Summer 2024 IBX Update
This brief update discusses;
· Funding for IBX planning moves forward,
· New initiatives by the Transit Costs Project team,
· IBX ridership estimates keep growing,
· “The Interborough Express: 515 Feet from Greatness,”
· Follow-up regarding the MTA’s IBX FAQs,
· “Is the Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel Still Dead?” AND
· Freedom of Information Requests and BQ Rail Articles.
Funding for IBX Planning Moves Forward
The “pause” in the New York City congestion pricing program has caused widespread concern over the funding of transit projects, including the Interborough Express (IBX) project. Don’t worry too much about that, yet.
The New York State budget, passed earlier this year, allocated $52 million for the design and engineering of the IBX project. The MTA and consultants are preparing an Environmental Impact Statement, which is needed when seeking federal funding for part of the cost of creating the new line.
The project saw a further boost this month when several federal officials announced that the MTA would receive a $15 million grant from the US Department of Transportation to prepare a Corridor Profile Planning Assessment for the IBX line.
Transit Costs Project Team Expands Its Studies
One of the most valuable contributions to transit planning has been the comparative study of infrastructure costs by the Transit Costs Project (TCP) at the NYU Marron Institute. Now, the TCP team is expanding its studies. In June, they published a first report on their high speed rail study. Recently, I learned of new initiatives being undertaken by the TCP team, including creation of a passenger rolling stock cost database, and studies of electrification of transit and commuter rail lines, elevators in transit systems, ridership and various aspects of the Interborough Express (IBX) proposal. I eagerly look forward to their reports and to commenting on them
Ridership and Capacity
From the earliest BQ Rail articles, I have suggested that the MTA and its consultants have underestimated the potential ridership of the IBX line, and I have questioned whether light rail will provide adequate capacity. In the past 2½ years, the MTA’s published weekday ridership estimates have climbed up 35% from 87,800 to 118,700 weekday riders. In March, 2024, MTA Construction and Development President Jamie Torres-Springer speculated that the number might climb to 150 thousand.
A recent paper from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering predicts more than 254 thousand daily riders. I also have been told that the Transit Costs Project expects to produce a higher-than-the-MTA estimate, using different methodology.
Look for further discussion of ridership soon in Part 2 of my article Interborough Express Ridership Projections.
“The Interborough Express: 515 Feet from Greatness”
In Spring 2024, the Effective Transit Alliance (ETA) posted an article, The Interborough Express: 515 Feet from Greatness, which—you may have guessed—addresses the MTA’s proposal for street-running of light rail in Middle Village, to avoid expanding a 515 foot-long tunnel. In addition to discussing possibilities for that tunnel, the article touches on lack of good plans for transfers to and from the IBX line, especially at Broadway Junction, and ridership and capacity issues.
The MTA IBX FAQs – Follow-up
On March 12th, I posted the article, Fact-Checking the MTA’s Interborough Express FAQs. I disagreed with a number of statements in the MTA’s IBX FAQs, which attempt to support the MTA’s selection of a Light Rail Transit (LRT) mode for the IBX line and running Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs) in the streets around All Faiths Cemetery. I had hoped that the MTA would revise the FAQs for greater accuracy.
Recently, I checked those FAQs. They appear to be unchanged.
Is the Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel Still Dead?
Back in January 2022, revival of the Port Authority’s Cross Harbor Freight Movement Project Tier II Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was announced with considerable fanfare, along with the announcement of the MTA’s Interborough Express (IBX) project. The announcement was made that an arrangement for funding by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) had been arranged. All of that was of particular interest because a Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel would place a large number of freight trains on tracks paralleling the proposed IBX line in Brooklyn and Queens.
Starting in early 2023, I asked the PA media relations office about the status of the project and requested reports. All they would say is that say is that the review was ongoing, referring me to the project website. But all of the material there was, and now is, old, and the Email address for providing feedback was and is dead.
When I made Freedom of Information requests to the PA for reports about the EIS, the response was that no such reports were found. I did obtain a copy of a contract for consultants to do the review when called upon to do so. But I have found nothing to indicate that they have been working on the EIS project.
After I published the article, No Activity on the Cross Harbor Rail Freight Tunnel Project, saying “The tunnel project appears to be dead,” a Port Authority (PA) media relations representative objected. He said that the study is active and ongoing, but still did not provide any reports.
I learned in early June 2024 that USDOT has been working with the Port Authority “to understand fully the funding and environmental review needs of the Cross Harbor Freight Project.” In other words, after nearly 2½ years, funding for the Tier II EIS had not been secured.
Later in 2024, I plan to write more about the why the proposed Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel is a bad idea and suggest some better uses for money than an EIS review of the tunnel idea.
Freedom of Information
Some people have asked why the BQ Rail articles are not published on a regular schedule. A major reason is that it takes time to gather information for useful articles, including the time required for making requests to agencies under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws, which supposedly guarantee public access to most agency records. Because agency responses to FOI requests are slow, research and writing articles is delayed, often taking months and sometimes years before document copies are provided.
Since I started the BQ Rail site in February 2023, I have posted 40 articles. Many of them have attachments, which are agency documents obtained by FOI requests, that were not previously available to the public. In the same period, I have made numerous FOI requests and agency appeals. In five cases, where I was dissatisfied with the agency decision, I have initiated litigation in the New York Courts for review of the agency actions. This is time-consuming, but has been necessary to obtain some of the information that I have been publishing.
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.
As usual a PDF copy of this article is attached.
[1] © John Pegram, 2024.