(The following article by Lisa L. Colangelo was posted on the New York Daily News website on December 1.)
NEW YORK — With visions of freight trains barreling through their neighborhoods, City Council members and neighborhood activists hand-delivered 10,000 written objections to the city’s Economic Development Corp. yesterday.
The EDC is studying whether the Cross Harbor Freight Movement Project, an aggressive plan to increase the amount of freight moved by railway through the region, is a good idea for the five boroughs.
The project has been pushed by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who obtained $22 million in federal money to various studies.
“The Cross Harbor Rail Freight Project will benefit all New Yorkers by dramatically reducing truck traffic by as many as 1 million trucks per year,” Nadler (D-Manhattan) said in a statement.
The plan includes construction of a tunnel under the harbor between either Staten Island or New Jersey to connect Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island to the national railroad freight network.
But Council Members Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) and Dennis Gallagher (R-Middle Village) said increasing the number of freight trains in Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods will be dangerous and ruin the quality of life for people who have lived there for years.
“If this becomes a reality, there will be 15 trains and 1,600 cars every day,” said Felder, who represents parts of Borough Park and Midwood, where the train lines run. “That will destroy these neighborhoods.”
The line from the proposed tunnel runs through Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Borough Park, Midwood, Flatbush, Brownsville, New Lots, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Ridgewood and Middle Village.
The Economic Development Corp. “really hasn’t heard any opposition to this project,” Gallagher said. “We brought opposition to their doorstep.”
EDC officials said public comments will be included in the environmental impact study. The agency has not taken a stand on the project.
“It has become clear that there are very serious concerns about the impact that a cross-harbor rail tunnel would have on communities in Queens and Brooklyn,” said EDC spokesman Michael Sherman. “These significant issues would need to be addressed before the city could further evaluate the project. We are always glad to engage in an open dialogue with members of the community, and we appreciate their concerns. We hear them loud and clear.”