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NJ-ARP: PATH TO NEWARK AIRPORT BEATS 'PATAKI PLAN'
NYC Mayor's Alternative Cheaper, Superior for Entire Region;
Cost of 'Intra-New York' Conceit Could Doom Pataki Plan Before It Starts
CHATHAM, N.J., May 27, 2004 -- New York Gov. George Pataki's proposal to
link lower Manhattan to Kennedy Airport is an albatross without wings, according
to the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers (NJ-ARP) -- and it ignores
a better alternative advanced by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: a
PATH extension to Newark Liberty International Airport.
NJ-ARP agrees with Gov. Pataki that airport access by rail to lower Manhattan
is a must. But the "New York only" emphasis perpetuates the "Hudson Ocean"
divide that hampers not just New York but the entire metropolitan area --
at a high cost of $6 billion that could be easily pared.
"It's not just NJ-ARP saying this," noted Director Albert L. Papp. "This
idea already has been suggested by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
as a better way to boost the attractiveness of the reviving commercial district
in downtown Manhattan. We can only hope the area media will take the larger
view that New York's governor seems unable to acquire."
The superior alternative: extending the existing PATH World Trade Center
Line beyond its current Newark-Penn Station terminus to the Newark Liberty
International Airport monorail transfer station on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor
(NEC). Most of the right-of-way already exists; the rest can be easily acquired.
No tunneling is required, either under lower Manhattan or in New Jersey.
A bistate route offers a faster ride. NJ-ARP has calculated that the anticipated
travel time between Newark Liberty International and the World Trade Center
would be at most about 26 minutes, a substantial savings over the 36-minute
timing announced in the Pataki plan. The current PATH schedule from Newark
Penn Station to its lower Manhattan terminus is 22 minutes.
And a PATH bistate route is far, far cheaper. NJ-ARP estimates the cost to
extend PATH 1.5 miles to the airport monorail station to be about $50 million,
a far cry from the $6 billion required for Governor Pataki's East River tunnel
from Brooklyn to lower Manhattan.
Newark Airport via PATH would also be literally "up and running" more quickly.
Avoiding costly and time-consuming tunneling would allow airport/rail service
to begin in as little as five years -- in plenty of time for any possible
Summer Olympics held in the greater New York metropolitan area.
"It is, simply put, 'more regional' in nature," said NJ-ARP's Papp.
NJ-ARP, founded in 1980, is the New Jersey citizens lobbying group for passenger
rail issues.
These files were created by Bob Scheurle.
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