JFK: No Way Out

(Originally posted on Thrown For A Loop)

Yesterday, I had brunch with some law school friends on Hudson Street. To get to brunch, I had to find my way around the Pride Parade, which was nearly impossible and required several turn-backs and the navigation of a maze surrounding the Christopher Street subway station.

After lunch, two members of our brunch party had to catch a flight from JFK back to Chicago, but had trouble finding the car they had called. The car service had trouble finding them. It was a near disaster all around, but they did eventually make it to the airport. As we tried to locate an opening through which we could cross 7th Avenue, I suggested that, if the car didn't make it or left the meet-up location before they found a way to get to it, they could take the LIRR to Jamaica and then the AirTrain down to JFK. I was met with considerable eye-rolling. Summer associates, after all, don't need to take three trains (subway, LIRR, AirTrain) when a nice Sikh man with a CB radio and a large trunk will do it for them for $50. Then again, not everybody has $50 to spend, and when enough people do, it can be bumper-to-bumper town cars and yellow cabs on the Van Wyck.

Then I remembered my trip last weekend to urban northern New Jersey. I thought of the pork wrapped in bacon I had at a Brazillian restaurant in Newark. Mmmm, bacon...

My mind eventually stopped wandering and I got back on point.

The World Trade Center PATH station is being considered as a terminus for an LIRR extension that would run trains from JFK through Jamaica and Flatbush Avenue and under the East River in a new tunnel. Meanwhile, plans have been floated to extend the PATH train to Newark Airport. Just to the east, the MTA is already working on a massive reworking of the Fulton Street Station, Which serves the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J, M, Z, R and W trains. Jurisdictional issues between the Port Authority and MTA aside, how great would it be to have some sort of SuperPATH to allow for a single-seat ride between JFK and Jamaica, Hoboken terminal, Penn Station, Newark Airport, Downtown Brooklyn and the Financial District? How much better would it be to have a subway connection at Fulton Street rather than Penn Station, especially for East Siders and Brooklynites? Why would anyone who lives or stays anywhere near these areas ever take to the roads to get to JFK?

Sadly, there will be no one-seat solution, at least for Jerseyites. The JFK Airtrain uses Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit technology, by which the train is powered by a central electrified rail. It's better for going around the airport because it has a steerable axle that allows for tighter turns, but it isn't third-rail powered, like PATH, LIRR or the MTA subway. Also, AirTrain cars are 10'6" wide and PATH cars are 9' 2 3/4" wide. Because of this interoperability problem, any scenario short of retrofitting the AirTrain would require either transferring at Jamaica or Howard Beach or laying new ART tracks alongside LIRR tracks all the way to WTC station. MTA proposes getting AirTrains into Manhattan somehow, but they offer few details and several dead links. I've sent an email to the MTA, but I don't anticipate hearing back any time soon.

When Robert Moses proposed a Lower Manhattan Expressway linking New Jersey to Long Island, he did it to ease the traffic burden on downtown New York by allowing people to pass through above local streets, albiet with the probable side-effect of destroying lower Manhattan. Finally, we have a solution in sight that could link several major subway lines with service to two airports all in one place, but the cobbled-together projects have created an expensive solution that is complicated enough to send all but the most hardened skinflints headed for the already-congested highways.

UPDATE: The MTA got back to me, and promptly, too!

Thank you for your query about the Lower Manhattan-Jamaica/JFK Transportation Project. As part of this study, the project staff is evaluating opportunities to link the proposed new rail line to the existing AirTrain system at Jamaica. The AirTrain was built to the same design profile as the NYC subway systems, and uses a similar power system. However, "hybrid" cars fully compatible with both systems may need to be designed and procured.

Fair enough. They will either have to retrofit or scrap the existing AirTrain fleet, but this expansion is so far in the future that they should be worn out by then anyway.