By Philip Newman
Queens commuters would like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to spend money on a direct subway link to LaGuardia Airport rather than building a Second Avenue subway, a poll by Public Advocate Mark Green revealed.
The survey of 759 people conducted in November also found that Queens residents who responded to the survey do not want the $4.5 billion tunnel that transit officials are planning to link Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal.
The tunnel, which would require nine years to complete, would extend Long Island Rail Road service to Grand Central on the East Side of Manhattan instead of having trains terminate only at Penn Station on the West Side.
The MTA board of directors has already approved a five-year capital construction project that includes the tunnel. The plan also earmarks enough money to start construction on a subway link to LaGuardia Airport and a shortened Second Avenue subway ending at 63rd Street in Manhattan.
For Queens participants in the poll, 27 percent favored an extension of the N subway line from its present termination station at Ditmars Boulevard to LaGuardia Airport. Some 25 percent approved of a full-length Second Avenue subway and 7 percent supported the MTA
