Plans to Build AirTrain to La Guardia Are Officially Scrapped

Why can’t we use common sense and have the subway connect to our airports? Why can’t even have nice common sense things? Oh right because it doesn’t fatten anyone’s pockets. Can we even get ferry access to LGA?

The rationale and figures stated make me believe this is the correct choice if you’re picking between Airtrain and increased bus service.

Sucks we couldn’t just have an N extension

Extend. The. Fucking. Elevated. N. Line

Go up 31st and either continue onward to 19th Ave or do a little twist on 20th to 19th. I know people live there but fuck not that many people ... 19th ave is super industrial ... this is a clear case of public good

Sweet, maybe we can put that 2 billion into some nicer luxury boxes for the Bills stadium.

There will be no AirTrain to La Guardia Airport.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has abandoned plans to build a light-rail link to La Guardia after a review found that the project’s cost had ballooned to $2.4 billion, more than five times initial estimates.

When Ms. Hochul’s predecessor, Andrew M. Cuomo, first announced the pet project in 2015, he placed the cost at $450 million. After Mr. Cuomo resigned in disgrace in 2021, the plan faced mounting opposition from elected officials and community groups. Ms. Hochul halted the project and ordered the review several months after taking office.

Releasing the results of the assessment on Monday, a panel of transportation experts is recommending the less-expensive option of increasing public bus service to La Guardia and the addition of a shuttle between the airport and subway stations in northern Queens to reduce air travelers’ dependence on taxis and private cars.

“I accept the recommendations of this report, and I look forward to its immediate implementation by the Port Authority in close coordination with our partners in the M.T.A., city and federal government,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement on Monday.

Awesome! Now focus on extending the subway to LGA and stop this nonsense.

It would be better to extend the BMT Astoria line but that means you’d have to build an elevated subway which is forbidden for some reason

This is good because the AirTrain in this version sucked

The article does say that they acknowledge that extending the subway is the best bet but infrastructure challenges and cost (obviously) make this prohibitive.

Should have figured this out as part of the initial rebuild. “World class” airport without convenient transit to get there.

Good. Extend the N train and be done with it. We don’t need more overpriced contractor projects.

The initial cost estimate of $500m was purposely low to make it more palpable to get into the capital plan, politicians, etc. Anybody with half a brain should know this was going to cost billions of dollars particularly if we didn't want to make the hard decisions such as pick a better route even if it affects NIMBYs.

It's now 2023 this is basically going to be a new airport with no rail connection, just another example of why we can't get anything done instead of endless squabbling and why the rest of the advanced world is eating our lunch in infrastructure.

I want to know how much money has been wasted studying etc on this project to date, and where this billion plus that was earmarked for this project will now be redeployed.

So just more buses. I'm fine with buses, tbh, but they need to NOT be able to get stopped in traffic. And I mean NEVER. When I visited Amsterdam last year, we took a bus from the airport to the hotel. The entire way the bus was on a separate highway, next to the "normal" highway. ONLY buses were allowed on it. It was the fastest bus I've ever been in. Once we reached the city, the bus switched to using bus/​tramways lanes that were SEGREGATED WITH CONCRETE from normal car traffic.

You also need more buses, going to more places. It can't just be LGA to Jackson Heights and LGA to Astoria, they need to be actually part of the network.

That's the only way this isn't just another embarrassment. We need to stop letting NIMBYs and their private cars hold the whole goddamn city back.

Every time some thing like this comes up, I can only think “God Bless, Robert Moses” /s

IYKYK

Great.

Now give the Tapanzee Bridge back it's rightful name to really turn Cuomo red

If you travel to London or Paris and see how easy it is to have airports connect to the city center - you can't help to wonder why NYC can't replicate the easy transfer.

Buy once cry once. Infrastructure investments. Federal Subsidies for infrastructure improvements. Meeting the goals of vehicle emissions. Is 2.4Billion really that expensive? In 10 years, will we wish we had just spent 2.4B today?