The AirTrain Cometh:
SEQ Gears Up For
New Transportation Way To Get To JFK

By Shams Tarek

It has been touted as a transportation system that will get people to the plane and bring business to Southeast Queens.

And as steady progress is being made on AirTrain JFK — the Port Authority’s light rail service connecting JFK International Airport to Jamaica and Howard Beach – the pieces of the puzzle seem to be coming together.

The last concrete block for the AirTrain guideway that runs down the middle of the Van Wyck Expressway was installed on Aug. 15, six weeks ahead of schedule.

The last concrete block for the AirTrain guideway on the Van Wyck was installed on Aug. 15. PRESS Photo By Ira Cohen AirTrain cars on track near JFK Airport. PRESS Photo By Dee Richard

All tracks for the 8.1-mile system have been laid, control and storage facilities are complete and operational and all 32 AirTrain cars have been delivered, according to Port Authority officials.

Construction of the system’s 10 passenger stations, which will include terminals at Howard Beach and Jamaica, plus eight terminals in JFK’s Central Terminal area, is “substantially done” and “progressing on schedule,” Port Authority officials said.

Full service within and between JFK and the Howard Beach terminal should be available by the end of this year, the Port Authority said.

Service between JFK and Jamaica should begin by the middle of next year. 

AirTrain JFK will consist of three main sections — a 1.8-mile loop connecting eight air terminals in JFK’s Central Terminal Area, a 3.3-mile leg connecting to the A train at Howard Beach and a three-mile leg connecting to E, J, Z and LIRR trains in Jamaica at Sutphin Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue. 

Port Authority officials told the PRESS that seamless transfers to the MTA lines will be possible with the use of MetroCards, which will be accepted as a method of payment for the system.

The AirTrain cars, at about 60 by 10 feet, are about the same size as current MTA subway cars.

AirTrain cars have less seats and extra-wide doors and aisles to accomodate luggage—similar space considerations will be made at AirTrain terminals, which will also include moving walkways. 

The entire system, which will run 24 hours a day with cars running between two and 12 minutes apart, is ADA-compliant, the Port Authority said.

Service within the Central Terminal Area loop will be free. 

The Port Authority hasn’t announced a price schedule for trips between the CTA loop and the Jamaica and Howard Beach terminals.

A one-way trip between Penn Station and Newark International Airport on AirTrain Newark, which opened in October and carries about 3,000 riders per day, according to the Port Authority, costs $11.15. 

Three dollars and fifty cents of that amount goes directly to the Port Authority for the AirTrain service, with the rest going to NJ Transit, which provides the transportation between Penn Station and the AirTrain Newark terminal in the airport. 

Riding AirTrain Newark within the airport — as it will be with AirTrain JFK — is free.

Like the MTA’s subway cars, the cars run with steel wheels on steel tracks. 

A Port Authority official said that the AirTrain cars will be much quiter than the MTA cars.

The electric cars — which will run with one to four cars depending on ridership — are conductorless. Technicians in a central control facility will control the entire system by clicking on a computer mouse. 

With a modification of that system to allow conductors to control the cars while on board, the AirTrain cars will be able to ride on MTA tracks, a Port Authority official said.

A closed circuit television system and emergency telephones in the AirTrain cars and terminals will be attended 24 hours a day by operators at the facility. 

A “roving security presence” and “customer service agents” will also travel throughout the system, attend to busy stations and “respond to emergencies as needed,” the official said.

The airlines and the Transportation Security Administration, which are responsible for maintaining airport security, will be required to maintain JFK’s general security standards throughout the AirTrain system. 

Security will be provided by a variety of public and private agencies, both uniformed and not, the Port Authority official said.

Funding for the $1.9 billion system, which got its first approval in 1996, comes mostly from the FAA’s $3-per-person “Passenger Facility Charge,” paid by all departing air passengers. 

The $600 million not covered by the PFC comes from the Port Authority’s own capital funds.  No State or City tax revenue, the Port Authority said, is being used to fund the project.

Passengers at JFK who need to use mass transit do have options right now, though they all won’t be available forever. 

The free shuttle buses that run between the Central Terminal Area and the Howard Beach-JFK A train station will be removed once AirTrain JFK is running.  Shuttle buses that serve parts of JFK that aren’t served by AirTrain will continue to run, as will the regular fare buses that go to JFK.

The Port Authority has made considerable efforts — through ads, press releases and regular meetings with local officials and community groups — to tout the benefits AirTrain JFK will have for the local economy. 

Governor George Pataki, who with New Jersey’s Governor Jim McGreevey heads the Port Authority, said in May that the AirTrain JFK project is creating over 4,000 construction jobs and generating $580 million in wages and $980 million in construction-related sales. 

Port Authority officials have said that $81.5 million in construction contracts have been awarded to businesses in Queens.

Port Authority officials have also claimed that the increased traffic of international travelers and airport employees to downtown Jamaica will revitalize that community, but that won’t be realized until service actually starts.  Local politicians and investors have so far responded positively, with ambitious plans for more development in the area being discussed.

The Greater Jamaica Development Corporation is currently looking for tenants for a new commercial center called “JFK Corporate Square,” a complex of office buildings, commercial space, parking and open space that would be built incrementally around the Jamaica AirTrain station based on demand.

“We feel that having the AirTrain terminate in Jamaica Center will lead to a new kind of economic development that will benefit the area,” GJDC spokesperson Sam Samuels said of the complex, which may also include a hotel and other airport-related services.  “Obviously we don’t expect everyone to get out and spend money in Jamaica, but we’re hoping many will.”

The GJDC isn’t the only group hoping AirTrain JFK will bring bodies and dollars to downtown Jamaica.

City Councilman Allan Jennings, whose office is a block away from the Jamaica AirTrain terminal, is in weekly talks with local property owners to establish a business improvement district on Sutphin Boulevard between Hillside and Liberty Avenues.  Jennings is planning for the BID to bring clean streets and new lights, trees and signage to the well-populated but messy neighborhood.

“We want to beautify Sutphin Boulevard,” Jennings said.  “We’re going to make downtown Jamaica look like Rockefeller Center.”

The BID plan also calls for local businesses to adopt uniform signage above their storefronts, to bring a neat and uniform look to the neighborhood.

“We’re trying to get all the stores to get the same signage,” he said.  “It’ll look like a little village.”