David Rosenstein's Blog

The MTA has really done a great job in the past two years turning the IBX into a much better project than initially announced. It has turned from an underwhelming light rail project into a proper light metro that will actually have the real capacity and frequency that will be needed for a radial line. As a fan of the project, I am really happy with what the MTA has done here, but there is one more major issue that has not been addressed: the connections.

A radial line like the IBX needs good connections and the MTA has been rather reserved in telling us exactly how they will work. I am optimistic in hoping that they have not decided exactly how they will work, but I’ve seen many more pessimistic people on transit forums like r/NYCRail who believe that all transfers will be out of system. In an ideal world, all these transfers should be in system, but there are multiple places where this would be extremely expensive. So what I am going to do is go through every proposed connection on the IBX to make different alternatives for possible connections between the IBX. I am going to post these as I have the time to, showing my alternatives for each station, their pros and cons, and at the end state what I would recommend. Of course, I am just an advocate. I am not a city planner by trade and this will just be my opinion as a fan of the subway and the services that are run, but I hope that others are interested in this project.

I will keep updating this article with a link to every station that I look at.

• 4th Avenue (R) – https://davidrosenstein.me/2025/09/12/the-connections-of-ibx-4th-ave/
• 8th Avenue (N) – TBD
• New Utrect Ave (N,D) – TBD
• McDonald Ave (F) – https://davidrosenstein.me/2025/09/13/the-connections-of-ibx-mcdonald-ave/
• E 16th St (Q, B?) – TBD
• Flatbush Ave – Nostrand Ave (2,5) – TBD
• Linden Blvd (L) – TBD
• Livonia Ave (L, 3) – TBD
• Sutter Ave (L) – TBD
• Atlantic Ave / Broadway Junction (A,C,J,Z,L,LIRR) – TBD
• Wilson Ave (L) – TBD
• Metropolitan Ave (M) – TBD
• Roosevelt Ave (E,F,M,R,7) – TBD