Ok the article makes sense when it says land is evaporating and if this ever wants to get done they need to act now. I agree the land should be acquired.
I also liked the comment further up in the thread about electrification. Without it there is no way a 1 seat ride to Penn is going to happen for a long long time.
But again let me restate my opinion. At current 156K passengers per year for the airport, even if we assume tremendous growth of lets say 2000 percent over 10 years, we are still only at roughly 3 million passengers. Assume again that 10% use the train, that still means only 800-1000 per day. Keep in mind that Airtrain EWR only sees 4.5% total passenger use or 10% of local area resident use. This is not a case of build it and they will come. For this airport to have the kind of passenger volume we are talking about it is going to need a lot of large international aircraft landing here as opposed to JFK/EWR, and this will take longer than the next 10 years to develop and to do that the PA needs to build a customs facility.
Also on the comment about the PA and parking fees, what solid proof do you have to back up this statement? Whilst many of us may feel this way, it is not a public position that the PA has ever taken.
BTW - here is a link showing all US airports that have rail access. Missing are, LAX with LRT across from airport with shuttle bus, MKE with Amtrak station and shuttle bus, BWI with Amtrak/MARC and shuttle bus. SEA/TAC is supposed to have service by 2009. Also BOS with shuttle bus link to blue line. Interesting to note that CLE Hopkins was the first US airport to provide a rail link (and right to the terminal) in 1968.
http://www.apta.com/research/stats/rail/airport.cfm