Queens’ rail debate turns on a single deadline

QueensWay vs – In Queens, a fight over what to do with decades-old railroad tracks has hardened into a choice many fear won’t allow both visions to survive. While QueensWay is set for construction later this year, QueensLink supporters are pressing Gov. Kathy Hochul and stat

When Travis Terry looks at the abandoned rail line near his home in Forest Hills. Queens. he doesn’t just see old infrastructure. He sees years of neglect. The tracks, last used in 1962, have become what he calls “blight,” plagued by illegal dumping. “It’s been sitting there for 65 years now. ” Terry said. “and those of us in the community. we got tired of what it had become.”.

Terry’s answer has been waiting since 2011: QueensWay, a plan to convert 3.5 miles of idle railway into a 47-acre park. His hope is practical and personal at once—turn a long-quiet corridor into something people can use, including easy bike access to Forest Park, the borough’s third largest park.

But in the same communities, some residents insist the rails should do more than host greenery. Andrew Lynch doesn’t understand why New Yorkers can’t pursue both transit and parkland. “When I saw this debate, I was like, ‘Man, none of you guys want to work together. Let me show you what’s up,’” Lynch told Grist.

Lynch wrote a blog post in 2016 outlining a project that combines rail service with green space. That effort became QueensLink, a proposal to extend the subway’s M Train line and create 33 acres of parkland.

The problem now isn’t just ideology. It’s timing.

All over the country. cities have grappled with what to do with rail corridors—turning them into trails. building new transit. or attempting combinations. Nationwide, more than 25,000 miles of rail have been converted to recreational trails. The Atlanta Beltline. with its 22-mile loop of trails and parks. is among the most prominent examples. even though plans to include light rail there have stalled.

In New York, the debate is unfolding while the city continues to expand the subway system. It is spending $5.5 billion on the Interborough Express to connect Queens and Brooklyn. and $7.7 billion on phase two of Manhattan’s Second Avenue Subway. Queens has shown steady growth since the pandemic. and residents make more commutes by car than those in any other borough.

New York also has a record of ambitious rail-to-trail projects, including The High Line. For years, officials have invested in equitable park access.

Now that long-running question has landed on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s desk.

QueensWay’s first phase is expected to begin construction later this year. Supporters of QueensLink are urging city and state officials not to foreclose the possibility of restoring rail service.

Mamdani has been pulled in two directions by the competing plans. As an assemblyman representing parts of Queens, Mamdani expressed support for QueensLink in 2023. After becoming mayor, he included $43 million for the QueensWay park project in his $124.7 billion annual budget. “The City remains committed to expanding green and open space across the boroughs and is actively exploring all available funding options to make that a reality. ” a mayoral spokesperson told Grist.

Lynch said QueensLink supporters were “miffed” and “shocked” by that decision. A City Hall official told Grist the decision to finance the park does not preclude building the rail line as well.

QueensWay’s first phase is set to begin later this year and would create a 5-acre linear park. Phase Two. which would have added a 1.3 mile extension. was to be paid for with a $117 million grant from the federal Reconnecting Communities initiative—but Congress rescinded funding for that program when it passed the Big Beautiful Bill.

Recently. Mamdani’s staff told QueensLink supporters that the park project’s first phase is too far along to stop. according to Lynch. and said the administration will not rezone the land as park space. That preserves the possibility of building the subway line too. Former Mayor Eric Adams’ administration made the same point when it said one does not preclude the other.

Lynch, however, worries that “does not preclude” may not survive contact with concrete. He believes the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA, which operates much of the region’s transit network, would balk at building a line on park land.

For QueensLink supporters, the focus has shifted to the governor. Lynch said QueensLink is looking for Governor Kathy Hochul—who appoints the MTA’s board and plays a major role in drafting its budget—to support the project. Her office directed Grist to the MTA and New York City Hall for comment.

Meanwhile, the two visions keep colliding on a harder question than what land should become: what it should be worth.

The nonprofit Trust for Public Land has supported the park project since 2011. Tamar Renaud. its New York State director. said QueensWay will boost equity by eventually serving four of the 20 neighborhoods with the least amount of accessible park acreage. With 28 schools around the rail line. she said it would improve recreation for kids. while making the area more bikeable and walkable. “It was really about reconnecting communities that had been separated through these big infrastructure projects,” she said.

QueensWay supporters also frame their plan as the more practical one. A 2019 MTA report found that the QueensLink rail line would cost $8.1 billion. The agency has since revised that estimate to $5.9 billion and said the proposal would serve 39,000 daily riders.

The MTA’s conclusion was blunt: “Reactivating the Rockaway Beach Branch with NYCT service has a high cost and serves a relatively modest number of riders.” The agency acknowledged that the project would reduce auto usage and provide additional rail connections. But it added that “compared to other projects, the benefits are average for sustainability and resiliency.”.

Advocates for the park say the price tag and the math don’t match the outcome. They put QueensWay’s cost at around $350 million. “I think we all recognize that after all these studies there wasn’t going to be a train,” Terry said.

Railway supporters counter that the MTA’s cost estimate is too high and its ridership estimate too low. They hired Transportation Economics & Management Systems to evaluate the report; it placed the cost closer to $3.5 billion. A New York University report estimated QueensLink would serve around 75. 000 daily riders. and another found it would take 14. 800 cars off the road each day.

Eric Goldwyn, an expert on public transit project costs at the NYU Marron Institute, offered a different way to see the numbers. QueensLink, he said, might not dramatically boost ridership, but it could benefit operations by allowing busy trains on Queens Boulevard to run at a higher capacity.

Goldwyn also shared Lynch’s sense of what the timeline could do to the debate. In his view, QueensLink is the project that harmonizes rail and park. He said QueensWay moving forward would damage the odds. “Once that first spade of dirt is turned over, the odds become… longer,” he said. “It’ll be harder and harder to envision QueensLink in the way that it’s been proposed.”.

For Terry. the stakes are immediate—he’s been looking at the unused tracks for decades. watching the neighborhood live with what he calls “blight.” For Lynch and QueensLink supporters. the stakes are also immediate. but in a different way: they want officials to keep the door open long enough for rail service to be seriously possible. not just theoretically compatible with a park that’s already under construction.

QueensWay QueensLink railroad tracks transit expansion M Train MTA Forest Park Rockaway Beach Branch illegal dumping park access Zohran Mamdani Kathy Hochul