The Brooklyn-Queens Connector, aka the BQX, may finally be getting forward momentum.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the NYC Economic Development Corporation—which would run the BQX, much as it does with the NYC Ferry—is expected to approve a contract that will allow the city to begin the environmental review process for the streetcar. That review is a necessary next step in advancing the streetcar plan, which will need to go through the city’s lengthy uniform land use review procedure (ULURP) before it could be approved.

“For some reason, everybody thinks we are not serious but we have always been serious,” deputy mayor Alicia Glen told the WSJ of the streetcar plan. “The mayor wouldn’t have re-endorsed and announced we were moving forward if we weren’t moving forward.”

The BQX plan, which was first announced in 2016, had seemingly stalled at the beginning of last year: A feasibility study that was expected by the end of 2017 was delayed, and questions about funding—whether the city could pay for the project on its own, or if federal assistancewould be forthcoming—loomed.

Does NYC really need the BQX?

But over the summer, the city unveiled a new plan for the 11-mile streetcar, which aims to link Gowanus to Astoria via neighborhoods like Downtown Brooklyn, Dumbo, Greenpoint, and Long Island City. (Not entirely coincidentally, these are areas that are packed with new development projects.) Though the route shrank from its original plans—it was set to end in Sunset Park—the cost has gone up to a projected $2.73 billion. The announcement that Amazon would move half of its HQ2 to Long Island City also gave the plan renewed momentum.

“These steps show meaningful progress for the project—something we’ve been eager to see. We are pleased with the city’s commitment not just to moving the project forward, but to community engagement, which must play a central role,” Jessica Schumer, the director of the nonprofit Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector, said in a statement. “As the city grapples with a transit crisis, now is the moment for it to take control of its mass transit destiny and expand access wherever it can.”

Friends of the BQX estimates that 50,000 people will utilize the streetcar in its first year, with that number expected to rise to nearly 100,000 by 2050.

The environmental review process, which is expected to be overseen by VHB, is due to kick off sometime this year, and NYCEDC expects it to be complete by 2020. The ULURP could then begin, and is anticipated to be finished by 2021. Assuming all goes according to plan, construction would begin in 2024, and be complete in 2029.