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8/5/2025
The Interborough Express (IBX) light-rail project has entered the engineering and design phase, signaling progress on the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) connectivity project.
The IBX will connect historically underserved communities in Brooklyn and Queens to the New York City Transit subway, bus routes and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), MTA officials said in a press release.
The MTA board on July 30 confirmed the selection of a joint venture between Jacobs and HDR to lead the design and engineering phase of IBX. In April, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul approved $2.75 billion in funding for the project as part of the MTA's capital plan. The project's estimated total cost is $5.5 billion, with half of the total funding covered in the MTA 2025-2029 capital plan.
The IBX will be a new transit option for nearly 900,000 residents in neighborhoods along the route, MTA officials said. There will be 19 stations with connections to 17 different subway lines, 50 bus routes and two LIRR stations. The project will be built along an existing 14-mile freight-rail line jointly owned by the LIRR and CSX that extends from Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to Jackson Heights, Queens.
IBX will be the first new rapid transit system built within New York City since the IND Crosstown Line, now called the G Line, which opened in 1937. The IBX stations to be built in Brooklyn will be the first stations built in the borough since the A Line was extended in 1948, and the stations to be constructed in Queens will be the first since the extension of E, J and Z lines in 1988, MTA officials said.