Letters

Railway Age, May, 2003

"The curse of NIMBY"

New York, N.Y.

To the editor:

[David] Briginshaw's article, "Airport rail links are a growth market" (RA March 2003, p. 44), makes a lot of good points, but as far as the New York City area is concerned, he did not factor in the Port Authority of NY & NJ and curse of NIMBY. As far as the Port Authority is concerned, it owns the airports that service New York, and since my teen years has never supported a rail link between JFK and LaGuardia Airports. When Giuliani became mayor, he had running battles with the PA, and finally worked out a deal with the PA to allow construction of a driverless train. In turn, the PA will allow the MTA's expansion into LaGuardia Airport.

As for NIMBYs, many communities adjacent to the airports have fought many planned subway routes into the above facilities. Prior to the construction of the AirTrain, a lot of the residents of South Jamaica and editorials in the AAA newsletter Car & Travel, have opposed the building of the above mode of transportation. In the past, there was also a plan to convert an underused portion of the LIRR as a rail link with JFK, but due to the attitude of NIMBYs, that plan was halted.

To sum up, airport rail links are a good idea, but if rival bureaucracies and the neighboring communities are against it, then the concept will die on the vine.

Ralph W. Nerbel

Train Operator

MTA New York City Transit