Who knows if it’ll ever get built but New York governor Andy Cuomo is pushing a plan that would bring trains to the planes at LaGuardia Airport.
The idea he’s proposing isn’t great but LaGuardia has never had a rail link. Is something better than nothing?
Cuomo’s idea is to build two miles worth of train tracks between Willets Point (near where the Mets play home games) and LaGuardia along (or above) the Grand Central Parkway. Both the 7 train and Long Island Rail Road have stops at Willets Point. The stations there aren’t utilized much except during events at Citi Field and/or the Bill Jean King National Tennis Center.
There are problems with Cuomo’s plan. Willets Point is out of the way for people traveling between the airport and Manhattan (and vice-versa). Ideally, you want something resembling a direct shot to the city’s center. This doesn’t do that.
Since the new train would feed into the 7, the plan assumes a single subway line already overburdened during rush can absorb additional passengers carrying bulky luggage.
Cuomo is holding back details but by calling it “AirTrain,” the implication is that the new service would be operated under the purview of the Port Authority which we know can bungle or mismanage anything it gets its hands on. There would likely be a fare to ride the AirTrain above and beyond the cost of entering the LIRR or subway system at Willets Point.
When you think it all through, it appears Cuomo simply chose the path of least resistance. At a half-a-billion dollars (estimated price tag – sure to be much higher when all is said and done), it’s probably the cheapest way to do it. And since there are no neighborhood incursions, you won’t get NIMBY fights.
The most effective and realistic train to plane idea would be to extend the N/Q from its current end point at Ditmars Boulevard. This would extend the reach of NYC’s great subway system to the airport’s doorstep and it would give riders a reasonably direct path to key parts of Manhattan. The politically powerful Vallone family has long put the kibosh on this plan whenever it’s discussed because it doesn’t want another stretch of above-ground tracks cluttering Astoria’s landscape. It’s worth noting that Peter Vallone Jr. is currently a Cuomo staffer.
It’s a minimum five years before we’ll even sniff the Willets Point plan so those not currently in the know should try the Q70 bus out of Jackson Heights. The Q70 has turned out to be a brilliantly efficient route to LaGuardia even though it’s just a bus. The Q70 has wildly exceeded my expectations since it launched in September 2013. I’ve taken the Q70 every day to work since inception and have not been late one time. It runs 24 hours a day and seems to stay on schedule no matter the day or time. The stop used by the Q70 in Jackson Heights is cluttered and confusing but even that seems better of late. In recent weeks, I’ve personally witnessed taxi drivers get ticketed almost daily by plainclothes law enforcement in unmarked cars for blocking the Q70 stop in Jackson Heights. This has helped bring some sanity to the bus stop.
On the subject of Cuomo, the latest New Yorker magazine devotes major space to a piece on New York’s sitting governor. Written by Jeffrey Toobin, the story breaks zero new ground. Don’t even waste your time reading what amounts to a rehash of Cuomo’s biographical details. Yeah, Toobin discusses Cuomo’s dismantling of the Moreland Commission, but he doesn’t bother to mention the US government’s criminal investigation of that action. It’s basically a puff piece which you don’t expect from a guy like Toobin.
And speaking of shallow, gimme a break from news that New York’s Working Families Party has formally asked Elizabeth Warren to “jump into the race for President.” Warren can only laugh at the WFP’s credibility and influence on the left given its decision last fall to endorse Cuomo over Zephyr Teachout. While the WFP was vindicated in small measure by Cuomo’s decision to ban fracking, that upstart political movement alienated a lot of progressive Democrats in New York City by turning its back on Teachout simply because it wanted to align the party with a candidate seen as the likely winner. Watch the WFP do the same thing to Warren should she run against Hillary.
-Aiming to break up the off day Tuesday, I made a special trip to 46th and 7th mid-day to see HEARTBEAT at Father Duffy Square. The new art installation won the annual Times Square Valentine Heart Design contest and will occupy the crowded public space for a month. Perhaps it’s the oppressively commercial environment of that part of the city, but I wasn’t feeling any romance in the presence of HEARTBEAT. I looked at it for a few minutes and walked away without even a slight palpation or swoon. Maybe I’ll go back at night, when it’s lit up to see if that makes a difference.