Trains final ran throughout an deserted stretch of Queens tracks in 1962, however a distant dream to have them reactivated as extra railway than greenway remains to be chugging.
The New York Public Curiosity Analysis Group’s Straphangers Marketing campaign on Wednesday launched a brand new report calling on the town to prioritize the long-hoped-for transit revival of what as soon as was the Lengthy Island Rail Street’s Rockaway Seashore Department.
“It is in need of not just a park, it is in need of a park and a subway,” mentioned Matthew Paolucci, a marketing campaign coordinator for the Straphangers Marketing campaign. “It is in need of better connections for the people of Queens to get to where they need to go.”
Greater than 1,500 Queens Faculty college students signed a petition paired with the report in favor of reviving prepare service alongside the previous tracks, with nearly none who participated in a neighborhood survey saying the venture needs to be totally parkland.
Mayor Eric Adams in 2022 dedicated to a $35 million plan to design and construct the primary stretch of the QueensWay Metropolitan Hub, a deliberate Excessive Line–like park atop the elevated construction.
The QueensWay, which can be supported by a $117 million federal infrastructure grant, would ultimately flip the three.5 miles of house alongside the deserted tracks into what its backers name a “linear park and cultural greenway.”
Travis Terry, who’s on the Pals of the QueensWay board of administrators, mentioned the town is actively advancing the ultimate designs for the venture’s first part. He added that the town’s Financial Improvement Company just lately issued a request for proposals for planning and design on the second part in Forest Park.
“By transforming underutilized land, the QueensWay connects multiple neighborhoods to one another and to Forest Park, enhances public safety and creates safe, accessible routes for walking, biking and running,” Terry mentioned.
In an announcement, the EDC mentioned the transformation of the vacant, city-owned rail hall will ship a “much-needed, high-quality park.”
“To ensure we meet all community needs, we are still meeting with residents and leaders to hear out their concerns, feedback and guidance as we move forward with this process,” an EDC spokesperson mentioned.
However supporters of the hassle to revive prepare service alongside the tracks contend that specializing in placing in an elevated park would reduce down on the chance for including a north-south transit route by means of Queens, whereas additionally enhancing commutes and including connections to a number of subway traces and the LIRR.
“This is a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” mentioned Rick Horan, govt director of QueensLink, a nonprofit group shaped in 2015 to push for restoring transit service alongside the unused tracks, which run between Rego Park and Ozone Park. “People and events come and go, but the need for good public transit remains.”
Park or Journey
For the reason that finish of Rockaway Seashore Department service greater than 60 years in the past, a number of ideas for restoring the railway house have been floated. Amongst them are concepts for restoring LIRR service or increasing the subway system alongside the identical route.
The MTA launched outcomes of an $864,000 planning and feasibility examine in 2019 after THE CITY flagged the lengthy delay in making the report public.
The examine pointed to multibillion-dollar prices for including subway or commuter-rail service — even with out the prices of buying land close to the city-owned right-of-way as a part of the equation.
The prices and advantages have been additional spelled out within the newest MTA 20-12 months Wants Evaluation, which in contrast a ridership state of affairs for subway service versus one that will revive Lengthy Island Rail Street commuter service. It put the projected value of subway enlargement, serving an estimated 39,200 every day riders by 2045, at almost $6 billion — a worth that features tunneling underneath current buildings.
Transit advocate Matthew Paolucci speaks at a Rego Park press convention about utilizing current rail traces to attach the center of Queens with the Rockaway Peninsula, July 16, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Building on restoring LIRR service, in the meantime, was projected to value an estimated $4.1 billion whereas serving “dramatically fewer riders.” In line with the MTA, the estimated every day ridership for 2045 can be 14,500, making the commuter-rail idea “even less cost-effective” than the subway different.
Advocates preserve that the venture can be a invaluable one to contemplate past constructing a park alongside the tracks for advantages that would come with reducing dependency on buses and offering higher entry to jobs, training and companies.
“Nothing of value is cheap and neither is this,” Horan mentioned. “You can’t judge something just on dollars, but also on value.”
Commuters who dwell close to the previous rail line mentioned each the transit and parks choices are interesting.
“In Queens, you have acres, lands of park space all around,” mentioned Terrance Lord, 21, who was strolling on 63rd Drive in Rego Park. “But for something like this to be turned just into park space instead of public transportation would be a missed opportunity.”
Abad Godoy, 58, mentioned he has walked by means of components of Forest Park that also have a few of the line’s previous railroad tracks.
“Putting in more parks for people to walk and bike through would be good,” he mentioned. “Right now, it’s just an open space.”
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