Let’s build a train from Brooklyn to Queens and one day to the Bronx
New York City’s subway system is designed to bring workers from the outer boroughs to downtown and downtown Manhattan. If you want to take the subway from Brooklyn to Queens, you can only get there via Manhattan. Also, many places in Brooklyn and Queens are mass transit deserts, with no trains, only bus service. The part of Brooklyn where I grew up, the flats (especially East 59th Street between Avenues O and T), used to be called the “Dual Fare District.” In the days before free transfers, you took the bus to the subway and everyone paid separately. To reduce the problem of train-starved communities, Governor Hocher announced in her first state speech that she intends to build a cross-regional express train.According to In Zhong Gothamist:
“A long-sought Train connection between Brooklyn and Queens New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced that she may finally be a reality, and that she hopes to “take an old, unused, 14-mile right of way during her state administration and create our Call it an express train between boroughs”. State address on Wednesday. The route occupies the existing freight train track starting at Bay Ridge and entering Astoria and runs through Sunset Park, Borough Park, Kensington, Midwood, Flatbush, Flatlands, New Lot, Brown Communities including Swell, East New York, Bushwick, Ridgewood, Nakamura, Maspeth, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights. If the project moves forward, it will create new sites in underserved communities or “transit deserts.” Hochul directed the MTA to conduct an immediate environmental review. In early 2020, the agency Initiate Feasibility Study Use routes for passengers to use. ”
One of the impacts of COVID on land-use development patterns is the combination of jobs and families in often larger homes in outer boroughs. This likely reinforces New York City’s earlier trend toward a decentralized economy. People want to reduce commute time and avoid Manhattan’s high costs. Long Island City, downtown Brooklyn and other neighborhoods are attracting businesses. Commuters who live in Brooklyn and work in Queens often find that driving a personal car is their fastest way to commute. This train will change calculus for many.
The Regional Planning Association (RPA) has long advocated for the project. In fact, since 1996, they’ve been advocating the so-called Triboro Line, an overground train that will end at Co-Op City in the Bronx.according to Website for RPA:
“Running 24 miles on existing track, from Co-op in the Bronx to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn, Triboro will be an overground rail line connecting 17 subway lines and four commuter lines…Transportation improvements typically focus on bringing people together Moving in and out of Manhattan. Yet today, more New Yorkers commute from the outer boroughs than into Manhattan, and the city gains more jobs in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island than in the city core Get more jobs. Most people who live in the four boroughs outside of Manhattan do not use public transportation to work in the boroughs, even if they live in cities with the largest subway and bus networks in the U.S.. NYC’s subways are radial Built to connect people to Manhattan from the core, limiting the value of the system to residents traveling elsewhere. In fact, the sprawling subway network of 470 stations doesn’t make sense for 43% of the city’s outer-city residents within walking distance. However, more than 50% of New York’s job growth over the past 15 years has occurred outside Manhattan. Many residents’ work or shopping trips are difficult or impossible to complete by subway alone, requiring the circuitous, time-consuming combination of bus and subway. time and multiple transfers.”
An environmentally sustainable New York City should encourage the use of public transit, which requires building rail lines beyond Manhattan. What’s more important is the impact the train line may have on the city’s land use and potential to build affordable housing. The new train station will encourage higher density development nearby. City and state governments can create public-private partnerships to allow for zoning changes and the construction of larger buildings in exchange for low-cost housing. This can bring economic development into often overlooked neighborhoods and allow equity and diversity goals to be incorporated into the redevelopment of these areas.
The majority of New Yorkers (more than 6.5 million) live outside Manhattan, and they live in New York neighborhoods that often include vacant lots, abandoned buildings, undeveloped rights of way for trains, and even overground freight train lines. New train lines could be designed to combine passenger and freight trains, reducing truck traffic within the city. A train line built on old right-of-way and existing freight tracks is much less expensive than building an underground subway line. If the MTA can contract the company that rebuilds LaGuardia Airport in record time, it can also be built quickly.
The federal government under Joe Biden has re-entered the infrastructure business. That means, for the first time in a long time, the city and state may have a federal partner. The cost of the line is estimated to be around $2 billion, and that doesn’t even include the $2.4 billion we spent on extending Line 7 to Hudson Yards. The 7-Line expansion project is funded solely by the City of New York.according to Eric Jaffe:
“The financing structure they devised, known as ‘tax increment financing,’ is an innovation – at least by the standards of transportation financing in the United States. Cities Bonds issued Once the expansion is complete, the developer’s property value will soar, and future taxes will be used to pay off the construction. On paper at least, the plan is a good example of what is called ‘value capture’ – using real estate proceeds to service public transport. ”
The 7-wire extension had a major impact on real estate development on Manhattan’s West Side. A $2 billion transportation investment in Brooklyn and Queens will have a huge impact on New York real estate development for generations. The project may also use a financing structure similar to the 7-line extension. An exciting public works project like this would greatly improve the mental health of a city that has spent the past two decades experiencing the untold pain of COVID, the blow of the Great Recession of 2008 and the aftermath of 9-11. fear. For our new Outer Ward mayor (following two from Boston), the new train line will be a concrete (and steel) example of his commitment to New York living and working outside Manhattan.
It will also reduce traffic congestion in the outer boroughs. As Brooklyn and Queens have become more attractive over the past few decades, their traffic problems have gotten worse. Anything that helps centralize population and employment density and promote mobility makes our cities more environmentally sustainable and attractive. I am with our new governor. Let’s build that inter-district train line, and once it’s up and running, build the second phase to the Bronx.
