QueensLink, the all-volunteer nonprofit campaigning to turn the abandoned Rockaway Beach Branch into a subway extension, has launched two requests for proposals and one request for expressions of interest to study how reactivating the Queens rail corridor would reshape the local economy and housing market, work funded through a Reconnecting Communities Program grant administered by the Federal Highway Administration. The nonprofit advertised the two RFPs on Wednesday, September 30, with proposals due Wednesday, November 18.

QueensLink is running three concurrent studies. The Regional Economic Input/Output Analysis and the Housing Tenure and Anti-Displacement Study are each budgeted at about $150,000. The third, a Community Engagement Plan and Program Delivery initiative, begins as a $25,000 request for expressions of interest that will shape a $125,000 request for proposals, QNS reported.

The Federal Highway Administration grant behind the studies, from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Program, totals $500,000, QNS reported.