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New York City’s top transit advocates are warning Gov. Kathy Hochul to steer clear of proposed transit connections to LaGuardia Airport that mimic the costly, “bespoke” JFK AirTrain, which requires travelers to transfer from the subway and pay an additional fare.
Proposed “light rail” connections between the airport and the city’s subway system “bear all of the hallmark flaws of the AirTrain project [Hochul] took off the table late last year,” advocates said in a letter to Hochul on Tuesday.
The groups — Reinvent Albany, StreetsPAC, Riders Alliance and others — said the proposed light rail options are too similar to the controversial $2.1 billion “wrong-way” AirTrain to Citi Field pushed by ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which Hochul nixed in the fall.
“Because NYCT does not operate and has never shown an interest in light rail transit, we believe the light rail options the Port Authority has sketched are shorthand for one-off projects operated by the Port Authority or a contractor,” the letter said.
“These separate systems will require additional transit transfers, separate fares like the outrageous $8 the Port Authority charges for the JFK AirTrain and total sacrifice of any economies of scale and common equipment that would be realized by directly connecting bus and subway systems to the airport.”
As a result, the groups wrote, the proposals “are likely to reduce ridership, make the transit investment much less useful to neighborhoods in Queens, and increase costs.”
Ferries floated by Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, meanwhile, would not serve enough New Yorkers to discourage them from taking cars to the airport.
Instead, the groups want Hochul to pursue an extension to the city’s subway or bus network, which would be integrated into the MTA system and not require an additional fare.
“There’s a very clear dividing line in the options the Port Authority put out,” said Jon Orcutt, a former city transportation official and consultant for Reinvent Albany. “The one which would really help transportation to the airport is integrating the airport into transit itself, to the huge system we have of subways and buses.”
Hochul spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays declined to comment on the specifics of the advocates’ letter.
“Governor Hochul directed the Port Authority to thoroughly examine alternative mass transit solutions to increase connectivity to LaGuardia Airport, and we look forward to reviewing input on these options to help ensure world-class transportation to the airport,” Crampton-Hays said in a statement.
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