Brooklyn-Queens streetcar plan
NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - It's been more than 50 years since New York City has seen a streetcar. The city is now planning on bringing it back. The Brooklyn Queens Connector would stretch 16 miles from Astoria, Queens, all the way down to Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
This is what the BQX would look like. It could serve almost 50,000 passengers per day, making it one of the biggest urban streetcar systems in the nation.
Mayor Bill de Blasio says it would create opportunity, more access to jobs at developing industrial centers like the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and it would address income inequality, allowing those who live in long-isolated neighborhoods to have public transit that meets their needs. The mayor says the $2.5 billion would be paid through bonds.
The fare would be the same as a single ride MetroCard. Traveling time would be cut by than 30 minutes. For example from Astoria to Williamsburg it's now 61 minutes. The BQX would get you there in 27 minutes.
For some this would allow them to experience places they have never been too and all because they haven't had a quick and practical way to get there.
Ground breaking would start as early as 2019.