The Brooklyn-to-Queens light rail just took a step closer to becoming reality

By Brooklyn Magazine Staff

The highly anticipated Brooklyn-to-Queens light rail just appears to have taken one step closer to becoming reality.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced this week the state is moving forward with plans to build a light rail system that originates at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park and stretches to Roosevelt Avenue in Queens.

Dubbed the “Interborough Express” (IBX), the 14-mile route would have nine stops in Brooklyn and connect to 17 subway lines including the R, D, N and L among others and the Long Island Rail Road.

Specifically in Brooklyn, stops would be located at Fourth and Eighth Avenues in Bay Ridge, New Utrecht Avenue and McDonald Avenue in Borough Park, East 16th Street and Flatbush Avenue in Flatbush plus three stops in Carnarsie with the last Brooklyn stop at Atlantic Avenue in Brownsville.

Rather than tunneling a new subway line, the MTA said the train could run on an already existing freight line and create a new transportation option for nearly 1 million people with 115,000 commuters using it daily. Opting for a light rail means that it “could be built more quickly and efficiently,” the agency said. The route would run further east compared to the existing G line.

It wouldn’t come cheap, with an estimated pricetag of $5.5 billion. However, that’s less than a new subway line would cost — roughly $8 billion — which is another option the MTA and state explored over the past year when Hochul announced plans for a new Brooklyn to Queens route in 2022.

Whatever happens, nothing will be built anytime (this is still New York, after all) and would take several years for it be complete. The next step for the MTA is to conduct an “environmental review process and preliminary engineering” this year. It’s unclear how long that would take.

Full MTA planning study for IBX light rail project was released today. Estimates $5.5 billion construction cost (2027$) for a 14-mile project, 39-min runtime, with 19 stations, attracting 115,000 daily riders https://t.co/xc457pl652 https://t.co/65RdL0Z6s5 pic.twitter.com/eHpF8elylK

— Yonah Freemark (@yfreemark) January 10, 2023