NEW YORK — The Interborough Express, the planned Metropolitan Transportation Authority light rail line linking Brooklyn and Queens, has entered the engineering and design phase.
The MTA board this week selected a joint venture of Jacobs and HDR to oversee the project, which will be built along a currently freight-only, 14-mile Long Island Rail Road line. The 19-station line will link 17 subway lines, two LIRR stations, and 50 bus routes, and is projected to save up to 30 minutes in travel time. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul approved $2.75 billion in funding for the project, also known as the IBX, earlier this year.
“The IBX is the sort of project that future generations will describe as a no-brainer, and thanks to funding we secured for the MTA’s Capital Plan, we’re not just talking about it – we’re getting it done,” Hochul said at a press conference today (Aug. 1, 2025) in Brooklyn.
It will be the MTA’s first light rail line and the first new end-to-end transit line built since the IND Crosstown Line, now New York City Transit’s subway G Line, fully opened in 1937.
Light rail was chosen over heavy rail and bus rapid transit options in 2023 [see “MTA to build first light rail …,” Trains.com, Jan. 12, 2023].
“The IBX is a life-changer for millions,” said MTA CEO Janno Lieber. “It’s about time Brooklyn and Queens residents could move directly between our two most populous boroughs – for jobs, education, recreation and everything else.”
The design phase beginning this summer will focus on light rail communciations and signal, vehicle, and track design, plus station, bridge, retaining wall, and rail yard design. During the planning stage, addition of a tunnel beneath Metropolitan Avenue in Queens’ Middle Village neighborhood has cut the projected running time from 39 to 32 minutes, and increased ridership estimates to 160,000 per day, up 50,000 from the MTA’s earlier estimate. Completion is expected in the 2030s.
More on the project is available here.
