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| Re: Middle Village and Maspeth NIMBYs come out to oppose IBX (1645158) | |||
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Re: Middle Village and Maspeth NIMBYs come out to oppose IBX |
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Posted by Handbrake on Fri Nov 14 17:14:54 2025, in response to Re: Middle Village and Maspeth NIMBYs come out to oppose IBX, posted by Spider-Pig on Thu Nov 13 16:47:04 2025. The proposed IBX RoW is be severely constricted because of the narrow corridor on the original New York Connecting Railroad (NYCRR) RoW north of Fresh Pond Road.The NYCR, a joint venture of the Pennsylvania & New Haven Railroads, was intended to permit freight originating in New Jersey avoid the long car float move from the Pennsy RR in Greenville NJ to the New Haven in the Bronx. That being said, the NH did not have a franchise to deliver freight in the area where the NYCRR RoW passes in Queens, and along the LIRR RoW in Brooklyn. The LIRR delivered freight south of Fresh Pond Yard. The Bay Ridge branch of the LIRR (Proposed IBX) is a wider RoW in many of its locations, with sidings along the route. Thus the NYCRR RoW between Fresh Pond, and at a point it meets the RoW from Penn Station is limited to two tracks, with little to no additional space for added track. Because of the limited width of the NYCRR RoW, the original IBX design called for street running in the vicinity of Metropolitan Avenue , Mount Olive Cemeteries. A later design change now calls for the construction of a tunnel parallel the the NYCRR RoW to eliminate IBX street running. The final cost of building the IBX will certainly balloon past the $5B price tag of today, guaranteeing multiple change orders to the base MTA IBX contract. I also question the argument regarding passenger utilization, and operating costs. If anything, a bus RoW would be more economical to construct, operate, and maintain and allow existing Brooklyn & Queens bus networks the ability to use a IBX bus-way to speedup existing routes, and help create new bus routes. An application that is being considered heavily by the MTA to resurrect the former SIRT North Shore line RoW into a bus-way. I am among the last to argue against mass transit, however building the IBX at its final cost to the public to benefit private development with the great potential of changing the character of a neighborhood is short sighted. Just ride the Astoria Elevated line and look at how development has created a valley of high rise buildings that emulate the upper East side of Manhattan. Unless you live here in New York, you will never understand how the quality of life suffers. Sorry Foamers, not in my back yard. |
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