IBX Presentations to the Federal Transit Administration
John B. Pegram[1]
This is the another of a series of articles introducing documents obtained from the MTA in response to Freedom of Information Law requests.
In October 2024, I asked the MTA to provide me with "copies of each document provided to or received from and each presentation made to or received from the US Department of Transportation [USDOT] regarding the Interborough Express proposal and/or the Cross Harbor Freight Program since January 1, 2022.” The MTA provided me with copies of three presentations made at meetings in 2022 with the Federal Transit Administration (an agency within USDOT). A large part of each of the later two presentations appears to have been duplicated from the previous one. Of course, all of this material is from before the IBX PEL Report, which selected the light rail mode, and is over 2½ years old and—therefore—not necessarily indicative of present plans.
The MTA did not provide copies of presentations after 2022 or any other type of requested documents.
Environmental Review
Most interesting to me in the produced briefing presentations was the IBX program schedules, especially the portion of the timeline reproduced below from page 24 of the MTA’s October 2022 IBX Briefing for the FTA. Today, the IBX project appears to be behind the 2022 environmental review schedule.
The Missing Mega Grant
Also particularly interesting was the disclosure—at page 22 of that briefing—that the MTA had applied for a Mega Grant in May 2022. Apparently the submission was made to the FTA, for the IBX project and not awarded.
Tunnels
Several slides of each briefing were devoted to tunnels: the East New York Tunnel at Broadway Junction, the All Faiths Cemetery Tunnel at Metropolitan Avenue and the Port Authority’s proposed Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel.
Regarding the East New York Tunnel, the MTA reported:
Much of the presentations to the FTA regarding the All Faiths Cemetery tunnel was redacted. See, for example, the black redaction of a slide below:
Of course, plans for that tunnel have changed substantially since 2022.
Cross Harbor Freight Program (CHFP)
The February and October 2022 briefings said this about the Port Authority’s Cross Harbor Freight Program (CHFP):
· The MTA and Port Authority are working closely together to ensure both projects remain complementary.
· The IBX alignment will operate in the existing cut along the north side of the existing right-of-way.
· To accommodate CHFP Portal at New Utrecht, widening of ROW and alterations to structures would be required for Conventional Rail, LRT or BRT at 14th Avenue and New Utrecht Avenue. [See below].
The discussion of the CHFP tunnel portal, which includes some details not in the PEL Report, reminded me that the portal would be over two miles inland of the harbor and that freight from the tunnel to and from the proposed CHFP transloading facilities at the 65th Street Rail Yard would have to travel over those two miles, as indicated in the drawing excerpt from the CHFP DEIS below:
If the CHFP tunnel proposal is dropped (as it should be), leaving only the enhanced car float proposal, the complications of the CHFP tunnel portal could be eliminated from the IBX planning.
The MTA FOIL appeal officer’s decision regarding this request (attached) revealed some aspects of the MTA’s current dealings with the Port Authority (PA) regarding coordination of the IBX plans with the PA’s Cross Harbor Freight Program (CHFP), as follows:
· the MTA is in the process of negotiating a co-sharing plan at 65th Street Rail Yard with the Port Authority, and
· the Port Authority has requested freight sidings along the IBX corridor and discussions are apparently taking place about where the MTA has sufficient space to provide them.
I expect to file a court appeal of the nonproduction of documents and presentations requested from the USDOT, including the FTA. I have recently made a request for other and later documents and presentations provided to or by the FTA.
This article expresses the personal views of the author and does not express the views of his employer, or any client or organization. The author has degrees in law and physics, and has taken several engineering courses. After five years of work as an engineer, he has practiced law primarily in the field of patents for over 50 years, dealing with a wide variety of technologies. He is a life-long railfan and user of public transportation in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Because this article is relatively short and lacks detailed notes, no PDF copy is attached.
[1] © John Pegram, 2025.
Please delete this article you ruined my life
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