The MTA showed off renderings of the proposed Interborough Express, or IBX, connecting Queens and Brooklyn.
The $5.5 billion light rail would run 14 miles from the Brooklyn Army Terminal to Roosevelt Avenue, and won't require digging tunnels.
The MTA says the trip would take about a half hour, with connections to 17 subway lines and the Long Island Rail Road.
"We studied all different technologies. Light rail is the one that moves fastest, and it's going to carry the most people because of the speed that it can move at," said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber.
The new stations, 18 in total, will also feature wider fare gates, several elevators and accessibility upgrades.
The MTA is in the process of delivering full ADA accessibility to three subway stations that will connect to the IBX route prior to the transit line's opening. Accessibility at a fourth station, Wilson Ave L, has been expedited within the 2025-29 Capital Plan.
Meanwhile, the MTA says design on the new passenger line should be done by the end of the year.
"And then we figure out exactly how fast we can get things moving, and shovels in the ground to give service to people in these neighborhoods," said Jamie Torres-Springer of MTA Construction and Development.
The governor asked the MTA to fast track it.
"Fast. I want it done fast," Gov. Kathy Hochul said.
How fast may depend on how much and how willingly the federal government contributes. Half the funding is in place, and that's from the MTA's capital plan, thanks in part to congestion pricing.
"There was a point in time when the federal government was a leader in the fight for exactly these kinds of infrastructure fights. And I want to return to that," said New York State Assembly Member Claire Valdez.
Valdez won the democratic congressional primary in a district that would include a few IBX stops. She was at Wednesday's informational pop-up, and would be part of the effort from Democrats to get that federal funding if they win in November.
"We take the majority in the House, we take the Senate, we take back the White House in two years, and I feel confident the money will be there at the federal level," Hochul said. "But regardless, we're committed to seeing this all the way through."
The IBX would be the city's first new transit line since 1937.
It's expected to open sometime in the next decade.
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