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posted by CoolHand on Saturday May 09 2015, @08:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the Bella-notta-Fiorello dept.

George Haikalis writes in the NYT that last week, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey put off, yet again, deciding between two proposals for a nearly $4 billion project to rehabilitate the dilapidated Central Terminal Building at La Guardia Airport. But piling billions of taxpayer dollars into upgrading La Guardia, which has been likened to an experience “in a third world country," won’t solve its fundamental problems. "It can’t easily expand," says Haikalis. "Its two runways and four terminals are surrounded on three sides by water, making landing difficult and hazardous. Parking is a nightmare."

There are precedents for replacing airports close to the center city with modern, more outlying airports. Hong Kong and Denver are two examples; Berlin will soon follow suit. With the consolidation of the major United States airlines and the sluggishness in the global economy, the much larger Kennedy and Newark airports could accommodate La Guardia’s passenger load, by adding more frequent service and using larger aircraft, if the F.A.A. were to lift the caps on the number of flights allowed there. Kennedy, with its two sets of parallel runways, could handle many more flights, particularly as new air-traffic control technology is introduced in the next few years. The money budgeted for the La Guardia upgrades would be better used to create a long-proposed one-ride express-rail link between Manhattan and J.F.K., by reviving a long-disused, 3.5-mile stretch of track in central Queens and completing the modernization of the terminals at Kennedy. "By avoiding the costly replacement of outmoded terminals at La Guardia and by creating a new express rail link and upgrading terminals at Kennedy, the increased economic activity could more than make up for the lost jobs," concludes Haikalis. "New York’s importance to America’s economy demands a first world vision to shutter this third world airport."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday May 10 2015, @01:38PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Sunday May 10 2015, @01:38PM (#181077) Journal

    Getting to La Guardia is easy by car and not so bad by public transportation. Getting to JFK is irritating and stupid no matter what mode of travel you choose. You used to be able to get there through about three transfers on the subway and bus, but they made that nigh impossible to force people to take the expensive and stupid AirTrain that Republican (from Poughkeepsie upstate) Gov.Pataki (sp?) Imposed on NYC; that POS costs something like $20 per person and takes you to Jamaica Station and does not include a free transfer to the MTA subway or Long Island Railroad. So you're looking at $22.75 (AirTrain +MTA) or more (AirTrain + LIRR) per person to get to Manhattan and about 2hrs of travel time. If you're travelling with 3 or more people you're better off taking a cab because it's point-to-point and it will cost less and only take 90 minutes in the clusterfuck that is JFK traffic on the Belt Parkway to Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to the Battery Tunnel (or *shudder* the Van Wyk to the Long Island Expressway to Midtown Tunnel).

    I can get to LGA by car in 20 minutes, 50 minutes by subway + bus for $2.75/person. It's a little dingy as an airport, but it's efficient. No walking for miles like Denver, no convoluted BS like JFK or Newark. You can get from curb to gate in 20 minutes. So from this Brooklynite, I'd have to definitively say closing LGA is f-ing retarded. Extend a spur of the 7 train subway line there? Sure, great idea and much cheaper than people think because the 7 is elevated at that point anyway (much less expensive than tunneling). But sending New Yorkers to Newark and JFK is a good way to raise an angry mob to hang the jackasses proposing this plan.

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  • (Score: 2) by mechanicjay on Monday May 11 2015, @06:51PM

    I pretty much agree that anyone advocating for sending people to JFK has clearly never traveled through there. I've missed more than one flight due to traffic -- even allow 2 hours for travel time. I had family come into JFK instead of EWR once, because the tickets were $100 cheaper. Sometime during the 2nd' hour of the ride home my FIL, apologized and lamented his cheapness.

    I've never gone through LGA, but it seems like relatively easy to reach regional airport. The Terminals at EWR got completely boned by TSA security, with more choke points and whatnot than I've seen almost anywhere else -- a open flowing 1960's design just does not make a good setting for Security Theater.

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