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Rendering shows the proposed Brooklyn Queens Connector streetcar line.

(Courtesy of Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector)

CITY HALL -- Staten Island officials are fuming over a $2.5 billion Brooklyn-Queens streetcar plan backed by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

"I'm pissed off that we are, once again, left out in the cold," Minority Leader Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island) said.

The 16-mile Brooklyn Queens Connector -- known as BQX -- is intended to match housing and job growth along the East River waterfront where transportation infrastructure is already overburdened. The subway system largely misses the neighborhoods the streetcar will serve.

De Blasio is expected to unveil the plan at his third-annual State of the City address on Thursday night.

"This is about equity and innovation," de Blasio said in a statement. "We are mapping brand new transit that will knit neighborhoods together and open up real opportunities for our people."

De Blasio has supported few new mass transit options for Staten Island, where most locals have to drive to get around and daily commutes can top an hour. Officials have to fight for funding to examine the possibility of new transportation alternatives, let alone get them built out.

Borough President James Oddo said he asked the city to simply study a streetcar for the North Shore in 2014 but the idea was "summarily rejected."

"You can't blame Staten Islanders for feeling frustration and even anger upon hearing the news of the $2.5 billion streetcar proposal connecting Brooklyn and Queens," Oddo said.

Staten Island will see upward of $1 billion in economic investment in the coming years, much of that on the North Shore, but little in the way of new mass transit to complement the so-called "renaissance."

City Hall pointed to other transportation investment Staten Island.

"From funding new Staten Island Ferries, to investing in the borough's roads, to planning better transit on the North Shore, we are putting real resources and energy into improving the borough's commutes," de Blasio spokesman Wiley Norvell said.

Justifying costly public transit is easier to do when it will serve more riders. Staten Island has the smallest population and typically resists new development.

The Brooklyn-Queens streetcar is expected to have an initial weekday ridership of 24,500 and shave about 18 minutes off a typical commute on existing transit. So getting from Long Island City, Queens, to Downtown Brooklyn would take about 40 minutes compared to the current 50.

A map shows the proposed streetcar line connecting Brooklyn and Queens.

Staten Islanders continue to have some of the longest commutes in the country, often taking the railway, ferry, bus and subway.

"We don't have a viable subway system or a direct subway link to Manhattan," Matteo said. "Not to pit one borough against another, but If any borough should receive funding for real mass transit options it is Staten Island."

Several projects have been proposed to help: North Shore Bus Rapid Transit, a West Shore Light Rail, roads through Freshkills Park and a fast ferry to the South Shore.

"While we don't begrudge residents of Brooklyn and Queens for this project, it does make one wonder what we have to do on Staten Island to get the city to take our pleas for transformative transportation projects seriously," Oddo said.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority finally approved $5 million for environmental and design work on the North Shore BRT in October after some 15 years of local advocacy.

Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) said the city needs to accelerate more forward-thinking proposals like the Brooklyn-Queens streetcar in Staten Island communities also underserved by public transportation.

"As I heard the mayor's proposal last night, I wondered if he meant to say Staten Island, instead of Brooklyn and Queens," she said.

De Blasio increased late-night and weekend service on the free Staten Island Ferry, ensuring departures at least every 30 minutes. But his long-term transportation plans have routinely faced criticism on Staten Island.

During last year's State of the City, de Blasio proposed a "five borough" fast ferry system with a dock in Stapleton. The fast ferry there would be just blocks from the existing St. George ferry terminal and is still unfunded by the city.

"I don't begrudge other boroughs for getting service enhancements, but after leaving most of Staten Island out of the ferry plan, and now being not included in a street car program, I don't know how we can pretend to not feel ignored," Councilman Joseph Borelli (R-South Shore) said.

Construction on the Brooklyn-Queens streetcar line is expected to begin by 2019. A full engineering study is required to determine the total cost, which the city will offset using a percentage of an increase in property values along the line.