What was promised

Build the Interborough Express (IBX) Brooklyn-Queens light rail

What’s happened

Design phase under way since the October 2025 design contract (about two years). Sept. 9, 2026: MTA says the Draft EIS will be released in Q4 2026, ahead of schedule; all 18 stations to be fully accessible. $2.75B of the $5.5B cost is in the 2025-29 MTA Capital Plan; the other half is not yet identified.

Evidence

• Interborough Express: MTA will release the Draft Environmental Impact Statement in Q4 2026, ahead of schedule; all 18 stations to be fully accessible, with ADA work at Broadway Junction, Junius St/Livonia and Ave I due 2026–early 2028 and Wilson Ave contract by mid-2027
  Governor's officeSep 10, 2026

• MTA issues the RFQ for Contract 4, the last and largest Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 contract: station fit-outs, track, signals, 22 elevators and 20 escalators at 106, 116 and 125 St; RFP by year-end, contractor pick mid-2027, full completion fall 2032 on a $6.968B budget
  Governor's officeSep 15, 2026
• Interborough Express: MTA will release the Draft Environmental Impact Statement in Q4 2026, ahead of schedule; all 18 stations to be fully accessible, with ADA work at Broadway Junction, Junius St/Livonia and Ave I due 2026–early 2028 and Wilson Ave contract by mid-2027
  Governor's officeSep 10, 2026
• Hochul announces service and infrastructure upgrades on the LIRR Montauk Branch
  Governor's OfficeAug 26, 2026
• Park Avenue Viaduct structural replacement finished 60 months early and $195M under budget, Hochul announces
  Governor's OfficeJul 27, 2026