GLENDALE, Queens (PIX11) — If you’ve ever tried to go between Brooklyn and Queens on the subway, you know how next to impossible it is.
There’s a new proposal, the Interborough Rail Line, that could change everything.
“I like the idea a lot,” Georgette Cutrone, a longtime waitress at the Glendale Diner, told PIX11 News.
She said it’s been tough for people in the neighborhood to get around between Brooklyn and Queens. She and many others welcome the proposed 19-stop IBX rail line linking Bay Ridge to Jackson Heights.
Her boss agreed.
“It’s going to affect the whole neighborhood,” Peter Legakis, the owner of the Glendale Diner, told PIX11 News. “Help people get to work and move around better might affect us as well.”
On Monday night, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal moved one step forward with an update. The MTA detailed their plan to build a light rail line on mostly existing freight rail lines and a former commuter line that carried passengers until 1924.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is all in.
“The economic and employment opportunities we can create on either side of the Queens-Brooklyn border are endless as we establish the first direct connections between communities like Elmhurst, Middle Village, East Flatbush and Sunset Park,” Richards said.
But not all residents are on board.
“I just hope it’s not going to negatively affect air quality with a new train station,” Dorina Belu, a Glendale resident, told PIX11 News.
The IBX rail line is a long way from happening. The environmental review process hasn’t even begun; that is a two-year procedure. Then comes the capital funding and putting it out for bids.
