Opinion: It’s time to build Interborough Express – and quickly

Jim Burke is one New Yorker who isn’t scared of a challenge. “Against the advice of every person I knew,  I actually filmed a commercial for congestion pricing,” Burke said. The retired operations manager, activist and co-founder of the 34th Street Open Streets Coalition has spent years fighting to build bus lanes in Queens, gone bus to bus to organize fellow riders and pushed the city to prioritize people over cars.

Burke is a strong transit proponent because he is an outer borough resident, not in spite of it. He has seen too many buses stuck in traffic in Flushing, walked past too many sidewalks where someone was mowed down by a car and waited too long for better interborough transit to arrive.

“We’re  almost at two and a half million people (in Queens), and why are we always left out of the equation? We stopped expanding our subway in the outer boroughs 75 years ago,” he said. To Burke, congestion pricing represents an overdue course correction for a transit system that has too often failed working-class New Yorkers.

The early results of congestion pricing are proving him right. A viral tweet Burke captured saw the normally stalled Q32 bus zooming along the Queensboro Bridge in the morning rush hour. That tweet reflects a simple striking truth: The program has been an enormous success. Vehicle entries into the core of Manhattan have decreased by 25%, subway ridership has surged by 7%, and bus speeds have dramatically improved, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority data. Plus, it has surged in popularity with the public.

But New Yorkers like Burke can’t afford to wait another 75 years for new transit improvements. Too often, decision-makers put process over outcome, delaying improvements that make New York a better city. We can’t repeat that cycle. Congestion pricing demonstrates the power of transportation reform to increase quality of life and build public support for innovative policies. It is critical we continue this momentum and implement the next generation of New York infrastructure by building the Interborough Express.

The Interborough Express is a proposed light rail system that would connect Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and Jackson Heights, Queens, in less than 40 minutes and link 17 subway lines, bringing new transit to nearly 1 million New Yorkers. One-third of the corridor’s households earn less than $48,000 a year and half do not own a car. It would be the first new train line built since the 1940s and fulfill a core mission of congestion pricing revenue: bringing new transit to those who need it.

Recently, I was shocked to learn that only 62% of New York residents have subway access, a crisis that hits the outer boroughs the hardest. In Queens, just 39% of residents live within a 10- to 15-minute walk of a subway station, while large chunks of Brooklyn remain transit deserts. Working-class Canarsie has some of the longest commutes of any residents in the city. Decades of studies won’t fix this, we need to build the Interborough Express now.

Here’s the beautiful thing about the IBX: It’s located on an abandoned, underused freight railway owned by New York. We just have to build the track and add stations, something New York has been doing for 100 years. The MTA recently put out a request for a proposal for the design and engineering of the IBX; the MTA has said this will take two years of studying. It should be fast-tracked as much as possible. The MTA has committed $2.75 billion toward the project in its 2025-2029 capital plan, but the state has yet to fully fund that plan or resolve a $33 billion funding gap. The governor and state Legislature are currently fighting over how to fully fund the MTA and projects like the IBX.

But the more leaders dither on necessary projects, the longer they delay the political benefits that come from implementing them. One analysis from Oregon found that low-income recipients of Medicaid were 7% more likely to vote in the next election, largely to protect their new benefit. A 2024 report found states where governors expanded the earned income tax credit saw a 4-point bump in gubernatorial approval rating and a 2-point bump in their vote share. Congestion pricing and the IBX can generate this same positive feedback loop, but only if its benefits are clear, visible and equitably distributed.

Congestion pricing is working because it has been implemented. It has reduced traffic, improved transit and won over skeptics. When the public feels the government is helping them, they respond in kind. The lesson is simple: Do big things quickly. The time is now to double down on the pathway congestion pricing has opened by fast-tracking the IBX and new transit improvements. It isn’t just good policy. It’s good politics.