Brooklyn-Queens light rail will include stop near LIRR station

The MTA’s first-ever light rail system, which will provide a connection between Brooklyn and Queens, will include a stop one block from the Long Island Rail Road’s East New York station, officials revealed Tuesday.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority planners also announced plans to build part of the $5.5 billion Interborough Express underground — potentially shaving several minutes off the commutes of the 100,000 customers expected to use the proposed link.

The new details surfaced Tuesday as MTA officials announced they had begun looking for a consulting firm to do preliminary engineering work — the first contract to be awarded for the megaproject it is calling IBX.

"Today is a major step, but we’re just getting started," MTA construction and development chief Jamie Torres-Springer said at a Queens news conference.

The MTA expects the project to be completed by 2027. The project is getting started with $52 million in state funding, and $15 million in federal aid. The MTA’s proposed $68 billion 2025-2029 capital program earmarks $2.5 billion for the project, but the transit authority has not identified where that money would come from.

The 14-mile light rail system, stretching from Jackson Heights, Queens, to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, will be built on a former Long Island Rail Road branch that is now only used to transport freight. The IBX aims to shorten the commutes of subway riders who currently have to travel through Manhattan to get between Brooklyn and Queens.

Releasing new details of the project, Torres-Springer said among the 19 stations that will be part of the IBX, one will serve Broadway Junction in Brooklyn, just north of Atlantic Avenue and a block away from the LIRR’s East New York Station.

The IBX will also provide connections to 17 different subway lines, Torres-Springer said.

MTA officials also confirmed Tuesday that, to minimize travel times, the rail line will be routed underground at Metropolitan Avenue in Queens, either through a newly built tunnel or an existing one.

To avoid a cemetery along the project’s path, the MTA had previously considered routing the rail line onto the city streets in the Middle Village community in Queens.

Using a tunnel will avoid having the rail system "in conflict with automobiles and trucks" on street level, MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber said.

"The tunnel is going to allow us to have shorter end-to-end travel times," said Lieber, who expects riders to be able to traverse the entire system in less than 40 minutes.

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.