The engineering and design phase has now started for a new rail network that will connect Queens and Brooklyn.
The MTA just approved the hiring of a team that will oversee the design of the Interborough Express. The rail line will use existing freight tracks to connect underserved Brooklyn and Queens residents to the subway, bus and Long Island Rail Road. Queens Borough President Donovan Richards says it will only take 32 minutes to go end to end on the 14 mile line.
"We are talking about cutting commute times in half if not more and we are talking about opening up new job and economic opportunities that have never existed before."
The project will be a new transit option for nearly a million residents living close to the line. It will be complete sometime in the 2030's.