With Andy out, AirTrain faces a dimmer future
Port Authority executives on Thursday vowed to push ahead with the controversial LaGuardia AirTrain plan — despite Gov. Hochul and Mayor de Blasio raising concerns about the proposal.
The $2 billion AirTrain was a pet project for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who for years stumped for the rail link that would connect to a new station at Willets Point, Queens, the No. 7 line and Long Island Rail Road trains.
De Blasio during a news conference said the project was “rushed through” by Cuomo, while Hochul said it “is something that can be examined in terms of our priorities now.”
But Port Authority officials at a news conference Thursday were undeterred, and continued to defend the project even after its main backer resigned in disgrace. The agency’s executive director, Rick Cotton, said a rail link to LaGuardia is a “policy imperative.”
“The project has been subjected to an exhaustive independent review by the FAA,” said Cotton. “She [Hochul] has asked for further conversations, and of course we will be responding to all of her questions.”
The Port Authority in July got approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to move forward with the work.
But the plan still faces opposition. Advocates sued the agency over the project’s environmental review, claiming officials deliberately overlooked alternatives such as an extension of the N train or dedicated bus routes to
the airport.
A cohort of the Port Authority’s own staffers even raised alarms about the project after Cuomo announced his resignation in August.
In a letter, the staffers said Cuomo “repeatedly pushed the agency to make nontransparent, politically motivated decisions, including decisions that squander the trust and money of our bondholders, customers, and the general public.”
“I’m operating things a little bit differently here,” Hochul said Thursday of the AirTrain. “Our funding has dropped significantly
for many of the projects that have been on the table.”
But what action Hochul might now take on the project is unclear.
De Blasio — whose appointees worked on the environmental review for the AirTrain — on Thursday criticized the planned route as inefficient.
“I think there’s some virtues to the project, but my question has always been, ‘Is there a better way?’ ” the mayor said.
“Is there a way to give people a more direct ride to the airport that would be even more appealing and get more and more people to use mass transit?”
Cotton said the AirTrain would not require the seizure of any private property, which would be needed under an extension of the N train. Cuomo cited the need for property seizures under alternate plans last year as a key reason for choosing the AirTrain’s out of the way route, from Willets Point west to the airport.
“You know what’s more unpopular for the people in the neighborhood that are affected? The subway [extension] plan,” Cuomo said during a May 2020 news conference. “I want projects that are real as opposed to theoretical.”