MTA botched new subway line study, advocates say
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The QueensLink would revitalize the LIRR Rockaway Beach Branch line through Central Queens, last used 1962. Photo via Herbert George/QueensLink
By Jacob Kaye
Advocates of a new proposed subway line in Central Queens say the MTA has grossly overestimated the project’s cost, making it appear to be less feasible than it actually is.
Supporters of the QueensLink, a proposed train line that would run on a 3.5 mile stretch of abandoned tracks between Ozone Park and Rego Park, commissioned a report that found that the MTA’s estimated cost of $8.1 billion for the project was inflated by around $4.6 billion.
The vast majority of the extra dollars comes in costs unrelated to construction that would go instead toward contingency plans and consultants, according to the report.
“The billion dollars is a fable. It's a fabricated number that they pulled out of a hat, just to make the layman think that the project is not a good project and shouldn't be pursued because of other, better purposes for a billion dollars,” said Robert Diamond, a long-time public transit advocate and supporter of QueensLink.
The MTA commissioned Systra Engineering, a private firm, to complete the agency’s report on the rail line in 2017, according to reporting by THE CITY. The report, which cost taxpayers nearly $1 million, was completed in 2018 but not released to the public until November 2019, following advocates’ demands.
The MTA declined to comment for this story.
“Our feeling was that they were sandbagging it because they just didn't want it to be part of the discussions of the capital budget,” said Rick Horan, the executive director of QueensLink. “As predicted, they used ridiculous numbers for the cost of rebuilding the rail.”
The QueensLink proposal would see the new line add four stops in neighborhoods in Central Queens that largely lack access to the city’s subways.
A subway map depicting where the QueensLink could run if built. Map via QueensLink
Cutting south from the Woodhaven Boulevard R, M and E station, the proposed train would make stops along Metropolitan Avenue, the J and Z Jamaica Avenue station, Atlantic Avenue in Woodhaven and Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park.
The project would create anywhere from 100,000 to 150,000 annual jobs, according to the report. Supporters say it would also boost the local economy around the line and bring in between $50 and $75 billion in property development.
While the report doesn’t do a cost benefit analysis for additional benefits, it says that the QueensLink would reduce travel time for people using public transportation around Queens, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, reduce crashes and traffic and offer short-term construction jobs.
Any use of the ghost rail would add more benefit to the community than it currently adds, supporters say.
The line was formerly the Long Island Railroad’s Rockaway Beach Branch until 1962, when the rail was taken out of service. It’s been abandoned ever since.
Over the years, proposals for revitalizing the line have come and gone.
In recent years, two proposals – one of them being the QueensLink – have risen to the forefront. The second proposal, referred to as QueensWay, would see the line turned into a public park similar to the High Line in Manhattan.
Horan said that the two proposals could live in harmony; the QueensLink proposal would allow for park space to be built underneath and next to the elevated rail line.
“We really see this not just as a transportation project that's sorely needed by a transportation desert, but a game changing project that incorporates a lot of different components, especially the parts that will help change things for the better for Queens, in general, and for communities along the rail in particular,” Horan said.
Whatever the future of the abandoned track is, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards will have the opportunity to lead it.
Richards, who is expected to be certified as the winner of the borough president’s race next week, has voiced support for both projects in the past and recently said he would “love to see a combination [of the plans],” on Gotham Gazette’s “Max Politics Podcast” last week.
“Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is in contact with the QueensLink and QueensWay teams and looks forward to convening a meeting so we can work together to create more open spaces and better transportation for our borough,” a spokesperson for the borough president’s office told the Eagle.
Horan said that he believes the project will get done and hopes that the recent report drums up support from the public, which might see the project as a way to further recover from the pandemic.
“This is really something that we should build because if most people at least see the value in it for them, and we can get it built in an efficient manner,” he said. “We can do all this, it's just a matter of getting facts into the hands of people so that they can make an intelligent decision.”
