Public forum held on BQX streetcar plan

Residents were able to speak with officials about Mayor Bill de Blasio's $2.5 billion streetcar plan at a public presentation in Red Hook. A meeting was held Thursday night at the Red Hook Recreation

News 12 Staff

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Nov 18, 2016, 5:19 PM

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Updated 2,903 days ago

Residents were able to speak with officials about Mayor Bill de Blasio's $2.5 billion streetcar plan at a public presentation in Red Hook.

A meeting was held Thursday night at the Red Hook Recreation Center.

Officials discussed their plan for the Brooklyn-Queens Connector, or BQX, which will become the city's first new rail system since the subway opened more than a century ago.

The Department of Transportation and New York City's Economic Development Corporation made a presentation on the BQX.

The state-of-the-art streetcar will be emissions-free and run on tracks embedded in the existing roadway but separated from traffic, officials say.

It will link neighborhoods along the 16-mile route from Astoria to Sunset Park along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront.

Officials say the BQX could serve more than 400,000 people and generate $25 billion in economic impact in the city over the next 30 years.

Groundbreaking is projected for 2019.