A Proposed New York City Subway Line That Directly Connects Brooklyn and Queens

Fred Mills of The B1M looks at the Interborough Express, a proposed MTA project that would connect underserved transit neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens without having to travel into Manhattan first.

With more than 470 stations across four boroughs, it’s really good at getting people in and out of Manhattan. But there’s a problem. A lot of people don’t actually need to go into Manhattan. And it’s really hard to get to where they do need to go. …Enter the Interborough Express. It’s the MTA’s latest idea for a new subway line to connect Brooklyn and Queens via an abandoned freight railway.

The proposed light rail will run between Bay Ridge in Brooklyn and Jackson Heights in Queens. But like all construction projects in New York City, there’s a lot of red tape to conquer. Jeffrey Zupan and Kate Slevin of the Regional Plan Association explained how the issue of underserved neighborhoods has been discussed for many years but truly hope this one comes to fruition.

We had a lot of proposals in the region at risk, and some of them hit the mark right away and some didn’t. And I have to say the Triboro RX was not was not among those that were even talked about, I would say, for 10 or 15 years. Twenty six years later, that proposal is being revived as the Interborough Express. If you’re having deja vu right now, then you could be thinking of any number of New York City transit projects that were proposed, planned, started and stopped for decades. …For everyone’s sake, let’s hope this project moves a little faster.

The project was first proposed in January 2022. The light rail location was approved in January 2023. The MTA is continuing environmental studies and conducting town halls to discuss the results with the affected communities.