Flushing Bay: LaGuardia Airport AirTrain

The proposed LaGuardia Airport AirTrain project would take away parkland from an environmental justice community and obstruct enjoyment of a waterfront park.

 

Since Spring 2018, Riverkeeper has been watchdogging Port Authority’s proposal to construct a $2.05 billion AirTrain from Mets-Citi Field to LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York. The proposed project would result in the use of Flushing Bay waterfront parkland along a 2,100-foot stretch of Malcolm X Promenade in the historically Black community of East Elmhurst, Queens.

The AirTrain proposal has been lambasted by transit experts for its “two-seat ride” requiring a transfer and separate fare, its circuitous route that would carry passengers first east of the airport to Citi Field and then back west, and the likelihood that its main function would be to facilitate car traffic to new parking lots. A recent independent analysis estimated the AirTrain would be the world’s most costly transit project per daily rider.

A project of this magnitude requires a credible and transparent environmental review process, including comparison of transit project alternatives. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Port Authority have failed to do so.

On July 20, 2021, the FAA approved the Port Authority’s application to construct the elevated AirTrain. Two months later, Riverkeeper, Guardians of Flushing Bay and Ditmars Boulevard Block Association, Represented by the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, filed a petition in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals alleging that the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to greenlight the LaGuardia AirTrain was based on an unlawfully biased decision-making process.

Riverkeeper is committed to ensuring that any project receives the fair environmental review that the community and ecology deserve.

Like the AirTrain, the story of our involvement in this project is long and winding. Catch up to speed with this timeline:

See our blog and press history on the topic here:

• 06.22.18 Riverkeeper and Guardians of Flushing Bay call for immediate environmental review of LaGuardia AirTrain proposal
• 10.11.18 Port Authority should not hasten the environmental review process for the LaGuardia AirTrain project
• 10.22.19 NYS Supreme Court rules that Port Authority must release LaGuardia AirTrain communications
• 11.25.19 Begging Port Authority to fix the Flushing Bay Promenade is an empty gesture
• 12.04.20 Redoubling Riverkeeper’s commitment to environmental justice by demanding a closer look at the LaGuardia AirTrain Proposal
• 01.09.20 FAA ignores transit concerns in LaGuardia AirTrain environmental review
• 4.06.21 Revealed: Port Authority AirTrain Documents
• 8.11.21 LaGuardia AirTrain: Riverkeeper joins Port Authority staff’s call for investigation
• 9.20.21 Advocates sue to halt LaGuardia AirTrain, alleging the politically favored project was selected without required review of transit alternatives
• 10.13.21 Ditmars Blvd. Block Association, Guardians of Flushing Bay and Riverkeeper react to Port Authority’s commitment to review AirTrain alternatives