AirTrain JFK is an 8. 1-mile-long elevated people mover system and airport rail link serving John F. Kennedy International Airport. The driverless system operates 247 and consists of three lines and ten stations within the New York City borough of Queens. All passengers entering or exiting at either Jamaica or Howard Beach must pay a USD 7. 75 fare, while passengers traveling within the airport can ride for free. The system opened on December 17, 2003, after many delays.
About AirTrain JFK in brief
AirTrain JFK is an 8. 1-mile-long elevated people mover system and airport rail link serving John F. Kennedy International Airport. The driverless system operates 247 and consists of three lines and ten stations within the New York City borough of Queens. All passengers entering or exiting at either Jamaica or Howard Beach must pay a USD 7. 75 fare, while passengers traveling within the airport can ride for free. A railroad link to JFK Airport was first recommended in 1968. Various plans surfaced to build a JFK Airport rail connection until the 1990s, though these were not carried out because of a lack of funding. The system opened on December 17, 2003, after many delays. In 2019, the system had over 8. 7 million paying passengers and 12. 2 million inter-terminal passengers. During rush hour, the travel time from JFK to Manhattan could average up to 80 minutes by bus; during off-peak hours, a taxi could make that journey in 45 minutes, while a bus could cover the same distance in an hour. The JFK Express subway service and shuttle buses provided an unpopular transport system to and around JFK. In-depth planning for a dedicated transport system at JFK began in 1990, but was ultimately cut back from a direct rail link to an intra-borough peoplemover. Construction of the current people-mover system began in 1998, and an operator died during one of the system’s test runs. In 1990, the MTA proposed a USD 1. 6 billion rail link between LaGuardia and JFK airports, which would be funded jointly by federal, state, and city government agencies.
At the time, it was thought that the link could be partially open within six years. In 1994, the Port Authority set aside USD 40 million for engineering and marketing and environmental impact of the new line. The Port Authority started reviewing blueprints for the JFK rail link in 1992, and set aside $40 million for the new environmental impact statement in 1994. The rail line was to begin in Midtown Manhattan, crossing the East River into Queens via the Queensboro Bridge. It would travel to La Guardia Airport, then two additional stops before proceeding to JFK. After the MTA found that riders might not justify the cost of the rail link at Shea Stadium and Jamaica, the proposal was downgraded to the project’s priority. The proposal was supported by governor Mario Cuomo and Queens borough president Claire Cuomo. It was canceled altogether due to the New York City fiscal crisis of 1975. In 1987, another proposal called for a rail line to connect all of JFK Airport’s terminals with a new USD 500 million transportation center, but airlines objected that they could not fund the proposal. The MTA operated the JFK Express, a premium-fare New York. City Subway service that connected midtown Manhattan to the Howard Beach–JFK Airport station, from 1978 to 1990. The service was unpopular with passengers because of its high cost, and because the buses often got stuck in traffic. By the 90s, there was demand for a direct link between Midtownhattan and JFK Airport, which are 15 miles apart by road.
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This page is based on the article AirTrain JFK published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
