The LaGuardia Airport subway extension is a proposed extension of the New York City Subway's BMT Astoria Line (currently served by the ) to connect to LaGuardia Airport, which has never had an airport rail link. Such a connection was first proposed in 1943, when LaGuardia was already surrounded by development.
Two proposals during the 1990s and 2000s received funding. In 1990, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) proposed a $1.6 billion, dedicated airport rail link from Midtown Manhattan to LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports, which would be developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The PANYNJ set aside $40 million for engineering and marketing before the line was canceled in 1995; part of the route became the AirTrain JFK people mover system. The MTA, PANYNJ, and federal, state, and local officials began considering another proposal in 1998, which would have entailed extending the Astoria Line. The plan received funding for construction in the early 2000s, but the plan was ultimately shelved in 2003 after opponents rejected the idea of constructing the extension through a residential area of Astoria.
In 2015, the planned AirTrain LaGuardia reflected a similar idea, although various media outlets criticized it as inferior due to its distance from the city, calling it a pet project of then-governor Andrew Cuomo. The AirTrain's future was placed in doubt after Cuomo's resignation in 2021, putting discussion of the subway extension back on the table, and the PANYNJ suggested the extension in a 2022 report. Despite this, the AirTrain was canceled in March 2023 and replaced with enhanced Q70 bus service, continuing to leave the airport without a rail link.
Context
LaGuardia Airport, in the New York City borough of Queens, is considered the only major U.S. airport that is not served by train . The nearest New York City Subway station to the airport is away. The M60 bus, which runs to Upper Manhattan, is the only public transportation route between Manhattan (the most densely populated New York City borough) and the airport. Of the 46.8% of travelers who go to LaGuardia from Manhattan, 89.3% of them arrive there by taxi, causing both pollution and traffic, while only 8.9% take the bus. Therefore, a rail link was seen as a priority to allow people to travel to the airport from Manhattan via public transport.
A subway extension had been proposed since 1943, when the city Board of Transportation suggested a post-war lengthening of the BMT Astoria Line from its terminus at the Astoria–Ditmars Boulevard station to LaGuardia Field. However, by the time LaGuardia became a public airport, it was already surrounded by development, requiring any subway lines to travel through residential areas and making construction difficult.
Midtown–LaGuardia–JFK rail link By the 1990s, there was demand for a direct rail link between Midtown Manhattan and John F. Kennedy International Airport. In 1990, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) proposed a $1.6 billion rail link to LaGuardia and JFK airports, which would be developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) and funded jointly by agencies in the federal, state, and city governments. The rail link, beginning at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, was to cross the East River via the Queensboro Bridge. It would stop at Queens Plaza, then use the right-of-way of the Sunnyside Yards and Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to access LaGuardia Airport. After stopping at LaGuardia, the line would continue parallel to the Grand Central Parkway and an intermediate stop near Shea Stadium in Willets Point, with a connection to the at Willets Point Boulevard. Continuing down the parkway, the line would have another intermediate stop in Jamaica, connecting to the LIRR at Jamaica Station, and then proceed nonstop down the Van Wyck Expressway to JFK Airport. The project would not have been an extension of the New York City Subway system—it would have been funded by a passenger facility charge, revenues from which could only be used to fund airport-related projects—but would have provided direct access to all of LaGuardia's terminals except the Marine Air Terminal.
In September 1991, Governor Mario Cuomo put his support behind this rail plan, which would cost $1.6 billion if built. Queens borough president Claire Shulman also endorsed the rail link. However, the Regional Plan Association opposed the link, with RPA leaders calling the plan "misguided". The East Side Coalition on Airport Access's executive director later said of the plan, "We are going to end up with another Second Avenue Subway, another 63rd Street tunnel, another uncompleted project in this city." After the PANYNJ found that the ridership demand might not justify the cost of the rail link, the MTA downgraded the project's priority. The PANYNJ started reviewing blueprints for the rail link in 1992; at the time, it was thought that the link could be partially open within six years.
The PANYNJ set aside $40 million for engineering and marketing of the new line in 1994 and created an environmental impact statement (EIS). The EIS, conducted by the New York State Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), found the plan to be feasible. The PFC funds being collected by the Port Authority were supposed to fund the project's $2.6 billion budget. The project was to start in 1996, but there were disputes over where to locate the Manhattan terminal. Although the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 59th Street had been selected due to its high concentration of airport travelers, Manhattan community leaders were concerned over the volume of traffic that would result from building the terminal there. Many East Midtown residents opposed the Manhattan terminal outright because it would cause more limousine and taxi traffic in the neighborhood. It would remove two travel lanes from the Queensboro Bridge as well. The Port Authority did not consider a connection to Grand Central Terminal or Penn Station, which both had a higher ridership base, because such a connection would be too expensive and complicated. To pay for the project, the Port Authority would charge a one-way ticket price of between $9 and $12.
By February 1995, plans for the link were in jeopardy, as the cost of the proposed link had increased from $2.6 billion to over $3 billion in the previous year alone. This caused the Port Authority to consider abridging the rail link plan, seeking federal and state funding, or partnering with private investors. Mario Cuomo's successor, George Pataki, expressed skepticism about the JFK rail link's viability during the previous year's gubernatorial campaign. Instead of going to Manhattan directly, the rail link might have connected to Queens subway stations to reduce costs. The direct rail link between LaGuardia, JFK, and Manhattan was canceled outright in May 1995 because of its political unpopularity. The planned connection was downsized to a people mover that only served JFK Airport; this system, known as the AirTrain JFK, opened on December 17, 2003.
1998 proposal
Initial proposals In July 1998, the MTA, the PANYNJ, and the offices of the Governor, mayor, and Queens Borough President signed a Memorandum of Agreement to improve airport access to LaGuardia Airport. As part of the agreement, they initiated the LaGuardia Airport Subway Access Study (LASA) to examine subway alternatives that could provide a one-seat ride between LaGuardia Airport and Manhattan's Central Business District, reduce travel times to the airport, and increase transit ridership. This study was planned as part of a $1.2 billion package to provide access to New York City-area airports. The preferred route would have extended the Astoria Line along 31st Street north onto Con Edison's property at the edge of Astoria and then east along 19th Avenue to the Marine Air Terminal. The MTA also considered an eastward extension along Ditmars Boulevard, and a plan to reroute LaGuardia-bound trains from Queensboro Plaza through the Sunnyside rail yard and along the eastern edge of St. Michael's Cemetery to elevated tracks parallel to the Grand Central Parkway. A fourth route was to have trains turn east via Astoria Boulevard. These options were studied in the LaGuardia Airport Subway Access Study (LASA). The MTA planned to produce a Draft Environmental Impact Study by December 1998, with a Final Environmental Impact Study ready in March 2000.
On March 30, 1999, a notice of intent to start an Alternative Analysis/Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the project was filed. Two subway extensions were initially considered: an alignment along 19th Avenue and a route along Sunnyside Yard, Hell Gate Line, and Brooklyn–Queens Expressway. In April 1999, the MTA issued a Scoping Memorandum for the LASA study and narrowed the project down to two options: the elevated extension of the Astoria Line from Ditmars Boulevard and the route through Sunnyside Yard. Though $100 million was pledged by the state for the project, additional funding was required to build either of the two remaining options. The 19th Avenue option was estimated to cost $1.04 billion, while the Sunnyside Yard alignment would have cost $1.8 billion. Since all four proposed extensions of the N to LaGuardia were strongly opposed by local residents, the MTA expanded the options outlined in the EIS in August 2000, examining 22 ways to improve transportation to the airport. These included four options for people movers, one for guided busways, one for the Metro-North Railroad, one for ferries, one for buses, three for the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), and eleven for the subway. Two new alignments considered included an extension of the E or 7 via the LIRR Main Line, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Grand Central Parkway to the Airport's Central Terminal, and a line connecting to the 7 or the Port Washington Branch of the LIRR by looping around Willets Point into the airport's easternmost terminal. The study's options were expected to be narrowed in fall 2000.
On September 30, 1999, the MTA Board approved the agency's $17.5 billion 2000—2004 Capital Program, which included $645 million in funding for the extension of the Astoria Line to LaGuardia Airport. The inclusion of the extension was done at the request of mayor Rudy Giuliani, who included funding for the project in the city's budget for fiscal year 2000. In 1999, he proposed using $945 million of the city's contribution to the 2000—2004 and 2005—2009 Capital Programs for the LaGuardia extension, diverting funding that would have been used for state of good repair work. The funding would have covered preliminary engineering, final design, the construction of the line outside of the airport, and a portion of the cost for the line in the airport.. By March 2000, the AA/DEIS was expected to be completed in early 2001, with a preferred alternative to be selected later that year. The MTA had submitted an application to the Federal Transit Administration for federal funding for the selected alternative from the New Starts program.
Reception and cancellation