathy Hochul in June paused a congestion pricing initiative that would have raised money for MTA infrastructure projects.
“We’re all mindful of the fact that the congestion pricing pause is in effect, but we were able to get some money from the state of New York to keep this project moving forward, at least at the design stage,” Lieber said.
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