MTA Awards Contract to Look Into Train Line Through Boro Park

Boro Park – The freight line that goes through Boro Park’s 18th Ave. may one day be a new passenger train line.

The MTA awarded a contract on Thursday for an engineering firm to study the line that has for decades carried freight from the port at Bay Ridge in Brooklyn to Astoria in Queens.

AECOM will use the $1.3 million contract to study the feasibility of launching passenger service on the line. It will explore having a subway, commuter rail, light rail or bus service on the line.

The line, which is about 16 miles long, runs from the New York Harbor waterfront to Astoria via Midwood, East New York, Brownsville, Bushwick, Glendale, Middle Village and Elmhurst. It crosses or nears 19 subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road.