AOC Leads Familiar Fight Over Train to LaGuardia Airport
Gov. Cuomo’s push to build a $2 billion AirTrain to LaGuardia Airport has hit the brick wall that is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The first-term congresswoman on Friday sent a letter to the Federal Aviation Administration demanding more details as to why an environmental impact study released by the agency in November ruled out several promising alternatives to Cuomo’s preferred rail link, which would connect the airport to a new subway and Long Island Rail Road station at Willets Point.
If the AirTrain is constructed as proposed, riders looking to get to the airport would have to pay a full subway or LIRR fare to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority before coughing up an additional fare to the Port Authority to use the new connection.
Ocasio-Cortez said the FAA ignored community input in drafting its study.
“Out of 414 comments reported in the study, 255 were noted in opposition to that (the AirTrain) route,” she wrote in the letter. “Furthermore, I find it concerning that 77 submitted form letters were counted as a single public comment, essentially denying a voice to the dozens of community members who took time out of their days to express their positions on this important issue.”
In sending the letter, Ocasio-Cortez joined a chorus of Queens residents who for decades have fought several proposals to build a new rail line to LaGuardia.
The long-discussed alternative proposals dismissed by the FAA included a plan to extend the N train from Astoria to provide a one-seat subway ride to the airport, as well as less costly options like a dedicated lane for buses heading to LaGuardia. Former Mayor Rudy Guiliani spent years advocating for the N train extension to the airport, and he nearly pulled it off.
The MTA in 2000 planned to build the N extension, which was slated to cost $645 million, but it was abandoned amid intense opposition from residents whose homes would have been seized to build the new rail line.
The new LaGuardia AirTrain proposal would cost roughly $2 billion and would not require the the seizure of private property. But many residents are concerned that the project will take away park land and reduce the value of their homes.
Dozens of those residents on Monday held a rally on the steps of City Hall to demand a more thorough review of the AirTrain.
Hiram Monseratte, the Democratic district leader for Corona and East Elmhurst, said the plan aims to circumvent the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, or ULURP, which requires community boards and elected officials to review major construction projects.
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“There has not been one study that proves it (the AirTrain) is needed, feasible or that it would provide high ridership," Monseratte griped. "They (the Port Authority) have provided no tangible or empirical evidence that there is a great need for the AirTrain as they have designed it.”
Monseratte said the previous N train extension plan also failed because elected officials also ignored the ULURP process.
Monseratte, whose district would not house an extension of the N train to the airport, said the subway extension would be “more feasible” but only if “communities have had real input" in the construction process.
FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said the agency will hold additional public information sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday to hear more feedback from community members.
Port Authority spokesman Benjamin Branham said the Legislature has engaged with Queens communities about the project for more than two years.
“Community input has already influenced the recommended AirTrain route to the airport, moving it further to the north running along the northern edge of the eight-lane Grand Central Parkway," Branham said.
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