Will Brooklyn’s freight trains get rolling again?
City's plan to reduce truck traffic could bring the Bay Ridge line back to life
On occasional moments of quiet in Brooklyn, when the sounds of honking horns and garbage trucks die down, residents can hear the lonely whistle of a freight train. Many might wonder where it’s coming from, since lines of boxcars are not a familiar sight in Kings County.
The answer is that a few freight trains still roll along the Bay Ridge Branch of the New York & Atlantic Railway, typically carrying goods bound for points east. The 12-mile stretch of track snakes across the borough from the harbor just south of the Brooklyn Army Terminal, through the low-rise blocks of Borough Park, past Brooklyn College’s stately campus and through industrial zones in Flatlands, Canarsie and East New York, before terminating at a yard in Glendale, Queens.
For much of its length, the Bay Ridge line is hidden behind overgrowth and fencing. With the exception of once or twice a day when a train rattles by, the line gives neighbors and passersby no indication that it’s alive.