Rail link between Ozone Park and Rego Park could be restored

The MTA tucked a mention of the long-defunct Rockaway Beach line into its 20-year 'Capital Needs' plan. Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder favors restoring the vital link.

By Lisa L. Colangelo / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder kneels on stretch of the long-defunct Rockaway Beach rail line. He''s hopeful that trains will one day run again here.

Queens residents who have lobbied to see trains again chugging along the defunct Rockaway Beach Rail line got a shot of hope last week when the MTA listed its reactivation as a possibility for future expansion.

Tucked into the agency’s lengthy 20-Year Capital Needs Assessment is a suggestion that restoring the line could help link riders from Howard Beach and Ozone Park to buses and subways in Woodhaven.

Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder and others have long argued that fixing up the 3.5-mile abandoned line — which runs from Rego Park to Ozone Park — would provide south Queens residents with a faster way around the the borough and into the city.

Trains stopped running along the line about 50 years ago.

“I think it shows the MTA recognizes the best way to plan for the future is to look at the existing right-of-ways,” said Goldfeder (D-Rockaway).

“We will have to fight for the funding in Albany to make it a reality,” he added.

MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said the report “provides an assessment of potential projects” but includes no commitment or funding.

Most of the railroad infrastructure is damaged or hidden under decades of foliage and dirt.

It’s unclear how many millions — or, possibly, billions — of dollars it would cost to create an operating railroad on the property.

The news comes as group advocating another use for the railway — transforming it into a High Line-type park called the QueensWay — has been gaining traction.

Friends of the QueensWay, an advocacy group, has secured funding for a feasibility study of the site.

Andrea Crawford, a member of the group’s steering committee, says she is not concerned the MTA plan could derail efforts to create the park.

“This was a one-sentence mention in a study over 130 pages in length,” said Crawford. “There is no discussion of an intent to even study the feasibility of building a new rail line utilizing the right of way. To leave this land fallow, to let it deteriorate further, is not beneficial for the residents of central Queens.”