Statement made by Councilwoman Julia Harrison at the June 7 City Council Meeting, pertaining to the AirTrain

The AirTrain project has been identified as the train to the plane. In truth, it will be the AirTrain to Jamaica.
It has been reportedly scheduled to take five years to complete. Yet Mark Shaw, speaking for the MTA, estimated in public hearings last week it will take between 15 and 30 years to finish.
This Morning’s Newsday editorial says, "It could be 20 years or more before JFK passngers get direct rail access to Manhattan."
The Port Authority is to finance the project with $300 million of its own funds and $1.2 billion from the $3 Passenger Facility Charge.
What happens to the Air Train and its financing when the Mayor effectively terminates New York City’s relationship with the PA? (We’re familiar with Giuliani’s complaints that the PA uses our airport-generated revenue for Newark Airport!) Will our money for the train flow down the same drain that has already created tunnels to nowhere at JFK?
The Unions talk about jobs from the Light Rail System. Hasn’t anyone told them that the Port Authority has already identified projects for JFK, which include more than 100 capital improvements, valued in excess of $2.4 billion? According to our own Council report, "Delaying these projects . . . inhibit the long term airport development at JFK." There’s plenty of work for the construction workers, without wasting our communities and our money with this flawed, expensive, boondoggle.
Paul Crotty wrote to the FAA on 8/28/97, and said "approval of the PA’s application would not only result in a rail system that does not provide a significant benefit to the City’s residents, tourists and business travelers, but will drain hundreds of millions of City dollars and drive airlines to other airports. The City will then be left without meaningful public transportation to the airports and will suffer massive financial losses while the port passes its construction costs off to the city and the airlines."
Who is benefiting from this done deal? It certainly is not the people of the City of New York.
I vote No on this item. Thank you.