There won't be an LGA AirTrain after all
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A panel of experts convened by the Port Authority recommended the state scrap its plans to build an AirTrain to LaGuardia Airport. Rendering via Port Authority
By Jacob Kaye
Nearly a year after it began, the review of the proposed LaGuardia Airport AirTrain project has been completed – and there will likely be no AirTrain to Queens’ northern airport.
Released on Monday, the review conducted by an outside panel formed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has recommended that the state scrap its plans to build an above-ground AirTrain from Willets Point to the airport. Instead, the panel recommended increased bus service to LaGuardia, including a new dedicated shuttle bus that runs directly from the end of the N and W train line in Astoria to the airport.
The review, which was ordered by Governor Kathy Hochul in late 2021, puts an end to one of former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s pet projects, which was opposed by nearly every local elected official in Queens, where the former official was born, as well as residents living near LaGuardia.
The proposed $2 billion AirTrain, which was to resemble the AirTrain running from Jamaica to John F. Kennedy International Airport, was to be the final piece of an $8 billion airport renovation – which is largely complete.
Hochul put the project on pause and ordered the Port Authority to reassess the plan for the rail link shortly after taking office in 2021. That order launched a review of over a dozen alternative transit options that could bring passengers to the airport. Hochul’s pause of the project was prompted by growing concerns over the AirTrain, which residents and elected officials said was too expensive, too Manhattan-centric and would only interfere with the lives of the Queens residents living near it.
And now, the Port Authority’s panel of three outside experts and a number of consulting firms have said that they agree.
“This is the right move,” State Senator Jessica Ramos, who represents the neighborhoods directly bordering the airport, said in a statement to the Eagle.
“My neighbors who live around LaGuardia deserve transit that is for them, not whatever that boondoggle was,” she added. “I’m so proud of East Elmhurst for standing up to this bad plan.”
The unanimous recommendations were made by Mike Brown, the former commissioner of Transport for London and former Managing Director of Heathrow Airport; Janette Sadik-Khan, a principal at Bloomberg Associates and former Commissioner of the NYC Department of Transportation; and Phillip A. Washington, the CEO of Denver International Airport and the former CEO of Los Angeles Metro.
The three-person panel made their recommendation based on their review of an analysis of 14 public transit options, including the AirTrain, conducted by a number of outside consulting firms.
The 14 options included several plans to extend subway service to the airport, increase bus service, build a ferry stop and explore emerging technologies, like pods that carry small groups of people above ground to LaGuardia.
In the end, the panel found that building out bus service would serve as the most-used, most-feasible and least expensive option.
The panel suggested two changes to bus service – a new Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard non-stop bus and improved service along the Q70, also known as the “LaGuardia Link.”
The new bus line recommended by the panel would start near Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard’s N and W train subway station. From there, it would run as an express bus to all three of the airport’s terminals.
The study found that the bus route would serve around 3 million passengers per year. The line would run electric buses exclusively and would potentially see dedicated bus lanes come to 31st Street and 19th Avenue.
The report also recommended making improvements to the subway station, including adding new elevators and escalators.
The plan to extend the Q70 includes a potential new mile-long exclusive bus lane along the shoulder of the northbound Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
The plan would also include a newly designated bus pick-up and drop-off near LaGuardia’s Terminal C and improvements to the area surrounding the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue and 61st St-Woodside subway stations where the bus begins.
In all, the service changes are expected to affect around 5 million riders and cost the Port Authority around $500 million, the panel said.
“At the start of this process, the Port Authority committed to conduct a fair, thorough, and impartial evaluation of mass transit solutions to LaGuardia Airport,” Rick Cotton, the executive director of the Port Authority, said in a statement.
“We assembled a team of top-quality engineering and transportation firms to conduct the study, and appointed an outside panel of world-class transportation leaders to deliver independent recommendations,” he added. “That report is now complete, and the panel has delivered its recommendations. We thank Mike Brown, Janette Sadik-Khan, and Phil Washington for their tireless efforts and thoughtful recommendations. We also thank the elected officials, community stakeholders, and members of the general public who offered their input and feedback.”
But while the panel recommended increasing bus service to the airport, it also rejected several proposals that were also popular with residents and elected officials during the several public feedback sessions the Port Authority held on the alternatives last year.
Included among them were plans to extend the N and W line to the airport.
“The panel expressed a strong preference for a ‘one-seat ride via subway’ as the most effective way to move travelers from cars to mass transit, but given the serious, unresolved constructability and cost challenges to building a subway extension identified by the engineering/construction firms, the panel recommended a near-term focus on improving bus service to provide better, faster transit access to LaGuardia, as the public benefits would be realized sooner at lesser cost,” the Port Authority said in a release about the recommendations.
Extending the subway would have taken around a dozen years to complete and would have likely cost anywhere between $2 to $6 billion.
The panel also rejected a proposal to extend New York City Ferry service to the airport, which they said would have low-ridership.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, who originally supported the AirTrain but later became one its most prominent opponents, called the recommendation “correct.”
“It has been clear that the proposed line was both fiscally dubious and insufficiently beneficial to the communities surrounding the airport, which are in serious need of more pressing infrastructure improvements,” the borough president said.
But despite agreeing that the AirTrain should not be built, Richards said that he felt several of the other alternative transit options should have made the panel's list of recommendations.
“In light of this decision, I renew my previous call on our government partners to conduct a more detailed, thorough study on establishing ferry service to LaGuardia while also exploring the establishment of a Bus Rapid Transit system between the Jackson Heights transportation hub and the airport, as well as the potential extension of the N/W subway line,” he said.
“In the short term, I look forward to discussions with the MTA and the Port Authority on improving the frequency of service along the Q70 bus line and the proposed shuttle service from Astoria to LaGuardia, respectively,” he added.
Frank Taylor, the chairperson of Community Board 3 and the president of the Ditmars Boulevard Block Association, said that while he welcomes the new bus routes, he remains upset by the way the Port Authority has undertaken the LaGuardia redevelopment process. The reconstruction has damaged a number of older homes nearby and some residents have yet to be compensated for the damages, he claims.
“Don't get me wrong, it's a great day,” Taylor said. “Not many organizations are able to stop an authority in New York.”
“But people still need to be made whole,” he added.
