IBX inches forward but funding questions remain
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The MTA said on Tuesday that it is on the hunt for someone to design and engineer the Interborough Express, a 14-mile light rail that would run from Jackson Heights to Red Hook. Rendering via MTA
By Jacob Kaye
The Interborough Express moved one station closer to its destination this week.
MTA officials said from Jackson Heights on Tuesday that they have begun looking for engineers to design the 14-mile light rail planned to connect Queens to Brooklyn. As the design of the IBX gets underway, so too will a required federal environmental review of the project.
But the two developments announced Tuesday are more than just theoretical steps, officials said. By beginning the design process and starting the environmental review, the MTA will be allowed to compete for federal dollars to fund the ambitious public transit project.
And the federal money could be crucial to the future of the light rail, which is expected to cost around $5.5 billion.
Though the MTA has proposed in its 2025-2029 capital spending plan putting $2.75 billion into the project, the budget has yet to be approved. The project, which was first proposed by Governor Kathy Hochul during her first-ever State of the State address in 2022, will be competing with dollars needed to keep the MTA’s existing subways and rails running.
With the MTA’s Central Business District Tolling program – otherwise known as congestion pricing – still paused after Hochul brought the program to a halt weeks before it was to be implemented, the MTA is in need of cash. And though the revenue from congestion pricing was never planned to be part of the upcoming capital plan, the pause on the plan has put the MTA in an even more precarious financial position than it already was in.
But MTA officials on Tuesday were optimistic that the IBX not only would be fully funded, but that it would see no delays in its planning or construction.
“This is a major project and a major step forward,” said Janno Lieber, the CEO and chair of the MTA.
MTA officials including CEO and Chair Janno Lieber and Jamie Torres-Springer, the president of the MTA’s construction and development, announced the start of the design process of the Interborough Express alongside Queens Borough President Donovan Richards from Jackson Heights on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. Photo by Marc A. Hermann / MTA
In announcing the start of their search for someone to design the IBX, MTA officials also said that they had come to a decision regarding a major question once looming over the proposal.
Officials were previously concerned about a section of the IBX – which would run from Jackson Heights to Red Hook in Brooklyn on an existing rail line used sparingly to run freight through the city – in Middle Village. A portion of the rail line currently snakes under ground beneath All Faiths Cemetery, where the tunnel is not large enough to also accommodate a commuter rail. The MTA was reportedly considering moving the IBX onto the street in the neighborhood, which would force the light rail to compete with cars and traffic.
However, on Tuesday, Jamie Torres-Springer, the president of the MTA’s construction and development, said that rather than send the rail above ground, they’d figure out a way to tunnel the track under the cemetery.
Torres-Springer said that the MTA would either expand the existing tunnel or build a new one entirely.
According to Torres-Springer, keeping the IBX underground may even shorten the projected 40-minute commute time from one end of the light rail to the other.
“It's a huge deal,” he said. “It means we can operate so much more efficiently throughout the whole thing. We can run faster. That means more trains. It means more passengers. It means shorter durations for the whole trip. All of this is unlocked by this, so it's a great opportunity and that's why we're pursuing it.”
Spirits were generally high on Tuesday as the two-year process to design the IBX and put it through an environmental review began.
A rendering of a station along the proposed Interborough Express. Rendering via MTA
“It's a great day, certainly for Queens, and it's a great day for mass transit,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards.
The borough president said that by creating the IBX, the MTA would be “opening up new economic opportunities that had never existed before.”
As proposed, the IBX would serve nearly 1 million riders and connect to 17 subway lines. The line, which would begin at the Roosevelt Avenue station in Jackson Heights, would make 19 stops in total, hitting neighborhoods like Elmhurst, Maspeth, Middle Village, and Ridgewood in Queens, and Bushwick, Brownsville, Flatbush and Borough Park in Brooklyn. The line would service several neighborhoods that currently lack robust access to public transit.
“By creating a new Queens-Brooklyn connection, we're making it easier for Ridgewood residents to find a job in Bay Ridge and vice versa,” Richards said. “The IBX is a direct investment in making both Queens and Brooklyn boroughs where you can live, work and play without having to leave.”
But as officials celebrated the announcement, concerns remained Tuesday about both the future funding of the IBX and of the work needed to prevent the MTA’s existing infrastructure from falling into disrepair.
The IBX would be built along an existing freight rail that is infrequently used. Photo via MTA
"While this is good news, Governor Kathy Hochul has yet to fund the project, or the essential upgrades she indefinitely stopped in June,” Danny Pearlstein, the spokesperson for transit advocacy group Riders Alliance, said in a statement. “New Yorkers need reliable trains and accessible stations more than our leaders deserve flashy groundbreakings and shiny ribbon cuttings."
The vast majority of the MTA’s 2025-2029 proposed capital program would go toward preventing the MTA’s transit system, which includes the city’s subways, buses and the Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road commuter rails, from deteriorating further.
Nearly $11 billion of the proposed spending would go toward replacing 2,000 rail cars – 1,500 subway cars and 500 railroad cars.
Around $7 billion in funding would go toward accessibility upgrades at a little more than 60 subway stations – a number of accessibility projects were put on hold earlier this year following the congestion pricing pause. Should the funding be approved, the plan would make half of the city’s subway stations accessible, and keep the city on track to make 95 percent of its stations accessible by 2055, as required by law.
The MTA also proposed allocating $8 billion for general station improvements, which would include rebuilding 28 railroad stations and making repairs at a third of the MTA’s subway stations.
Around half of the money needed to fund its $68.4 proposed capital budget is unaccounted for.
Hochul has previously committed to finding the funds lost by the pause on congestion pricing, as well as the funds needed to support the upcoming capital budget plan. However, the governor has yet to detail how the money will be found.
The proposed map of the Interborough Express, a 14-mile light rail that would run from Jackson Heights to Southern Brooklyn. Map via MTA
“We will review the MTA’s proposal for the upcoming 5-year capital plan and fight to secure as much funding as possible,” the governor said in a statement. “That includes pressuring Washington to deliver additional infrastructure dollars and working with our partners in the legislature and City Hall to determine priorities and capacity during the upcoming budget negotiations.”
