The abandoned rail corridor in Queens is officially getting its glow up.
In 2026, The QueensWay is inching closer to reality as a High Line style park, complete with a clear design, a massive budget, and a rough opening window attached to its very first phase.
While commuters hoping for trains instead of trails are still waiting for a different vision to gain traction, the park first path is the one the city is actively funding and permitting right now.
What The QueensWay actually is
The QueensWay aims to transform the 3.5-mile abandoned Long Island Rail Road Rockaway Beach Branch (roughly stretching between Rego Park and Ozone Park) into a massive linear park and cultural greenway anchored around Forest Park.
The plan calls for dozens of acres of new public open space, safer pedestrian and bike routes, and better access to existing parks and ballfields.
This positions the corridor as one of the biggest potential green upgrades in central Queens history.
You can read more about the line’s history and early community vision phase in our 2022 explainer here.
2026: From proposal to reality
In 2026, the project is no longer just a concept.
The Metropolitan Hub is the roughly 0.7-mile first phase sitting right between Trotting Course Lane and Union Turnpike.
This stretch has a committed city budget and a stunning concept design being shepherded by the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) alongside landscape architecture firm Sasaki.
That segment is expected to become a five-acre public park connecting the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School campus to Forest Park. It will feature bike paths, walking trails, and outdoor learning space for students.
The city has already committed around $35 to $46 million to the first phase, and project documents suggest the Metropolitan Hub could be completed by 2028!
Even The New York Times reported that a spokesman for the city’s Economic Development Corporation confirmed construction would begin this year.
The QueensLink tension
Even as the park plan advances, the debate over “park vs trains” is very much alive.
While this project slowly progresses, an opposing group desires a different use for the defunct railway. In a project known as The QueensLink, the organization’s coalition wants the exact same corridor restored as a rail and trail line instead of a park.
They argue that Queens needs more subway access, and they believe the city’s park first approach will make future rail service far more expensive and complex to implement down the line.
However, the MTA has long treated QueensLink as a low priority project, citing it as “not cost effective” per the Times, as well as the current administration using the budget to bankroll the QueensWay park instead (despite expressing interest in it during his mayoral campaign).
City officials say the first phase is strictly being treated as a green space expansion, but community advocates worry that the more the park is realized, the tougher it will become to ever restore the subway line.
What this means for 2026 on the ground
For now, much of the corridor is still an underused, overgrown ribbon of land, with only piecemeal informal paths and occasional community events on the tracks.
But the 2026 milestone is design and permitting rather than construction: the city is moving toward finalizing the Metropolitan Hub design and clearing reviews so that actual work on the elevated greenway can begin in the 2027–2028 window.
Stay tuned for more updates about the QueensWay project in the coming months.
