QueensWay Park Moves Ahead As The Rail Question Remains Open

The abandoned Rockaway Beach Branch cuts through parts of central Queens with a history that is visible in its old rail structures and overgrown right of way. For decades, proposals have sought to give that corridor new life. The city is now moving ahead with the first piece of the QueensWay park, while advocates of restored rail service continue to argue that Queens should not lose a future transit connection.

The first QueensWay segment, called the Metropolitan Hub, would create about five acres of parkland between Metropolitan Avenue and Union Turnpike, beside the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School in Forest Hills. The city’s Economic Development Corporation is overseeing the effort with NYC Parks. The first capital commitment, announced in 2022, was $35 million; subsequent city funding has raised the amount devoted to the first phase to roughly $50 million.

Proposed features include accessible entrances, walking and cycling paths, seating, play and fitness areas, landscaping, outdoor learning space, and improved connections over or near existing rail infrastructure. The project is designed to make underused land available to residents without requiring a trip to a more distant park. These are planned amenities, not facilities that have opened.

On May 18, the New York City Public Design Commission gave the Metropolitan Hub final design approval in Certificate 30399, subject to further attention to safety along Union Turnpike and a separate review of the proposed public toilet. The commission directed designers to study how pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists would share the sloped area and submit amended drawings if changes are needed. The approval also requires construction to begin by May 18, 2028. None of this means the park is already open.

QueensWay supporters say the corridor could connect schools, recreational areas, and neighborhoods through a continuous greenway. They point to the lack of comfortable walking and cycling routes along several busy local streets. The former branch stopped operating as a passenger rail line in 1962; for many nearby residents, the land has remained inaccessible or neglected ever since.

The next phase, however, faces a different funding picture. An October 2025 report by the city’s Independent Budget Office found that most of a previously announced $118 million federal award for the proposed Forest Park Pass extension had been terminated; only $5.8 million had been awarded before the balance was rescinded. That setback concerns the second phase, not the Metropolitan Hub's approved design, and it leaves the timetable for a longer connected park uncertain.

QueensLink supporters advocate a different use of the corridor: restored rail service, with park space and pedestrian routes alongside it. Their proposal would extend subway service south from Forest Hills, potentially offering a north-south connection that current transit service does not provide directly. The Independent Budget Office cited an MTA study estimating roughly $8.1 billion for reactivation, while a QueensLink-commissioned study put costs at $3.4 billion to $3.7 billion. Neither figure is an approved construction budget, and QueensLink has not secured the financing or approvals required to proceed.

That difference does not make the transit question disappear. Residents can reasonably ask whether building the greenway would preserve or complicate the possibility of restoring rail service later. A meaningful answer would require engineering, operating, and cost comparisons rather than an assumption that every proposed use can fit comfortably on the same property.

NYCEDC describes the Metropolitan Hub as an ongoing project and can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. As construction schedules are finalized, nearby residents will need clear information about access points, local disruptions, and the revised arrangements around Union Turnpike. The immediate project is a park; the longer-term argument concerns the future of an entire corridor.