This while the section on mass transit gives it short shrift, only proposing superficial improvements to the AirTrain; in the unlikely the case that this is built, highway mode share will grow and transit mode share will fall. Put in plainer terms, the environmental case for the plan includes fraud. However, this is not really the topic of this post. The throwaway line is that almost every major world airport has a one-seat train ride to city center, and by implication, so should JFK.
As an organization dedicated to environment-friendly public transit, the RPA should have made it very clear it opposes the plan due to its low overall transportation value and its favoring of highways over transit. The RPA has a lot of good technical people, and its list of the pros and cons of each option is solid. The brief is based on prior RPA proposals, but the timing, just after Cuomo came out with his announcement, suggests an endorsement.
There are several intertwined problems here:. A good study for public transit should not only consider different alignments and service patterns, but also question whether the project is necessary. It assumes that it is. Everything else about the study follows from that parameter. Thus, it considers entirely express plans, such as the LIRR option, alongside local options.
Everything is subsumed into the question of connecting JFK to Manhattan. The question of whether the eastern terminus should be Jamaica or JFK must be subsumed to a study of this specific line, which at any rate is unlikely to offer faster service to JFK than the existing AirTrain-to-E option. After all, the most optimistic ridership projection for a JFK connector is maybe 40, users per day, whereas the projection for the full Second Avenue Subway is , I lived in Stockholm for two years, where I went to the airport exclusively using the Arlanda Express, a premium express link running nonstop between the airport and city center.
I imagine many visitors to Stockholm use it, are satisfied, and want to replicate it in their own cities. Unfortunately, such replications miss something important: any air-rail link must go to the areas that people are likely to want to connect to. For locals who wish to travel to the airport, this means good connections to the local transit network, since they are likely to come from many neighborhoods.
