Gov’s Interborough Express faces uncertain future after gov’s congestion pricing pause
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Governor Kathy Hochul’s plan to build the Interborough Express may be delayed as a result of her decision to pause the implementation of congestion pricing. File photo via the governor’s office/Flickr
By Jacob Kaye
In 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul announced what would become her first major public transportation proposal.
During her first-ever State of the State address that year, Hochul outlined her “bold idea” for the Interborough Express, a 14-mile-long light-rail to be built along a stretch of old train track not used for passenger service in 100 years. Running from Jackson Heights to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, the new line would serve as a vital connector to a number of neighborhoods that have long lacked easily available public transit options.
The governor didn’t want to waste any time on what would undoubtedly be a major undertaking, and ordered the MTA “to immediately commence an environmental review, so we can get this project rolling down the track.”
But a little more than two years later, the future of Hochul’s ambitious plan to build the much-needed public transit option for Queens and Brooklyn residents appears to be uncertain, almost entirely as a result of the governor's own 11th-hour pause on the implementation of the MTA’s congestion pricing plan.
While the actual impact the pause of congestion pricing will have on the IBX remains unclear, officials with the MTA Board said Wednesday that it’s likely that the light-rail, and other projects like it, will be delayed, given the $16.5 billion hole its current capital project budget now faces.
Meeting for the first time since the governor announced her congestion pricing pause, the MTA Board voted on Wednesday to delay a number of expansion projects detailed in its 2020-2024 capital budget plan, including the expansion of the Second Avenue subway into East Harlem. With those projects now getting pushed to the MTA’s yet-to-be-completed 2025-2029 capital plan, projects slated for the new capital plan will likely also get bumped back, sources said.
The 2025-2029 capital plan, which was expected to feature the IBX as its marquee project, is due in October.
“Defunding the 2020 capital program to the tune of $15 billion or $17 billion not only blows apart the current program, but it will severely impact what can be done in the 2025 capital program, pushing a huge set of needed transportation improvements and benefits into an unclear future,” board member Jon Orcutt said on Wednesday.
The future of the Interborough Express, a 14-mile light-rail that would run from Jackson Heights to Southern Brooklyn, is uncertain following the governor’s pause on congestion pricing. Rendering via MTA
When asked about the status of the IBX, a spokesperson for the governor directed the Eagle to a lengthy statement released by Hochul hours after the MTA Board meeting Wednesday.
In her statement, Hochul touted her work on the IBX and other “generational projects” like the Second Avenue subway extension and claimed that the MTA was in a “strong financial position.”
Though Hochul has yet to identify a funding source that would come remotely close to covering the current $16.5 billion gap in the MTA’s budget, she said that her “team will work with the MTA to further develop a comprehensive approach to fund both the remaining projects in the 2020-2024 capital plan and the new capital plan.”
The governor added that she would “work in partnership with the state legislature to implement comprehensive solutions and ensure appropriate funding sources in next year’s budget.”
Queens State Senator Jessica Ramos, whose district would include the first stop on the IBX in Jackson Heights, told the Eagle that she would “absolutely” fight to fund the transit project in next year’s budget. However, Ramos said there isn’t a real replacement for congestion pricing, which not only would provide needed funding to the MTA, but would clear some traffic on the city’s streets and lessen pollution.
“We still have to figure out a capital plan that includes all of these items that are left by this former capital plan,” Ramos said. “But congestion pricing, yes, was designed to be a mechanism that generates revenue for the MTA, but also, it was an effort to address the congestion issue.”
Should the state decide to allocate funding for the IBX in next year’s budget, it wouldn’t be the first time Albany’s spent on the light-rail project in its yearly fiscal document.
In its Fiscal Year 2025 budget passed earlier this year, the governor and legislature allocated $52 million for the design and engineering of the IBX, which is currently undergoing an environmental review.
The project also saw a financial boost this month when U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer announced that the MTA would be the recipient of a $15 million federal grant, meant to be spent on kickstarting the IBX.
“I fought hard for this $15 million for the Interborough Express because it is both transformative and a smart way to establish new transit connections between Brooklyn and Queens,” Schumer said in a statement.
But the combined $67 million in new funding only accounts for a little more than 1 percent of the projected $6 billion it will take to build the IBX.
"As hopeful as I am [that the IBX won’t be delayed], we still don't have a clear financial plan for the MTA,” said Assemblymember Steven Raga, whose district would be home to at least two of the IBX’s 17 stations.
“With the recent award of a $15 million federal grant, it's clear that this is an investment that needs to be made sooner rather than later,” Raga added. “The longer it takes to source the capital for this investment, the longer Queens and Brooklyn will forego direct transit."
The proposed map for the Interborough Express. Map via MTA
Though both Ramos and City Councilmember Sandy Nurse, whose Brooklyn district would also include two IBX stations, are supporters of the new transit project, they both said that they were more concerned about the delay of countless transit improvements in the wake of the congestion pricing pause, than they were about the potential delay to the IBX.
In her district’s hierarchy of needs, Nurse said she first wants to see the Broadway-Junction subway station built up to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act – in all, 23 ADA projects were deferred by the MTA as a result of the congestion pricing pause, including projects at the Parsons Boulevard and Briarwood stations in Queens.
“I think it's shameful that there are so many projects in the pipeline when other nations and other cities have been able to move things forward,” Nurse told the Eagle. “Why is it that New York City cannot move capital projects that have been lingering around for a long time, even when it has the money allocated? Why can't we move faster?”
Despite Hochul’s assurances that the state will soon find the funding to pay for the deferred – and potentially soon-to-be deferred – projects, Nurse wasn’t buying the promise.
“If the state was able to come up with a plan to fund the MTA and get all of its projects funded, it would have done so already,” she said.
Not sharing in Nurse’s skepticism, however, was Queens Borough President Donvan Richards, who told the Eagle that he had been assured by the governor that the IBX wouldn’t be delayed for funding reasons.
“I know that the governor, from her early days coming into office, was very excited about getting this project done,” Richards said. “I don't think her excitement on this project has wavered.”
Richards said Queens and Brooklyn residents should also take comfort in the fact that the project is still in its earliest stages.
“It wasn't like there were going to be shovels in the ground yesterday,” the BP said. “As long as [the MTA] is still moving through the process and doing the environmental review, I think that by the time they are truly ready to proceed, we will have a more definitive answer on what congestion pricing looks like.”
In general, Richards was far more hopeful that the ambitious proposal could still move forward without many hiccups.
“As long as the governor is committed to it, I believe it still will happen,” he said.
