NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A new plan to build an AirTrain to LaGuardia Airport has been given the green light and should be ready within four years. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the new measure approved last week by the New York State legislature advancing the AirTrain link project. The Port Authority says a new AirTrain will link to the Long Island Rail Road and the subway system. Air travelers could get from midtown Manhattan to the airport in 30 minutes. Gov. Andrew Cuomo Talks Air Train, Other Transit Plans “With no rail link, millions of passengers too frequently face inevitable congestion on the roadways and unpredictable delays in reaching the airport,” said Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority of NY & NJ. “They never know what the travel time to LaGuardia will be.” The bill authoritizes the Port Authority to conduct an environmental impact study this summer for the $1.5 billion project. The Air Train will run from Willets Point in Queens, making two stops at the airport; East Station and Central Hall. The plan is to have the Long Island Rail Road run express trains from both Penn Station and Grand Central to Willets Point, where there will be a seamless transfer. “Having a direct connection is essential right now,” transportation expert Mitchell Moss said. “Right now it takes longer to get from LaGuardia to Manhattan than to get from LaGuardia to Chicago.” Construction could begin in 2020 and is expected to be completed by 2022.<doc-sep>Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed the legislation that was introduced last week that will allow the State Department of Transportation to seize public land to build the LaGuardia AirTrain. There’s still a way to go before the AirTrain is a totally done deal, but this allows an environmental review to be conducted, which will begin later this year and wrap at the end of next year. The announcement is also accompanied by new renderings for the project. The Governor’s office is hopeful that construction will get underway in early 2020, and wrap in 2022. The AirTrain will provide a connection between the airport and a revamped Mets-Willets Point station in Flushing, Queens, which will allow transfers to the 7 train and the Long Island Rail Road. The new legislation identifies a corridor between these two areas, within which the AirTrain will be built. It’s within this corridor that the State DOT will be able to acquire city or MTA-owned land in order to build the AirTrain. The Governor’s office said that the corridor had been selected after consultation with residents along the route and local officials. The route itself will be finalized after the environmental review, which will be led by the Federal Aviation Administration. The state will continue to seek local input as this process moves forward. if the AirTrain is built, it will allow for less than 30-minute trips between LaGuardia Airport and New York Penn Station or Grand Central Terminal. The Governor’s office estimates that trips between LaGuardia and Mets-Willets Point will take six minutes, with trains running every four minutes. The next section of the journey, on the LIRR, will take about 16 minutes. “AirTrain LGA will set an example of comprehensive transit infrastructure for the rest of the nation, and will pay dividends for decades by connecting riders to transit hubs across the Metropolitan area, boosting passenger growth across all airlines, and providing a more efficient means of travel for generations to come,” said Governor Cuomo, in a statement. Construction on the AirTrain is part of the overall $8 billion overhaul of LaGuardia Airport. The new Terminal B is scheduled to open its main area in 2020, and the new Delta Terminal C is scheduled to open in 2021.<doc-sep>Maybe on a helicopter. Gov. Cuomo became New York’s time-traveler in chief Monday, when he pushed a plan for a new AirTrain to La Guardia that he says could get people from Midtown to the crowded airport in an incredible 26 minutes. Cuomo — who hopes the new rail link could be built by 2022 — used graphics and charts to back up his claims of Superman-level speeds across Manhattan and Queens. He calculated a cool 16 minutes for a Long Island Rail Road train from Penn Station to the Mets-Willets Point station, followed by a four-minute wait for an AirTrain, which would take just six minutes to reach the airport. “Seamless transfer at Willets Point,” read one of the images in his presentation to the press. Worst case, it would all take about 30 minutes, claimed Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority. “The traveler will arrive at La Guardia within a 30-minute trip that will be reliable and predictable,” he said. But the cheery talk made no mention of the massive delays regularly gripping the LIRR and Penn Station in general. LIRR train service is the worst it’s been in nearly two decades, with 21,400 trains late, canceled or terminated mid-run in 2017, according to a March report from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office. Commuters Monday doubted the AirTrain’s ability to bend these immutable laws of time, space and slow city train service. “I don’t believe it would take less than 30 minutes,” said George Patilis of Long Island, who was at Penn Station Monday. “It would probably take them 30 minutes to get to Willets Point and another 30 to get to La Guardia.” Commuter Roxanne Parnell of Garden City added: “I don’t think that’s realistic, given the problems at Penn Station. I mean, 30 minutes? I doubt that. I say closer to 45.” The governor said the AirTrain plan is part of an $8 billion effort to revamp La Guardia Airport. “The new La Guardia Airport will provide an improved customer experience with better access to airlines and public transportation for all passengers,” Cuomo said. Renderings of the transfer from the LIRR to the AirTrain looked clean and modern. A depiction of the AirTrain entrance at the airport’s Central Hall featured floor-to-ceiling windows, a tract of grass running along the floor and a giant orange Jeff Koons balloon-dog sculpture. Additional reporting by Danielle Furfaro and Tamar Lapin<doc-sep>
Traffic & Transit AirTrain Would Connect LaGuardia To LIRR Under New Bill Long Islanders could take the LIRR to LaGuardia instead of sitting in traffic on the Grand Central Parkway as early as 2022. Reply A new AirTrain connecting the Long Island Rail Road to LaGuardia Airport is one step closer to reality after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a bill on Monday. The new law will allow for an environmental review to be conducted later this year on the AirTrain LGA project, which is planned between the airport, the Long Island Rail Road and the 7 subway train at Mets-Willets Point in Flushing, Cuomo said. The posed mass-transit link is designed to offer New Yorkers "a more efficient means of travel" that reduces traffic congestion and boosts flyer growth at the airport by connecting to transit hubs in Manhattan and on Long Island, Cuomo said. Construction is on track to begin by 2020 and could finish as early as 2022. Related: LaGuardia Airport to Be Torn Down and Rebuilt "The new LaGuardia Airport will provide an improved customer experience with better access to airlines and public transportation for all passengers - essential to the airport's transformation," Cuomo said. Guomo did not say where the proposed AirTrain would connect the LIRR with LaGuardia. The John F. Kennedy Airport AirTrain is available to LIRR riders via Jamaica, Queens stop. The AirTrain would also offer flyers in Manhattan a less-than-30-minute trip between LaGuardia and New York Penn Station or Grand Central Terminal. The new bill identifies a corridor in which the AirTrain could be built, which was selected after consultations with local community members and elected officials, the Governor's Office said. An official route will be finalized after the environmental review led by the Federal Aviation Administration. Under the legislation, the state DOT will be authorized to acquire land owned by the City or the MTA within that corridor. The environmental review is slated to finish by the end of 2019. "For too long, LaGuardia Airport has had the dubious distinction of being the only major East Coast airport without a rail link, and that is unacceptable," Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said in a press release. "Simply put, a 21st century airport must meet global standards, and that requires rail mass transit access. The AirTrain will complement the ongoing $8 billion redevelopment of LGA into a world-class airport worthy of New York."