The controversial plan to build an AirTrain to LaGuardia Airport has been paused indefinitely, Port Authority officials announced Tuesday.
Gov. Hochul last week requested the Port Authority seek “alternatives” to the project. Officials at the bistate agency said they’ll conduct the review Hochul wants, and put the existing AirTrain plan on hold.
“At Gov. Hochul’s request, the Port Authority is undertaking a thorough review of potential alternative mass transit options to LaGuardia Airport,” the Port Authority posted on its website.
“During the review, the Port Authority will pause further action with respect to the LaGuardia AirTrain project.”
Potential alternatives to the AirTrain include an extension of the N line from Astoria Blvd. — a plan that’s backed by state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) — as well as dedicated bus lanes on the Grand Central Parkway to speed up transit service to LaGuardia.
The AirTrain — boosted for years by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — aimed to build a new automated rail link to the airport from an overhauled station at Willets Point, Queens, that connects to the No. 7 line and Long Island Rail Road trains.
Critics blasted the project as an ineffective way to get to LaGuardia, as the connection would have required riders from Manhattan to travel east of the airport before paying a second fare to ride the AirTrain.
An environmental review the Port Authority submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration for the AirTrain project found the N line extension was infeasible because it might interfere with one of the airport’s runways.
The bus lane alternative was shot down because it “would not provide a time-certain transportation option” and would result “in surface traffic having fewer lanes available.”
The review process spurred a lawsuit from the environmental group Riverkeeper, which argued the Port Authority and FAA tipped the review toward the AirTrain and away from alternative proposals.
Port Authority officials intended to put the AirTrain project out for bid later this year, even after Hochul and Mayor de Blasio publicly raised concerns over the plan.
Cuomo in 2020 said he favored the AirTrain plan because, unlike an extension of a subway line, the project would not require the seizure of private property.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority in the 1990s sought to build an extension of the N train to LaGuardia, but the project was scuttled amid pushback from Queens politicians and the financial hit the agency took after the Sept. 11 attacks.
