Port Authority opts for bus improvements to LaGuardia as panel officially kills Cuomo’s AirTrain idea

A project pushed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to build an $2.1 billion AirTrain to LaGuardia Airport is officially dead.

After 17 months of deliberations, an "expert panel" convened by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on Monday recommended beefing up bus service to the airport instead of building a rail link from Willets Point in Queens.

The group recommends a new non-stop shuttle bus between the airport’s terminals and the Astoria Boulevard subway station on the N and W lines.

The panel also suggests improving the Q70 bus from Jackson Heights by giving the route transit signal priority, which flips stop lights to green when a bus approaches. The group prescribes a mile-long busway on the northbound side of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway between Northern Boulevard and Astoria Boulevard to speed up service on the route.

The Q70 has been free since last year and is one of the MTA’s most popular routes.

Overall, the panel said it believes the changes could serve 5 million travelers each year.

Gov. Kathy Hochul in a statement said she accepts the report’s recommendations and looks “forward to its immediate implementation by the Port Authority.”

Cuomo’s plan, which the FAA approved, faced widespread opposition because it would force riders to travel east of LaGuardia and pay a second fare to ride an AirTrain.

Less than two months after Cuomo resigned in disgrace in August 2021, Hochul paused progress on the project and called for the Pot Authority to come up with new ideas for a transit connection to the airport.

"The backwards boondoggle AirTrain belongs just where it landed, on the scrapheap of history,” Danny Pearlstein, spokesperson for the Riders Alliance, wrote in a statement. “Much better bus service is the right answer both for Queens riders and the travelers who pass through their neighborhoods on the way to the airport.”

The Port Authority last year released 14 alternatives to the AirTrain, including extending the N and W subway line to LaGuardia, building a light rail service and extending ferry service to the airport.

In the end, they opted for better buses.

The panel included former city Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Mike Brown, the former commissioner of Transport for London and Phillip A. Washington, CEO of Denver International Airport.

The bus improvements could cost less than $500 million, according to the Port Authority. That’s far less than a light rail option, which officials said could cost $6.2 billion to build.

“The MTA looks forward to continuing to work with the Port Authority as it rolls out its new direct airport shuttle service, improving connections to LaGuardia Airport,” MTA spokesperson John McCarthy said in a statement. “We also look forward to working cooperatively on the panel’s recommendations regarding improvements to the Q70 bus service to LaGuardia from Woodside and Jackson Heights.”

The Port Authority board has up to 90 days to review the bus proposal and approve the plans.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify when the panel made its recommendations.