QueensLink could see new life under Mamdani administration

Democratic nominee for mayor, Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani said he may bring his support of the QueensLink proposal to City Hall should he be elected. Eagle file photo by Ryan Schwach 

By Ryan Schwach

QueensLink, an ambitious and expensive transportation proposal for the World’s Borough has been put on the backburner under the current mayoral administration – but that could change if Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor in November.

The Astoria legislator is a longtime supporter of the QueensLink – a proposal to reactivate a strip of old rail line for a new train route – and told Queens reporters on Tuesday that the transit plan, along with a few other Queens-specific projects, would remain priorities for him should he ascend to Gracie Mansion.

“I think [the QueensLink] will continue to be very important to me,” he said. “QueensLink is something that I've attended public events in support of and ultimately, what it speaks to is that if we want New Yorkers to use public transit, we have to ensure that that public transit is the most convenient option wherever they live.”

The Adams’ administration has given little credence to the QueensLink, instead opting to support a proposal for the same abandoned property known as the QueensWay, a 3.5 mile linear park similar to Manhattan’s High Line.

Mayor Eric Adams announced during his first year in office in 2022 that the city had chosen to pursue the QueensWay over the QueensLink, and began to fund the project with a $117 million grant from the federal government. The planning and designing of the first phase of the QueensWay is currently underway and is expected to run through the end of 2025.

But as the city has pursued the QueensWay, it has also insisted that the new park wouldn’t preclude the possibility of a rebuilt transit line along the abandoned rail that cuts through parts of Central and South Queens.

While supporters of the transit project insist the park would impede the city’s ability to build a new train line there, they also have not given up hope the city will reverse course and work toward bringing a new transit option to the transit desert.

“Mamdani attended our City Hall rally a few years ago, and we welcome his support and believe that it's what's good for Queens, if not New York City in general,” said longtime QueensLink Executive Director Rick Horan, who called QueensLink a non-partisan proposal.

“Good transit doesn't discriminate by race, creed, color, or what party you happen to be a member of,” he added. “We are looking forward to working with the next mayor, whoever it may be, to help make QueensLink a reality.”

Mamdani said that supporting projects like the QueensLink would help him fulfill promises he’s made on the campaign trail to improve public transportation in the five boroughs.

“If we want New Yorkers to use public transit, we have to ensure that public transit is the most convenient option wherever they live,” Mamdani said. “There are too many New Yorkers for whom that hasn't been the case, especially the further you get into the outer boroughs across New York City.

Mamdani campaigned on a plan to make all the city’s buses free, an initiative he first pursued as a legislator. The MTA pilot program to make one line in each borough free was, in part, created as part of an effort to bring better transit to boroughs other than Manhattan.

“When we look at the way that our system looks today, it's still too much of a reflection of the needs as it was in the beginning of the system, where everything had to go through Manhattan, and there's still so much transit that needs to be done in the outer boroughs, across the outer boroughs, for many New Yorkers who don't need to actually go back into Manhattan, ” he said.

While the city’s primary focus has been on developing the QueensWay, the QueensLink has gotten some recent attention.

All three levels of government have continued to give some support to the project. In January, the project got $400,000 through a federal grant to help fund an environmental impact study study, and the state legislature kicked in another $100,000 in the budget.

In April, the City Council passed a resolution calling on the project to be studied.

Like Mamdani’s free bus plan, however, QueensLink would need far more support from city and state officials, as well as the MTA. The transportation agency has not been so keen on endorsing the project, having characterized it as not having enough of an impact to justify its price tag.

The QueensLink plan, which would create a new train route for riders in South and Central Queens, could see new life under a Mamdani administration if the Queens legislator is elected mayor. Map via QueensLink

Mamdani said he was “excited at the prospect of working with Governor Hochul in continuing to deliver, not only record investments, but also outcomes and expanding public transit and access to public transit.”

Other Queens projects

Mamdani also told reporters that other Queens-specific proposals are likely to get some more attention under his administration, including the 31st Street safety plan in Western Queens which would improve streetscapes in the area.

He also said he’d change how the city has, in recent years, addressed quality of life concerns on Roosevelt Avenue.

Mamdani said that rather than send law enforcement into the popular Queens strip to deal with the illegal vendors and brothels that have, in some ways, come to define the area, he would lean toward providing social services to those who live and work there. He blamed the city, in part, for creating the conditions that have fueled problems along Roosevelt in the first place.

“The city has failed all New Yorkers in its inability to create a system of any kind of order and coherence where we are actually issuing the [vendor] permits that we are supposed to,” he said.

At the beginning of his campaign, Mamdani expressed support for a legislative package in the City Council that would expand access to vendor permits.

“We've seen the city government sit on its hands as it refuses to ensure those permits,” he said.

If Mamdani wants to address some of those issues, he will need to win in November and expand his coalition in Queens among the borough’s more moderate and conservative communities. He said he’s already begun to have those conversations with Queens residents in some of the more conservative areas of the borough.

“In the early conversations I've had, especially the Rockaways, is just how there are so many parts of New York City where New Yorkers are feeling forgotten by their city government, where they feel forgotten both in investments that have been made, even time spent and attention given,” he said. “I can tell you that my goal is to represent each and every New Yorker and to ensure that those who've been on the margins are going to be back in the mainstream, and that we're the people at the heart of this politics.”

“I'm looking to be a mayor for more than just the people who voted for me, I'm looking to be a mayor for all eight and a half million people who call this city their home,” he added.