Cuomo's inconvenient LGA choo choo has been approved

  

Gothamist

 After years of discussions, a new—and controversial—$2.1 billion AirTrain will be built, connecting LaGuardia Airport with the LIRR and 7 train stations at Mets-Willets Point in eastern Queens.

The Federal Aviation Association approved the plan on Tuesday, giving the Port Authority permission to "proceed with its proposal to construct a rail system to provide a reliable transit option for air travelers and employees at LGA." The FAA also noted it held two virtual public workshops and three virtual public hearings last September, and that 18 "different federal, state and local agencies have provided input throughout the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process based on their expertise and authorities." (You can see the Final EIS here.)

Governor Andrew Cuomo called the plan a "reliable, efficient, and affordable transit connector worthy of its destination." He noted that years of work has led to this moment and that now, "as we come out of the COVID crisis, our state and our country have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in a resilient, transformative, and interconnected future, and today's announcement is a testament to our 'all aboard' commitment to seizing it, in partnership with the Biden administration and Secretary Buttigieg."

While a mass transit option to LaGuardia has long been a goal, critics questioned Cuomo's particular plan because it actually takes travelers past the airport. In 2015, The Transport Politic created a map showing the routes of various connector plans and suggested that travel times actually increased with this plan.

Cuomo signs legislation authorizing AirTrain

From CBS 2:

A new plan to build an AirTrain to LaGuardia Airport has been given the green light and should be ready within four years.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the new measure approved last week by the New York State legislature advancing the AirTrain link project.

The Port Authority says a new AirTrain will link to the Long Island Rail Road and the subway system.

Air travelers could get from midtown Manhattan to the airport in 30 minutes.

The bill authoritizes the Port Authority to conduct an environmental impact study this summer for the $1.5 billion project. The Air Train will run from Willets Point in Queens, making two stops at the airport; East Station and Central Hall.

The plan is to have the Long Island Rail Road run express trains from both Penn Station and Grand Central to Willets Point, where there will be a seamless transfer.

Construction could begin in 2020 and is expected to be completed by 2022.

AirTrain is unnecessary spending

From the Village Voice:

At last week’s board meeting, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey unveiled its latest $32 billion, 10-year spending blueprint — a document carefully calibrated not to consider the region’s need for new infrastructure, but to appease governors on both sides of the Hudson.

The governors, of course, appoint the Port’s commissioners and, bridge scandals notwithstanding, continue to pull the strings at the authority. Unfortunately, using the Port Authority to dole out money to gubernatorial pet projects does nothing to help commuters stuck with a dysfunctional regional transportation system.

Two big examples show how the latest Christie-Cuomo spending plan got it all wrong.

First up: dubious airport rail projects favored by both governors are getting funded in a suspicious quid pro quo. Nearly $1.5 billion would go to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s LaGuardia-Willets Point AirTrain, which transit experts say will actually take longer than existing bus service.

Port Authority will kill LGA coyotes

From NBC:

Officials say a pesky pack of wild coyotes wandering the grounds of LaGuardia Airport will be trapped and euthanized. Stefan Holt reports.

Coyotes living at Astoria Mountain

From PIX11:

A group of coyotes was spotted lurking around a temporary employee parking lot set up because of construction at LaGuardia Airport Thursday.

A PIX11 reporter spotted the animals in the roadway of the parking lot near 45th Street and Berrian Boulevard in Astoria.

Employees dodge the critters every night.

“As you’re coming through they’re waiting for you to say good night,” said one airport employee.

The Port Authority built the parking lot in 2015 atop Ingraham’s Mountain, a man-made “mountain” built excavated materials from construction of the third tube of the Lincoln Tunnel, according to documents obtained by PIX11 News. It’s situated about 0.2 miles west of the airport and bounded by the Rikers Island Bridge.

LaGuardia traffic nightmare

From PIX11:

A massive construction project at LaGuardia Airport is creating massive traffic tie ups.

A $5.3 billion project to overhaul a terminal at the airport has travelers bailing from their cabs, luggage in hand, to walk to the airport.

"It was horrendous," said livery cab driver Cecil Craffy. "It’s the worst I’ve ever seen anywhere in the city. It took me an hour plus from the Grand Central to the corner and the customer had to come out of the car to walk to reach there."

The Port Authority's new temporary road ways, which are on the way this fall, will alleviate the worst of the traffic problems. But in the meantime, trips to the airport are taking a lot of time.

Bums kicked out of LaGuardia

From the Queens Gazette:

Port Authority (PA) officials are chasing the homeless from LaGuardia Airport overnight, by enforcing strict closing times, installing window-ledge guards and traffic cones along walls at the Queens airport.

PA officials said workers are using “everything possible” to remove vagrants that give the airport a black eye.”

The enforcement started on January 2, when Port Authority police chased everyone without a plane ticket or a a job after 11 p.m. each night. The vagrants are not allowed back until 5 a.m., officials said.

Vagrants who manage to slip past the enforcement have to deal with rough metal posts that have been installed on window ledges, making it difficult, if not impossible to sleep there, officials said.

Port Authority workers have also lined walls with “hundreds” of large, bright orange cones to prevent vagrants from sleeping on the floors, PA officials said.

Officials say the enforcement has reduced the LaGuardia homeless population by 80 per cent.

Homeless are sleeping all over LaGuardia Airport

From PIX11:

The homeless population has surged in New York City and now the problem has gone beyond crowded shelters and dirty streets.

More and more homeless are squatting at LaGuardia Airport.

"I think it's the responsibility of the city to make sure that they have actual shelters and can take care of people. They shouldn't be using public facilities like that," airline passenger Vassyl Lonchyna said. "And they shouldn't be cluttering this terminal,"

And while that passenger blamed the city for a poor response at LaGuardia, New York City doesn't actually have jurisdiction within the airport.

According to a spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio's office, "The Port Authority has its own police department and funds a nonprofit to provide homelessness services."

Short-term Rockaway transit solution?

From Rockaway Post:

It’s not cheap, and you have to get to the Howard Beach station first. But it is a fast connection, and the easiest way into Manhattan when the A train is out of service.

This could be an interim solution, to be used in emergency situations: extend the Rockaway Park shuttle to Howard Beach, and allow riders to connect to the AirTrain for a reduced fare. Making this happen requires very little other than the cooperation of the MTA and the Port Authority. What do you say, Governor Cuomo?

LaGuardia taxi bribery scheme uncovered

From the Queens Courier:

Seven airport taxi dispatchers were busted in an undercover sting operation and charged with unlawfully receiving cash bribes in a taxi-dispatching scheme at LaGuardia Airport, prosecutors said.

The seven defendants are all employees of Port Authority contractor Gateway Group One Frontline Services: Louis Evens, 57, of Valley Stream; Delia Gonzalez, 51, of East Elmhurst; Algimir Kabir, 60, of Kew Gardens; Claudine Roberts, 33, of the Bronx; Claude Tobias, 33, of the Bronx; Gary Luc Valerius, 55, of Valley Stream; and Michael Zalt, 66, of Woodside.

According to the charges, between February and June 2015, the defendants allegedly accepted cash payments of $5 to $10 to allow undercover taxi drivers to skip the long lines in the Central Taxi Holding Area, as required by the Port Authority, and instead go straight to the terminals to pick up passengers.

Each of the drivers was charged with second-degree commercial bribe receiving, official misconduct and receiving unlawful gratuities, and faces up to a year behind bars if convicted.

Reconstruction of LaGuardia's central terminal announced

From DNA Info:

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey voted Thursday to move ahead with the first phase of a $3.6 billion project to replace the crumbling Central Terminal Building, known as Terminal B, with a new facility which will serve approximately 50 percent of all the passengers at the airport, officials announced.

The agency also selected the LaGuardia Gateway Partners to build the new terminal.
The Central Terminal Building, which first opened in 1964, will be demolished. The replacement will serve as LaGuardia's main entry.

The project also calls for linking the airport’s four terminals, which are currently disconnected, and a number of amenities such as a hotel and business center and a connection to the proposed AirTrain.

A master plan for the redevelopment will be unveiled in the coming weeks, officials said.

According to the Port Authority, construction will be funded by a public-private partnership.

JFK runway to be shut down for 6 months

From AM-NY:

The Port Authority has shut down one of four runways at Kennedy Airport for six months so workers can repave and expand it, officials said Monday night at a monthly meeting in Hempstead designed to address concerns about aircraft noise.

The $450 million project also includes lengthening the runway, known as 4L/22R, by 1,000 feet to meet federal safety standards and widening it from 150 to 200 feet to accommodate larger aircraft, said John Selden, the deputy general manager at Kennedy during a meeting of the Towns-Village Aircraft Safety and Noise Abatement Committee.

The Port Authority, which operates the airport, will also construct additional high-speed taxiways, which Selden told the committee would lead to fewer flight delays.

Longer flights out of LGA

From Wall Street Journal:

Regulators are considering lifting the decades-old restriction on flights longer than 1,500 miles from New York’s La Guardia Airport, a move that likely would trigger a scramble by airlines to launch lucrative new long-haul flights to California and other destinations in the U.S. West.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls New York City’s three major airports, said it is studying the so-called perimeter rule “to determine whether it remains in the best interest of the region’s air travelers.” The authority said any change would occur only after thorough analysis and consultation “with all interested parties in a public and transparent manner.”

Lifting the rule, formally in place since 1984, would pave the way for new transcontinental flights between La Guardia and cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Seattle—now served only by New York’s other two major airports, both of which are farther from Manhattan. Because airlines’ slots at New York’s airports are limited, new service would come at the expense of existing flights—almost certainly to smaller cities, industry officials said.

LaGuardia revamp won't happen soon

From the Wall Street Journal:

A long-awaited project to overhaul a terminal at La Guardia Airport has been further delayed as its operator weighs contest submissions to redesign it and other aviation facilities.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the aging airport, won’t select a development team to remake its Central Terminal Building—Terminal B to travelers—while it awaits the outcome of a broader design competition for New York airports, said John Degnan, the authority’s chairman.

“We simply decided it would be prudent to see what the conceptual design is before proceeding with the process,” Mr. Degnan said in an interview.

That a construction project is being delayed by a redesign competition is the latest bump in the Port Authority’s multiyear effort to replace the terminal, which was built in 1964.

Judge tosses JFK runway lawsuit

From the Daily News:

An appeals court rejected a lawsuit by homeowners in Queens seeking to stop the Port Authority from expanding a runway at Kennedy Airport.

The Eastern Queens Alliance argued in its federal lawsuit that the runway project would result in more noise for residents near the airport.

“We understand the concerns expressed by members of certain communities near the airport,” the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled on Tuesday, stating each of the alliance’s objections was either not raised early enough or were “unfounded.”

Southeast Queens residents fight back against JFK

From AM-NY:

A coalition of civic groups in Queens seeking to stop a project to upgrade and modify a Kennedy Airport runway has filed a lawsuit asking a federal court in Manhattan to order the airport operator to conduct a full environmental impact study.

The Eastern Queens Alliance, representing residents of southeast Queens, said the Port Authority's proposal to widen Runway 4L/22R and construct 728 feet of new pavement on the north end would put departing and arriving airplanes closer to homes, schools, churches and businesses.

Jets taking off and landing nearer to where children study and people live, work and worship would undoubtedly bring more noise and air pollution to neighborhoods that are already inundated with them, said the coalition's chairwoman, Barbara E. Brown of Brookville, Queens.

"The noise pollution is already bad, and to tell me a little more noise is not going to impact me is ludicrous," Brown said Tuesday in an interview.

The Port Authority declined to comment Tuesday, but in its reply to the lawsuit filed in September, the agency said its plan to extend Runway 4L/22R to 12,079 feet from its current 11,351 feet and widen it to 200 feet from 150 feet is necessary to meet design standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration. The wider runway would accommodate larger aircraft such as the Airbus A380, a double-decker widebody jet that is currently the world's largest passenger airliner.

The FAA requires runways to have a buffer zone, referred to as runway safety area, to lessen the risk of damage to property and injury to passengers in the event an aircraft overruns, undershoots, or is forced to leave the runway. The Port Authority has until Dec. 31, 2015, to bring Runway 4L/22R into compliance.

Noise monitors coming to Broad Channel and Bayswater

From the Forum:

In a continuing effort to effectively monitor noise caused by planes flying in and out of JFK Airport, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has agreed to install additional sound monitors in Bayswater and Broad Channel, Queens. Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Ozone Park) was aggressive in his pursuit of these monitors and wrote a letter to the FAA and Port Authority in September.

Beyond the additional monitors, the Port Authority offers a tracking system on its website, so that residents can monitor the paths of aircraft and see for themselves the specific decibel levels being recorded. It has also increased staffing to handle noise complaints.

Plane noise may be mitigated for many

From The Forum:

More residents living near Kennedy and LaGuardia airports could be eligible for federal grants to pay for insulating houses from aircraft noise, if the Federal Aviation Administration adopts new standards.

Recent changes to FAA flight procedures require that aircrafts fly lower along more precise paths. Therefore, while actual noise generated by aircrafts has decreased, and the number of people subject to noise has decreased somewhat, lower altitudes and “focused” noise tends to make the situation much worse for those under the newer flight paths.

A proposal before Congress would lower the acceptable DNL value level from 65db(a) to 55db(a). DNL (Day-Night average sound Level) statistics factor in data collected during a 24-hour period, with nighttime hours being weighted and additional 10 dB in consideration of a sensitivity to noise during the nightime hours. This data is then generally averaged over a year-long period.

In response to growing concerns, Governor Cuomo last year directed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to conduct what is commonly known as a Part 150 study, in order to define what steps might be taken in order to mitigate the problem. Created by the FAA in 1984, a Part 150 airport noise compatibility study is a set of regulations with two components: noise contour (exposure) maps demonstrating noise levels at airports and in nearby communities; and a noise compatibility program designed to provide solutions to the problem.

The Port Authority announced late last month that the contract for the Part 150 study on Kennedy and LaGuardia airports was awarded to consulting firm Environmental Science Associates. The project, expected to cost approximately $8 million combined for both Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, is to be funded mostly through flight fees and will run from October 2014 to August 2017.

In addition, the Port Authority has already implemented a “webtrak” portion of its website to allow residents to track flight patterns and monitor decibel levels in their communities, increased staffing to handle noise complaints, and committed to doubling the number of sound monitors around the two airports.

Crazy tree cost

From the Daily News:

The city Parks Department is charging the MTA $520,550 to remove and replace 15 large trees from city property to enable an authority construction project. That breaks down to $34,703 apiece.

"Is that a typo?" shocked Metropolitan Transportation Board member Jonathan Ballan said Monday at the MTA Finance Committee meeting.

The Parks Department has a "standard basal area replacement formula" it uses to calculate the cost of replacing trees on city property, an MTA resolution states. The MTA needs a forestry permit from the Parks Department to remove the trees located around the Manhattan on-bound and off-bound ramps to the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. The MTA Bridges and Tunnels division wants to replace the ramp.

In case additional trees need to be removed beyond the 15 for the ramp replacement, the MTA Finance Committee approved spending up to $750,000 for removal and replacement.

So, if that's how much it costs to remove trees, why aren't developers being forced to pony up when they remove them?

Big men dream big

From the Observer:

Appearing with Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. today, Gov. Andrew Cuomo vowed to dramatically reshape the city’s two aging airports and turn two other little-known airports in major economic hubs.

The vice president and governor touted the value of infrastructure investment, with Mr. Biden providing the sweeping rhetoric and Mr. Cuomo the nuts-and-bolts of what could come to the airports: a Long Island Rail Road and ferry link to LaGuardia Airport, tax free zones at small airports in the city’s suburbs and a speedier transit option for John F. Kennedy Airport on the southern tip of Queens.

Mr. Cuomo was vague on details. Tax free zones, a favorite tool of Mr. Cuomo’s, would be established at Stewart and Republic Airports to encourage business investment and take on some of the traffic that LaGuardia and JFK now absorb. He touted the idea of a rail link, with no apparent means of funding it, to LaGuardia, along with a ferry. He would also increase the speed and efficiency of transportation to JFK, now served by a rail link from an LIRR hub in Jamaica, Queens, and add food and retail options to the airport.

He did not tell reporters how the cash-strapped state, Port Authority or Metropolitan Transportation Authority would pay for these upgrades, but told reporters all options “were on the table,” including new tolls on bridges.