OPINION: Little-used Brooklyn, Queens freight lines could become light-rail routes
The running debate over the proposed BQX streetcar line, which would run from Long Island City, Queens, to Red Hook, Brooklyn, brings to mind other proposals for light rail lines in the New York City metro area. Many have been proposed since the 1970s or so, but only one — the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line across the river in Hudson County, N.J.
Light rail lines are often built within the roadbed of abandoned or lightly used railroad lines. This is definitely the case for the Hudson-Bergen line, which uses rights-of-way that once belonged to the Central Railroad of New Jersey and the New Jersey Junction Railroad.
Here in Brooklyn and Queens, the Long Island Rail Road has two such little-used freight rail lines that could easily be totally or partially converted to light-rail or other passenger railroad lines.