Tunnel To Link Queens Rail Yards To New Jersey

The results of a five-year study designed to link New York City and New Jersey via underwater commercial rail tunnels will be detailed to Queens residents by federal, state and city transportation officials at LaGuardia College on June 7.
The study, known as the Cross Harbor Freight Movement Project, concludes that a tunnel connecting Jersey City to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and from there to western Queens, would allow for 28 daily train trips, alleviating the impact of thousands of oversized-truck trips on Queens expressways and local streets.
If the project is given a green light, government planners predict the tunnel would be in place by 2025. The studys report calls for a three-pronged plan that would convert the Long Island Railroads (LIRR) Maspeth and Fresh Pond yards into a major freight transportation hub that would provide direct rail access for local commercial shippers, cut trucking shipping costs in half and drastically reduce the rising volumes of oversized trucks on Queens roadways.
The Maspeth terminal is at Rust and Maspeth Avenues, and the Fresh Pond yard is located at Otto and 67th Roads in Glendale.
Sponsored by the Federal Department of Transportation and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), the study also details plans for major commercial rail lines traveling to Jersey City as well as the LIRR, which operates the freight cargo lines on the Queens tracks of its Montauk branch.
The studys purpose was to examine alternative shipping methods that would address the regional imbalance in freight transportation over the past 50 years.
The report finally zeroed in on a plan to construct a double-rail tunnel from the Greenville yard in Jersey City to the Bay Ridge branch in Brooklyn. After leaving the Brooklyn tunnel exit, trains would travel north on existing LIRR routes to the Maspeth and Fresh Pond yards. From there, they would be sent directly to key distribution points in the city, or east or north to Long Island, Connecticut and Westchester.
Currently, the closest rail cargo system between New York City and New Jersey is Selkirk, New Yorkabout 170 miles north of the city.
The projects report says that the train tunnels "would provide the greatest benefits in terms of capacity, safety/security and operational efficiency." It would also create an estimated 30,000 new jobshalf of them with the newly expanded rail system.
Queens Borough President Helen Marshall has already expressed concern over the potential increase of trucks in the vicinity of the newly expanded terminals. Her spokesman, Dan Andrews, said that Marshall had pressed for more details on the environmental impact of the new proposals.
Councilman John Liu, chairman of the Councils Transportation Committee, has already called for additional work on the study "to mitigate the impact on certain neighborhoods."
Expanded use of the trains, said the report, would significantly cut the use of large trucks, particularly in Queens. Currently, the George Washington Bridge is the only direct link between New York and New Jersey that is on the National Highway Networkthe legally designated route for 53-foot trailers.