The BQE’s broken math (and opportunity)

For decades, the city Department of Transportation has asked, “How should we rebuild the crumbling triple cantilever of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE)?”

We at Off-Ramp ask a different question: “Why would we rebuild this midcentury relic of Robert Moses? Why wouldn’t we take the opportunity to remove the entire BQE and build transit in its place?” So we developed an economic model to quantify what each option would cost, and what each future would enable.

Trump’s Penn Station rebuild opens door to unifying New York’s railroads

The idea to unite New York and New Jersey’s busiest railroads has long been dismissed by elected officials on both sides of the Hudson River for logistical and political reasons. But now the time may finally come. As President Donald Trump pushes ahead with a federally run renovation of Penn Station and crews build a new set of rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River, supporters say there’s a rare opportunity to reorganize the entire rail network.

The Real Impact of Congestion Pricing

New York City began charging most vehicles entering the CBD on January 5, 2025. This analysis compares January through Aug 2025 with the same stretch of 2024, wherever a real pre-toll baseline exists.

Amtrak’s Funding to Regional Plan Association Surpasses $2.3 Million Since 2017

Tax records reviewed by AN show the Regional Plan Association has received $2.3 million from Amtrak since 2017, contradicting earlier narratives about the organization’s independence. The report highlights the conflict of interest inherent in the RPA championing Amtrak-led projects, including the Gateway Program, while on the agency’s payroll.

What is the Penn Station Capacity Improvements Project (PCIP)?

Contents Introduction Background & Context Scope & Methodology Infrastructure Alternatives Operational Alternatives Constructability Challenges Conclusion & Next Steps 18 min Proposed Revenue-to-Revenue turn time using “Drop-back” crews. Introduction The Penn Station Capacity Improvements Project (PCIP) is an exploratory planning and conceptual engineering effort initiated by NJ TRANSIT to identify, develop, and evaluate near-term infrastructure and […]

The 1963 Plan That Could Have Saved Penn Station

Buried on page 16C of the New York Sunday News from May 19, 1963—just months before Pennsylvania Station met its demise—sits an article with the headline: “Tunnel Under Park Ave. Urged to Link All Rail Lines.” The paper is yellowed now, the kind of artifact you’d find in a library’s microfilm collection if you knew […]

The Failure of Metropolitan Coordination in the New York Tri-State Area

Henry Fagin, an official at the Regional Plan Association, once summed up the New York region’s planning apparatus as a centipede with a first-rate brain in each foot and a hole where the head should be (Oriol). He said it in the 1960s, and it still describes the region’s basic problem: broad agreement, among planners […]

The Center City Commuter Connection

Key Insights • The Infrastructure: A 1.7-mile, $330 million tunnel united the Pennsylvania and Reading railroad networks in 1984. • The Impact: Eliminated downtown transfers, saving 2,500 daily person-hours and enabling direct suburb-to-suburb travel. • The Unmet Potential: Despite physical capacity rivaling Munich’s S-Bahn, funding crises and operational choices have prevented true high-frequency metro service. […]