[NYguy]

Finally, the critics can rest. There will be NO rail to LaGuardia.



https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/13/n...-airtrain.html

Plans to Build AirTrain to La Guardia Are Officially Scrapped


By Patrick McGeehan
March 13, 2023

There will be no AirTrain to La Guardia Airport.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has abandoned plans to build a light-rail link to La Guardia after a review found that the project’s cost had ballooned to $2.4 billion, more than five times initial estimates.

….. Releasing the results of the assessment on Monday, a panel of transportation experts is recommending the less-expensive option of increasing public bus service to La Guardia and the addition of a shuttle between the airport and subway stations in northern Queens to reduce air travelers’ dependence on taxis and private cars.

“I accept the recommendations of this report, and I look forward to its immediate implementation by the Port Authority in close coordination with our partners in the M.T.A., city and federal government,” Ms. Hochul said in a statement on Monday.

….. The panel agreed that extending the subway to provide a “one-seat ride” from Midtown was “the optimal way to achieve the best mass transportation connection.” But they added that the engineers that reviewed the options could not find a viable way to build a subway extension to the cramped airport, which is hemmed in by the Grand Central Parkway and the East River.

Even if a way could be found to extend the subway that would not interfere with flight operations at La Guardia, the analysis concluded, it would take at least 12 years and cost as much as $7 billion to build.

Improving and speeding up the Q70 bus and creating an all-electric shuttle service would cost a fraction of that amount, only about $500 million, said Ms. Sadik-Khan, former New York City transportation commissioner. She said the bus service would carry nearly twice as many passengers annually as the Willets Point AirTrain was projected to handle.

The estimated $500 million in capital spending would also go toward creating dedicated bus lanes along 31st Street and 19th Avenue in Queens and making the Astoria-Ditmars Blvd. station on the N and W lines accessible to people with disabilities, the Port Authority said. Some of that money could also be spent to create a mile-long lane exclusive to buses on the northbound Brooklyn-Queens Expressway between Northern Boulevard and Astoria Boulevard, the Port Authority said.

So basically, the same as always.