The multi-billion dollar streetcar project, the Brooklyn-Queens Connector (BQX), may have hit a speed bump in recent weeks, but that isn’t stopping proponents and the city from still pushing for the green light.
As reported by Crain’s New York Business, the BQX reportedly has missed a deadline to start its public review process, which was slated to begin at the end of 2017. The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) now plans to begin the public review process for the $2.8 billion proposed streetcar project that would stretch along the waterfront for 16 miles between Sunset Park and Astoria, Queens early this year.
The EDC had planned to begin the public-review process for the streetcar by year’s end. Instead, the agency is continuing to study the potential costs, revenue and overall feasibility of the line and likely will not start the review in the first quarter of this year.
Officials are using the delay to take a closer look at the knot of infrastructure beneath the city’s streets—installed by various entities for more than 100 years with little record keeping— that could soar the costs of the project. Delaying the design and other initial costs in favor of a more robust study will save at least $35 million if the project is ultimately scrapped, according to initial reports.
However, Friends of the BQX Spokesperson Russell Murphy said he remains optimistic about the projects potential, namely its ability to bring transportation access to thousands of transportation starved residents along the waterfront corridor.
“The BQX will dramatically increase opportunity for the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront who are clamoring for better access to jobs, education, healthcare and recreation. We’re optimistic that the project will take significant, concrete strides forward in 2018,” said Murphy.
This setback comes off the heels of the departure of Ya-Ting Liu, Executive Director of the Friends of the BQX, one of the major supporters of the ambitious project. Liu departed the organization on Dec. 1, according to reports. No word on where Liu will land next, but Deputy Director Jessica Schumer has since served as interim executive director and will continue in that post “until the position is filled,” according to the Friends of BQX.
Schumer previously served on the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama White House and helped to draft the domestic policy platform of the DNC leading up to the convention in 2016.
According to the plan, the BQX will start in Sunset Park and will run through Gowanus, Red Hook, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, Vinegar Hill, The Navy Yard, Williamsburg, Greenpoint before heading to Long Island City and ending in Astoria. The 16-mile route along the East River waterfront corridor is planned to run 24-hours-a-day with five-minute intervals at peak hours with stops a half-mile apart.
Just two months ago, the group alongside local electeds unveiled the inaugural prototype of the above ground railway system.
The 46-foot-long, 8.7-foot-wide prototype comprises two cars, including a driver cab and includes features such as street-level boarding for those with mobility challenges, open-gangways. In addition the cars have a higher capacity and have the potential for dedicated right of way and higher average speeds than MTA buses.
The light rail system would be NYC’s most significant transit project in decades, connecting 400,000 residents and 300,000 workers between Sunset Park and Astoria to booming, yet isolated, employment hubs along the Brooklyn-Queens Waterfront. The BQX is also expected to add tens of thousands of additional jobs to the corridor while expanding opportunity and combating inequality in neighborhoods left disconnected for decades.
