There’s been a lot of attention lately on the IBX, most of it fueled by governmental press releases disguised as news coverage. What the media has thus far failed to do is any type of research into what this project entails. You’d hope the MTA would at least lay the facts out for us, but so far all they have repeated is how much time it will save some hypothetical person traveling from Jackson Heights to Brooklyn College via the IBX, should they ever cut the ribbon on it.

There were two meetings hosted by the MTA in Middle Village: The November 6 scoping session at Christ the King, which took on-the-record oral comments and concerns about the project as part of the Environmental Impact Statement process, and a November 19 Open House at Trinity Lutheran Church where attendees could speak one-on-one with project reps after hearing a 15-minute presentation which was short on details. Not surprisingly, these meetings created more questions than they answered. So, let’s look at what they don’t want to let you know about.

The bottom line here is that the IBX faces enormous engineering and funding challenges even if everyone involved and impacted thought it was fantastic. Let us count the ways.

First, and most importantly, after 3 years, CSX still hasn’t granted permission for MTA to use their right of way. CSX, which currently hauls 90% of all freight into and out of NYC, wishes to expand its operations, as evidenced by construction of a second freight track in Middle Village right now where there was only one previously. Construction of a passenger line alongside theirs would no doubt negatively impact them. If MTA and CSX fail to make a deal, it’s game over for the 3 miles of track north of Fresh Pond Yard. That would mean the last possible stop on the line would be Myrtle Ave, not Jackson Heights, and it wouldn’t venture into Middle Village, Elmhurst, or Jackson Heights at all. It technically could still be called “interborough,” but it would barely meet that criterion. The MTA already owns the other 11 miles of track through Brooklyn and the project would be limited to that length.

Let’s say CSX does grant permission, though. If that is the case, every bridge the tracks cross over or under would have to be widened to accommodate 2 more tracks, fencing and a “minimum acceptable distance” between the freight and passenger lines. That would mean A LOT of construction. Replacing the viaduct over Queens Blvd would cost in the tens of millions alone, and likely force the removal of SOLA Woodside, a building containing affordable housing. Consider it also passes over the Port Washington AND the main LIRR lines and that building up the embankments between the bridges would also be required, as well as property acquisition. Add in the tunneling under All Faiths Cemetery which may or may not be feasible. Let’s not forget the ADA-accessible stations and connections to existing service. And that’s just in the Queens section. The Brooklyn section is almost 4 times as lengthy with similar challenges, the main one being the widening and reconstruction of the very narrow East New York tunnels. Brooklyn Army Terminal is where the maintenance and storage yard facilities would be built. It requires new facilities because it’s a new type of transit, which makes it another very expensive facet of this proposed line.

The project also requires federal approval and funding, but the Federal Transit Administration has thus far shown no interest in dealing with it, which MTA acknowledges is a concern.

So, you may be asking why, with all these challenges, is Governor Hochul pushing for this? First, unlike her predecessor Andrew Cuomo who built Moynihan Train Hall in Manhattan and rebuilt LaGuardia Airport and the Tappan Zee and Kosciuszko Bridges, Hochul has not built anything. She had the winning consulting firms lining up to lobby her to build the IBX so they could take advantage of it, contributing heavily to her campaign fund. And that is what this is about – her re-election. She is seen as a moderate, and this would score her points with the far-left wing of the Democratic Party, which is obsessed with public transit expansion and has an irrational hatred of motorized vehicles and the people who drive them (except e-bikes and rideshares – they love those). They welcome densifying our low-rise neighborhoods because they somehow convinced themselves that this will make housing more affordable throughout NYC, something which was already tried in LIC, Flushing, Bushwick, and Williamsburg and resulted in accelerated gentrification.

But let’s get back to the linchpin – CSX approval. Lessons should have been learned from Cross Harbor. CSX has indicated that they favor using the Fremont Secondary line, which is the stretch of track the IBX would run on that they control, rather than use the proposed Cross Harbor route, which would be shorter, but for which they would have to pay a usage fee. CSX is why there is no movement on the Cross Harbor project. The IBX is déjà vu. A groom who books a wedding hall and recruits a best man before he pops the question and gets a positive response from the bride would be considered a fool, so why are our elected officials who pass the state budget every year tossing billions of dollars at the MTA for its IBX project when it doesn’t even have consent to share the corridor? They will be looking for your vote in 2026, so be sure to ask them.

The only people who will benefit from this are private consultants who will laugh all the way to the bank, and Kathy Hochul, if she can score re-election by continuing to fool voters about this.

The IBX is likely to end up just like the Cross Harbor Tunnel – studied for decades, with no construction. Just another multi-billion-dollar taxpayer funded boondoggle.