Governor Hochul: “This brand new concept, known as the Interborough Express. And what it's going to do is create a lifeline, a connection. Because that to me is what infrastructure is about. It's about creating connection between communities, between people in their jobs, people and their families, people and their friends, it's all about connections.”
Hochul: “This Interborough Express will connect New Yorkers with 17, count them, you heard it here first, 17 subway lines and the Long Island Railroad. That gives them a lot of options, a lot of options of where their work is going to be. We project they'll be up to 88,000 riders every day. And it'll take about 40 minutes, resulting in a savings of about 30 minutes each way.”
Earlier today, after Governor Kathy Hochul unveiled the results of a yearlong study assessing feasibility of the Interborough Express.
VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.
AUDIO of the event is available here.
PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.
A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:
It is great to be here once again, surrounded by so many people who are the true believers. Who believe that even dry sounding words like infrastructure could be brought to life. And that's what excites me so much. And so I am joined here by a group of incredible individuals I've had the pleasure to work with and you'll hear from one of them in a couple of minutes, Janno Lieber, the chair and CEO of the MTA. Let's give him a round of applause.
We're waiting on some very important news that might be breaking. The Senate right now is voting, I just checked in with my former colleagues - well still my colleagues, but I used to be president of the Senate. And to see that they're about to possibly confirm you as the now permanent CEO and chairman of the MTA. So we dropped the word acting. I should probably say that's embargoed until its official. So let's just get that right.
And I also see Hope Knight is here as well, who is the incredible individual I've asked to lead our economic development initiatives and a Congress person that I had a chance to work closely with a decade ago. And I served in Congress on another end of the state. But every time I sat down with him, he whispered things like Cross Harbor Rail Tunnel, freight tunnel, then I became governor and that’s all I heard about. So, Jerry Nadler, truly committed to the cause of improving people's lives through infrastructure.
And I'm partial to BPS because I used to be the equivalent of a BP, a county official, at least, in other part of the state. So I have great respect for Antonio Reynoso, our Borough President right here in Brooklyn. Hit the ground running with a lot of great announcements. Someone asked if I was the first press conference and like, no he'd already done with Senator Gillibrand. Okay. All right. But in the first couple of weeks, right? It's great to be here and we'll do many more things together. I had a great relationship with your predecessor for seven years, so we worked very closely together.
And Donovan Richards our borough president in Queens, who we've had many events with as well. And speaking of the Senate, Senator Andrew Gounardes is here as well. And other champions in these projects as well. We also are joined by, because we have friendships and collaborations and relationships with the City of New York, newsflash again, New York City deputy Mayor for operations, Meera Joshi is here. And I believe Council Member Alexa Aviles is here, perhaps she's joining us? Yes, she’s here.
So why are we all gathered here today? I've been here before as you all know, as Lieutenant governor, I did a little bit of travel, probably more than a thousand times right here in the borough of Brooklyn, but who's counting? I was. And I have been here to see the extraordinary transformation of this facility into something that is vibrant, it creates people's jobs. I was here at the bio facility. I know they're expanding. So this is exciting for me as well. So great to be here today and also to talk about, as I mentioned, one of my favorite topics, which is infrastructure.
Why do I care so much about infrastructure? Well, a number of reasons - my time on local government. We obsessed about infrastructure. We worried about what was happening above the ground and under the ground - was there enough money for our residents to have better sewer lines and roads and bridges and yes even potholes. We talked about them all the time. We always said to ourselves if only Albany would give us more money. We waited a long time and now we have an opportunity. A once in a generational opportunity, to make the investments that we should have made all along, because now they're more expensive when you make them later but we're getting started.
But also to just reimagine some of the infrastructure that has been lying follow for so many years, that no one saw the possibilities of. And that's what we're going to talk about today. This brand new concept, known as the Interborough Express. And what it's going to do is create a lifeline, a connection. Because that to me is what infrastructure is about. It's about creating connection between communities, between people in their jobs, people and their families, people and their friends, it's all about connections. And that's why I get so energized when we talk about infrastructure because it is a quality of life issue.
If you can shave 30 or 40 minutes off someone's commute every single day, that is a gift. That means more time to pack up your kid’s lunches in the morning, something I did until they were about four or five, and then I taught them how to do it themselves - or at the end of the day, you want to read books to your kids or help them with the homework. That time back in your day is a gift. And that's what I want to continue to do. As we expand our infrastructure ideas all over the state to focus on how we can add time and quality to people's lives and to have them have a positive experience. Even when we talk about yes, Penn station, people should be able to come in from wherever they boarded the train, come into a place that lifts their spirits and lifts their souls and doesn't make them just want to stare at the ground and be depressed for the rest of the day.
So we're fixing that as well, but this is an opportunity for us here because what we have, is a different change in demographics. For a long time all the connections were to take people from the outer boroughs, and I didn’t really liked that phrase, outer boroughs, we'll just say it for today's purposes, always, was back and forth to Manhattan. And that's great. A lot of great jobs in Manhattan, we want to keep Manhattan strong. It's the epicenter of so many key industries. We want people to do that. But it also ignores the reality that more people have found their homes in places like Brooklyn and Queens, and not just their homes and their families, but also the jobs are now spreading out here.
So we're missing that logical connection to find more ways people to get from one borough to the other, without having to go to Manhattan and back, or to have to have a long, even in this case, we're talking about a 70 minute bus ride. 70 minutes. Who wants to have a 70 minute bus, but I have been on every pothole between these two boroughs. It is not a fun experience when you're on a bus ride. So that is what we're addressing here. So we're going to give people more time for their jobs, their families, their lives, and make the connections that are necessary. But we do have, let's acknowledge this, in New York City and this region has the greatest transit system in the world. We can always do things better. We can have a strategic, smart and savvy plan that reuses an abandoned line, 14 miles, and to say, what can we do with this? So I am so excited here today to announce that we finished a feasibility study.
See, I said, make it happen fast and its just, I told you I'm impatient. So the feasibility study is completed. You'll be able to see that very shortly. And what that does is launch the next phase, because there's always another phase when you're building infrastructure, the community engagement, in tandem with the environmental impact statements and do this whole review to identify the smartest way to use this line and to talk about “Is it bus rapid transit? Is it light rail? Is it heavy rail? What are the options?” We don't have those answers today, but we know we have a path forward, and it starts with the completion of the feasibility study that I'm announcing right now. And you are here to hear it first. So, we also have tremendous opportunities to say, “What about that cross Harbor freight tunnel?”
And if this line that we're heading toward can be designed to be able to accommodate commuter traffic, as well as freight, the benefit will be to get more trucks and cars off the road. Something that we know is better for our environment, because everything we're going to do is have an eye toward not today, but also the future of our environment. And so that's why this is smart as well. We can direct the Port Authority to get moving on that tunnel. And Jerry Nadler is going to make sure we do, and we're going to be able to make more announcements very shortly. And one of the reasons we're able to do all this is the leadership in Washington.
And you don't always hear the credit from a State going to Washington because everybody always wants to keep it for themselves. Well, the reality is, Joe Biden and his gutsy leadership that led to the passage of the infrastructure bill, a bi-partisan bill that was supported by our leaders in Congress, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Congressman Jerry Nadler, and those from our delegation who voted for this, deserve the credit of what we're able to accomplish here today. And in so many other areas, where we're going to be able to improve people's lives. So I want to say thank you to them. Thank you to them for answering the cries for help for so long from states and localities that have wanted to do these projects, but never were able to.
So this Interborough Express will connect New Yorkers with 17, count them, you heard it here first, 17 subway lines and the Long Island Railroad. That gives them a lot of options, a lot of options of where their work is going to be. We project they'll be up to 88,000 riders every day. And it'll take about 40 minutes, resulting in a savings of about 30 minutes each way. And it's also going to help people live right here, right here in this neighborhood. And those who live in Queens at the other end. And all those who live along the lines between Sunset Park, Bay Ridge and Jackson Heights.
And right now, who's in this corridor? About 900,000 people. That's who we're trying to serve. Those are the people who need that connection and to be lifted out of their everyday existence of trying to catch a bus to get to their jobs. So we're going to be helping those individuals, as well as my favorite phrase, creating more jobs, we anticipate that this project will create and retain over 20,000 good paying union jobs and that's worth a round of applause.
So I say, as we enter this extraordinary time, we come up with extraordinary solutions, and we don't look backwards. We continue leaping into the future with a sense of optimism, with a sense of a spirit of can-do, yes, we can get this done because all of us in this room have one purpose in mind: is to lift up the lives of fellow New Yorkers. And we can do it with projects like this. And that's why this was a major priority of mine. You heard about it in my State of the State. You heard about it in my Budget Address, and now you're hearing about it in person. The feasibility study is done, and we are ready to get to work. So you're going to hear many more announcements.
Everybody get ready. I'm coming, it's coming. You might as well just follow me around, beause we're going be doing a lot of great announcements. And this is what we're asked to do on behalf of the voters and the individuals who put their faith in all of us, is to deliver for them. And today we are delivering for the people of Brooklyn and Queens, and we're just getting started. So with that, any news on this guy? Do I have to introduce him as acting is this Acting? Is this Acting CEO Chairman, Any news flash? Nope? So you're still acting? Still acting, but maybe by the time we're all done with our conversation to be able to say, this is now the permanent, but in my heart, you're not temporary, you are there because we need you to continue on. Janno Lieber.