New Delays For AirTrain…Again

Cynics tell us that last weeks Air Train crash is nothing more than a repetitious sag of more than 35 years of delays in providing a safe, economic, and speedy train trip to and from our airports.
These delays have been replete with official reports, engineering analysis, fiscal demands and continual bickering on every level of city and state government. The end result has been that while convenient airport train accesses have been launched expeditiously in London, Chicago, Paris, Atlanta, Tokyo, and Washington, no trains are yet available for beleaguered New Yorkers.
Port Authority (PA) officials point to the congestion caused by a staggering number of visitors to New York City. While an estimated 18 million tourists visit New York City annually, 27 million passengers use JFK and another 17 million use LaGuardia every year. In addition, well over 50,000 airport employees and service personnel drive to work at the two airports.
The resultant vehicular volumes cause massive tie-ups on the Van Wyck, Whitestone, and Long Island Expressways, as well as the Grand Central, Cross Island and Belt Parkways. The traffic impact is tremendous because Queens has New York Citys largest federal and state highway systems, and also the citys largest street system.
During the first 20 years of this lengthy saga, PA and city traffic and transportation officials talked about the necessity of having safe and speedy trains that would operate on monorails, similar to the ones used in Disneyland, others recommended a high-speed, magnetically-levitated (mag-lev) trains that elevate its vehicles four inches above the guideway and allow them to glide smoothly to their destination.
All agreed for the necessity of speedily reducing congestion, and the ensuing air pollution as a means of promoting the lower cost of doing business in New York. But it was like talking about the weather, for nearly 30 years everyone talked, but nobody did anything about it.
During heated exploratory meetings, suggestions were made to utilize abandoned sections of the LIRR Rockaway Beach line. One candidate for City Council who recommended its use as a busway was shouted down and was never heard from again.
The Transit Authority entered the fray in 1978, with its "train to the plane" which ran from Columbus Circle to the Howard Beach station, where buses took the travelers to their terminals. According to the TA, the system never carried more than 3,200 passengers per day, and averaged a daily loss of $19,100 during its 12-year life. It died a quiet and unlamented death in 1990.
By the early 90s PA engineers had decided on a light rail system which employed trolley-like vehicles that could be hooked together to meet increased demands. Studies showed that a light rail vehicle carried nearly four times more passengers than a bus in a day (5,000 vs. 18,000).
The proposed train route covered all bases: from midtown Manhattan it went across the 59th Street Bridge into Long Island City, to LaGuardia Airport, down the Van Wyck into JFK, with special turn-offs at Jamaica Avenue and the A Lines Howard Beach station.
By 1995, when the PA announced a drastic nearly two-thirds reduction of the 22-mile long "train to the plane," because of fiscal constraints, the fiscal bickering began. Critics charged that the PAs latest version of the AirTrain was really a rehash of the TAs discarded "train to the plane."
Mayor Giuliani charged that the Port Authority was not paying New York City a fair rental for the JFK and LaGuardia fields and it was using profits from its two Queens air fields to prop up the New Jersey facility. He also charged that New York City profits were being used to maintain Jerseys PATH line, as well as to install a monorail rail line in the Newark International airport.
Late in 1994, an outraged Mayor Giuliani announced that he was taking steps to privatize the two airports because their rental fees were too low. Governor Pataki leaped into the fray by describing the PAs payments as "shortchanging the taxpayers of the city of New York."
As a result of these fiscal clashes, the unfinished rail line is actually involved in a race against time. The PA may be reticent to complete the entire 22-mile train system for the two facilities it may not operate after 2015. The mere threat of losing the fields in 2015 could endanger the fiscal strength of the PA, which has assumed responsibility for the sale and redemption of millions of dollars of bondsall of which would have to be repaid.
This latest accident occurred when a three-car train jumped the rails and plowed into the concrete side wall of the elevated railway. PA engineers and the Bombardier train reps are assessing the legal ramifications. They all agree that JFK contributes mightily to the regional economy, provides 37,000 direct and over 207,000 indirect jobs, and generates an annual $7.1 billion in wages and salaries and $22 billion in regional sales. Forecasts indicate that JFK may serve as many as 45 million passengers by 2013.
Significantly, the few months delay announced by the PA to make the repairs, may probably take longer because the national Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating this accident, usually takes about 12 months to file a final report. Even more significant, the story has already been pushed back to page 13 in the daily papers.
After 35 years of delays, who cares?