Light rail for Queens – Brooklyn link

Planned New York orbital transit line is expected to cost USD5.5bn and carry 35m people a year

On 10 January New York

State Governor Kathy Hochul announced the go-ahead for a 22.4km (14-mile) orbital light rail line from Jackson Heights (Roosevelt Ave) in Queens to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn.

The Interborough Express (IBX) has a projected patronage of 115 000 passengers/day (34.6m annually) and an estimated construction budget of USD5.5bn. The new line would offer end-to-end running times of 40 minutes with a five-minute peak headway, serving a corridor that is home to 900 000 residents.

Metropolitan Transit Agency (MTA) studies showed light rail to be the best option for conversion of the freight railways (Bay Ridge branch and Fremont Secondary) that are mostly owned by the Long Island Rail Road, and partly by CSX. Freight would still have access to the corridor on a temporal basis, or by spatial separation. Other options evaluated by the MTA included heavy rail and Bus Rapid Transit. The next stage is an environmental review.

MTA CEO Janno Lieber said that light rail “was judged to be superior in terms of capacity, speed and engineering viability – principally because the size of a heavy rail vehicle could not be accommodated in some of the existing pathways and you’d have to build a whole new tunnel, including a whole new tunnel under a cemetery.”

Previous plans for a streetrunning tramway between Red Hook, Brooklyn, and Astoria, Queens, were promoted by former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. It was hoped to begin construction on this 17.7km (11-mile) scheme in 2019, serving almost half a million residents and connecting with 13 subway lines and nine ferry services. Development stopped as a result of the pandemic.

Siemens to supply Sydney’s new airport metro line

Siemens Mobility is to supply 12 driverless three-car trains for the metro line to Sydney’s new international airport, under a EUR900m turnkey contract which includes a depot at Orchard Hills, signalling, electrification, communications and platform screen doors.

The company will also serve as system integrator and maintainer for a period of 15 years.

Opening in 2026 to coincide with completion of the new airport facility, the AUD11bn (EUR7bn) line is to run for 23km (14 miles) from St Marys (interchange with T1).

Expected to serve around 10m passengers, Western Sydney International will be the city’s first ‘24/7’ airport.

As part of the Parklife Metro consortium with WeBuild, RATP Dev and the Plenary Group, the deal marks Siemens Mobility’s first PPP in Australia.

Lirr Reaches G Rand C Entral

Grand Central Madison – a new Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) station below New York’s famous Grand Central Terminal – opened on 25 January. Part of the USD11.1bn East Side Access Project, the station is initially served by a 30-minute shuttle to Jamaica (06.15-20.00). The inaugural train, which also carried state and city dignitaries, took 21 minutes to cover the journey from Queens to Manhattan.

Once open to all 11 LIRR routes by the end of February, the new connection promises reductions in journey times of around 40 minutes for 160 000 passengers each day. Around 45% of LIRR commuters are expected to travel to Grand Central Madison, with 24 trains/hour relieving crowding at Penn Station on the West Side, previously the line’s only stop in Manhattan.

Grand Central Madison is the largest passenger facility built in the US since the 1950s and includes 17 escalators and eight platforms. More than 40m below ground, it is reached by a 5.6km (3.5-mile) tunnel, including single-track tubes beneath the East River that were built in the 1960s but never fitted-out. Work on the current scheme started in 2006; planned to open in 2009, progress was impeded by financial constraints.

A separate project has created a new stabling yard in Queens to accommodate up to 300 vehicles, and seen the installation of five new bridges, 97 track switches, 295 catenary masts, and more than 2.5km (1.55 miles) of retaining walls.

East Side Access is the MTA’s largest project – one of several underway as the agency faces a budget deficit of nearly USD3bn by 2025, caused in part by dramatic falls in farebox revenue since the pandemic. It has drawn criticism as one of the most expensive rail projects in the world, costing almost USD2.2bn/km (USD3.5bn/mile).

The MTA is looking at raising its USD2.75 base fare to USD2.90 in an effort to reduce its debt burden and Governor Hochul’s state budget proposal, revealed on 1 February, includes a plan to increase the payroll tax for businesses (from 0.34% to 0.5%) to help plug the gap. An anticipated USD1.8bn in revenue is expected in 2023, and a 0.16% rise would generate an extra USD800m/year. New York City is also being asked to contribute an additional USD500m/year.

System-wide ridership has recovered to around 60% of 2019 levels, although the MTA estimates that by the end of 2026 it will reach only 80% of pre-pandemic usage.