AirTrain to LaGuardia scrapped by Hochul after $2 billion price tag

Long Island travelers will not be able to connect to LaGuardia by rail, as Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday formally nixed plans for a new AirTrain that would have linked the airport to the LIRR’s Port Washington line.

After signaling her unease with the project shortly after taking office, Hochul said she has accepted the findings of a panel of transportation experts that recommended against moving ahead with the $2 billion LaGuardia AirTrain proposal.

In its “Options for Mass Transit Solutions to LGA” report, the panel favored less-intrusive alternatives of improved MTA Bus service to the airport, and a new nonstop shuttle bus service to and from Astoria.

“New Yorkers deserve world-class transportation to world-class airports,” Hochul said in a statement. She said the alternatives provide “a clear, cost-effective path forward with an emissions-free transit solution for customers.”

Proposed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo at an original cost of $450 million, the AirTrain was a key ingredient of the Port Authority’s ongoing $8 billion redevelopment of LaGuardia, which has long been scorned by travelers for being difficult to access by public transportation. Although the cost more than quadrupled to $2 billion, the federal government approved the AirTrain proposal in July 2021.

Although the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Port Authority and several business groups pushed hard for the AirTrain under Cuomo, the proposal faced considerable opposition, including from environmentalists concerned about the impacts from construction, and transportation advocates and planners who criticized the circuitous route of the rail link.

The AirTrain would have run between LaGuardia and the LIRR’s Mets-Willets Point station, where they could also connect to the 7 subway line. That meant travelers bound for Manhattan would have had to head east from the airport, only to double back westbound.

Because the LIRR's Port Washington branch is the only one that doesn't pass through the Jamaica Station junction, those heading to other points on Long Island would have had an even more indirect route, having to travel east from the airport, back west on the LIRR to Woodside, and then back east again.

Danny Pearlstein, of the Riders Alliance — a transit advocacy group that fought the proposal — said it was refreshing "to see government leaders admit a mistake and change course before it's too late.”

“The backwards boondoggle AirTrain belongs just where it landed, on the scrap heap of history,” Pearlstein said. “Much better bus service is the right answer both for Queens riders and the travelers who pass through their neighborhoods on the way to the airport."

Tom Wright, president and CEO of the Regional Plan Association, said that, while his group supported the AirTrain project, he believes decision-makers followed “an open, transparent process.” He said the bus plan, which he believes will cater to airport employees and “budget conscious” travelers, is “still pretty good.”

The panel also rejected extending the N subway line to connect to the airport.

“I think their conclusion was that you can’t do a one-seat [train] ride. So, rather than spend a lot of money on making the best possible two-seat ride, let’s invest in the bus service, which will get you a substantial amount of the ridership,” Wright said. "I don't see it as a disappointment."

The bus rapid transit shuttle would cost $340 million and the MTA Bus improvements are estimated to cost $20 million, according to the report.

In a statement Monday, John McCarthy, external relations chief for the MTA, the transit authority "looks forward" to working on the proposed improvements recommended by the panel. 

MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said Monday that the LIRR remained committed to making the Mets-Willets Points station accessible, as had been planned, and to stay on top of its maintenance.

Rebecca Pryor, executive director of environmental group Guardians of Flushing Bay and a member of the Sensible Ways to LGA Coalition, which opposed the AirTrain, said the defeat of the project was the "result of five years of sustained organizing."

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.