The MTA is setting up shop inside subway stations and bus hubs this summer to ask the people who live along the proposed Interborough Express what they want the light rail to look like, as amNY first reported. The pop-up workshops began earlier in July and run through September.
Here is the setup: instead of waiting for New Yorkers to show up at an evening meeting in a school auditorium, the agency is planting itself where commuters already are, in the stations that will become transfer points to the future IBX. The events span the planned crosstown route between Brooklyn and Queens, and staff are there to answer questions and take feedback on things like station design and the public space around each stop.
The workshops are built around a few hands-on activities. One asks riders to map out the IBX trips they expect to take and say how often they would ride. Another has commuters rank what matters most to them in a station, ordering priorities like being kept informed about service, comfort, and seeing their community represented in the design. A third invites people to sketch their ideal ride using images of features such as lighting, seating, and public art.
At the same time, MTA customer service agents are sharing updates on where the project stands and asking riders how they picture using the line once it opens.
Lisa Daglian, executive director of the rider advocacy group the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, told amNY the agency has already been doing outreach on the project but that “not enough people know about it yet.”
“The IBX is a terrific project, and the more people know about it, the better,” Daglian said. “The best way to reach people is where they are, and that’s in stations. So, hats off.”
She added that “this is something people should have a say in, people who live in the area, people who work in the area, people who visit the area that it’s going to go through, and be able to put their two cents in.”
The IBX is a big deal in a literal sense: the MTA calls it the largest expansion of its transit system in more than half a century. Rather than digging a brand-new tunnel, the agency plans to build a crosstown line on top of existing Long Island Rail Road and freight tracks, threading through Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods that currently have little or no subway service.
The proposed 18-stop route would carry riders end to end between Bay Ridge in Brooklyn and Jackson Heights in Queens in 32 minutes. Right now, making that trip by train without cutting through Manhattan takes several transfers. The MTA says the line would give nearly 900,000 people a new transit option and projects roughly 160,000 riders on an average weekday. Planned stops include Canarsie, Flatlands, and Maspeth, all areas with limited or no subway access. A rendering the agency released shows a station at the Wilson Avenue L stop in Bushwick.
The pop-ups are the latest piece of the public engagement portion of the planning process, which kicked off with a series of six public workshops in April. Since June, five station events have taken place, and 15 more are scheduled through September, including at the Bay Ridge R stop, Broadway Junction, and the New Lots Avenue L stop.
Not everyone along the route is sold. At earlier meetings, Queens residents raised concerns about trees that could be cleared during construction, noise, and pollution near the freight lines the IBX would use. Civic advocates in Brooklyn, including Jibreel Jalloh of The Flossy Organization, have said any new transit needs to come with affordability and anti-displacement protections so longtime residents are not priced out once investment arrives, per amNY’s earlier reporting.
More information about the project is at mta.info.
Featured image: Photo by Marc A
