NY Gov. Hochul pledges funding support for Jamaica Station, subway expansion

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul plans to include funding in her proposed fiscal-year 2027 executive budget for the redesign of a critical rail station in Queens and for the design and preliminary engineering of an expansion to the MTA New York City Transit (NYCT) subway Q Line.

Hochul, in her 2026 State of the State address, said she will include in her budget proposal $50 million to fund the redesign of Jamaica Station, a critical hub that connects the NYCT subway, MTA Long Island Rail Road and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's (PANYNJ) AirTrain services, according to a Metropolitan Transportation Authority press release.

MTA and PANYNJ officials are coordinating the station redesign. More than 1,000 trains and 200,000 people pass through Jamaica Station every weekday, according to the MTA. The station was last upgraded 23 years ago, when the John F. Kennedy International Airport AirTrain began operating. The proposed redesign would create better traffic flow.

Hochul also plans to include in her budget funding for the design and preliminary engineering for the Q Line extension west along 125th Street with three stops at Lenox Avenue, St. Nicholas Avenue and Broadway. The extension was first proposed in her 2024 State of the State address and would have an estimated daily ridership of nearly 240,000, MTA officials said. No cost estimate was provided for the design and preliminary engineering.