Saturday, September 22, 2007

Senate approves $2B for railroad link to JFK Airport

WASHINGTON - The Senate yesterday approved $2 billion for New York City to build a rail link to JFK Airport, part of $20 billion in rebuilding aid pledged by President Bush after the 9/11 attacks.

The funding, provided through special tax credits, must be authorized by a joint Senate-House panel before it can be doled out to the city. The Senate approved the tax credits over the objections of a lawmaker who said tornadoes do as much damage as 9/11.

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) tried to stop the bill in the Senate Finance Committee by claiming, "There are other tragedies that can hit, obviously we had the tornadoes, you know, that hit."

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who led the funding drive, called that "unfair and wrong."

"It was an evil attack, which our city is still suffering from," Schumer lectured Ensign.

- Daily News


Look carefully, and it appears the JFK rail link is a new tunnel between Manhattan and Atlantic Avenue. The rest is already in place.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

To be included as part of the hotly contested
Atlantic Yards project
(historic Duffield Strret tear-downs).....
a new boondoggle in the making.....h-m-m-m ?

Anonymous said...

complications aside, this link would be great, making it easy to get to downtown Manhattan, without having to take that miserable #7 train.

Queens Crapper said...

The 7 train does not go to downtown or to Jamaica. Maybe you mean the A or E trains.

Anonymous said...

yes and no.

For me to get to downtown Manhattan from eastern Queens I could take the Q76 to Jamaica and then catch either the E or F or A train, but often opt to take the Q13 to the 7 train hub in Flushing and from there to the downtown 1, 2, or 3.

The later route actually goes slightly quicker, even though I have to make three transfers.

Either way the commute is insufferably long. So maybe this new rail will be a time saver, if nothing else.

Anonymous said...

Or maybe worse, the J train.