MNRR West of Hudson (WoH) Study - Stewart Airport

[Passaic River Rat]

A part of me says this project sounds neat.

Another part of me says that if it so importatant to have rail access from midtown to an airport, why not build a connection to Westchester Airport (HPN) from the Metro-North Harlem line?

[KFC Jones]

NYC's three major airports' airspaces, terminals, and support services are crowded. Westchester and Islip take up some of the slack, but are limited in how much (and what kind of) extra traffic they can absorb. If air traffic continues to grow it has to go somewhere. Now, Stewarts is kind of out of the way... but a rail link would make the distance more palatable to many.

So I guess I'll just hold my breath and wait for the $4 million, year-long feasability study to finish up! Can't wait!

[gawlikfj]

Would the single rail line that goes thru the old Maybrook Yard be used in the extension to Stewart . I know it only goes up to Berea,NY & not to Poukeepsie but Maybrook isn't to far away from Stewart.

[RichM]

And... unless I'm wrong the airport in Westchester County is not owned by the Port Authority... priorities here! Only one boondoggle at a time.

[Otto Vondrak]

The report said Metro-North was asked to conduct a study (again). A study is a long long way from committed funds or a construction plan.

-otto-

[Ken W2KB]

It seems kind of silly to construct a link to Stewart Airport for a 75-minute one-way trip from NYC. Why go through the trouble when you can take the train to Newark Int'l? True, Newark has bad delays, but in the time it takes to get to Stewart, go through security and wait for the flight, you could be taking off from Newark. I can't see where any practical savings are made for the air traveller. The only loss I can see is siphoning some passengers and their $$ from an NJ airport to a NY one.

It is a combination of several reasons (1) JFK, LGA and EWR are at or close to capacity (both runways and airspace and Stewart is far enough away to avoid conflicts in airspace), (2) demand for air travel is growing, and (3) Stewart can serve northern NJ and parts of NY via rail where there is no one-seat service to EWR.

Westchester County Airport in White Plains conflicts with LGA airspace and has a runway that is only about half of of Stewart's almost 12,000 foot runway. All aircraft can operate out of Stewart, but not Westchester County.

[Jishnu]

Hey I have no problem doing the Stewart Direct service if it is done right. If we can get MNRR/NYDOT and PANYNJ to chip in to electrify all the way to Stewart so that a decent one hour service can be run, more power to everyone. But OTOH, building yet another cow-path with slow lumbering trains would be waste of money IMHO.

[isaksenj]

From the Airport's website:


http://www.swfny.com/pdfs/exec_summary.pdf

http://www.swfny.com/pdfs/airport_plan.pdf

http://www.swfny.com/pdfs/terminal_plan.pdf

[umtrr-author]

Interesting commentary on how slowly things move that the Master Plan is dated 2005. Thanks for the links.

I can see the Hudson Valley becoming a new source of BANANAS* with this, if you know what I mean...

*Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything, or Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone

[blockline4180]

Interesting commentary on how slowly things move that the Master Plan is dated 2005. Thanks for the links.

I can see the Hudson Valley becoming a new source of BANANAS* with this, if you know what I mean...

*Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything, or Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone

Yes, just like North and Central NJ have their own fair share of NIMBYS and BANANAS... Unfortunatley this movement is spreading throughout the country like a cancer growth!

[E-44]

If they try to run with decent frequency, can they avoid conflicts and slowdowns with freight traffic?

[Passaic River Rat]

If they try to run with decent frequency, can they avoid conflicts and slowdowns with freight traffic?

Yes, as long as the NYSW remains busier than NS. The NYSW trains do not operate east of Hudson Junction. The Stewart link would be east of that point.

[cpontani]

The problem with any pet project like this is the very limited results you're going to get. There isn't unlimited money to electrify, double or triple track, for new equipment, et cetera. Besides, where are you going to fly to? The only places you're going to get enough passengers for a line-haul is Florida, and with nearly hourly service on a variety of carriers on closer airports, why bear the extra time or expense of going NORTH to go SOUTH? They're re-working the airspace in the northeast, so I don't necessarily buy the argument that Islip or Westchester service can't be expanded. You'd be more limited to the number of gates, but they're never close to being all full.

If that all-important rail link be needed to Islip, have Southwest issue through tickets from NYP to Ronkonkoma, and have a shuttle bus from the train to the airport. The great untapped air market is in the other direction…Trenton Mercer. It's right on the West Trenton SEPTA R3/NJ Transit proposed West Trenton line. Again, some shrewd marketing, somewhat frequent service, and a few shuttle buses, and you're in business. No need to ask if you build it, will they come?

[Passaic River Rat]

… Besides, where are you going to fly to? The only places you're going to get enough passengers for a line-haul is Florida, and with nearly hourly service on a variety of carriers on closer airports, why bear the extra time or expense of going NORTH to go SOUTH? …

Good point. As of now, the only direct destinations from SWF is Orlando, West Palm, Tampa Bay, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, Detroit, and Philadelphia.

Newark, LaGuardia, and Kennedy have service to a lot more places.

Congestion could probably be relieved with a surcharge or tax on flights scheduled to depart or land within peak times. The Port Authority does this with the bridges. Why not do it with the airports?

[drewh]

The great untapped air market is in the other direction…Trenton Mercer.

Except that West Trenton is extremely opposed to expanded service there.

With the limited air service available at Stewart, a better use of funds would be thru Airtrain service to produce a one seat ride from JFK to Manhattan (either NYP or WTC) with possible next stop being EWR. If you could get between EWR-JFK in 40 minutes the airspace could be shared more efficiently. But alas just a pipe-dream.

For that matter what about adding rail to LGA which is just a few miles as well. This should be done before Stewart.