MTA has officially begun taking steps to move forward on working on a new train line connecting Brooklyn and Queens.
Reports state that the Interborough Express (IBX), is a 14-mile light-rail line that will connect Brooklyn and Queens. The design is set to cost $166 million and the train will run from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to Jackson Heights, Queens in less than 40 minutes.
The train will be an outlet for communities that don’t have train stations which includes 17 subway lines, 50 bus routes, and the LIRR that won’t allow commuters to ride through Manhattan.
“More than 5 million people live in Brooklyn and Queens,” MTA Chair Janno Lieber said in previous statements. “We need an easier way to move between the two boroughs.” The IBX is set to “repurpose an existing freight corridor, the Bay Ridge Branch and Fremont Secondary.”
However, MTA plans to keep the freight running while the space will be carved out for the light rail line. It will run through 19 stations from Roosevelt Avenue to the Brooklyn Army Terminal. The construction will happen in two parts.
First the demolition will happen, along with the utility relocations and tunnel work. Then the laying of the tracks and the building of the stations and maintenance yard will take place afterward.
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