Extending commuter rail to the Stewart International Airport passenger terminal from the Salisbury Mills station on the Port Jervis line, providing “reliable ground access from Midtown Manhattan in less than 80 minutes,” may no longer be a distant dream. A decision may come within three years.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) board last week unanimously approved an $11 million contract to study the most promising alternatives to provide enhanced transit access between Stewart Airport and the New York metropolitan area. The board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PA), which will pay half the cost of the study, is expect to vote on the contract this month. The contract stipulates that the two-part study will be completed in two and a half years.
Direct, rapid commuter rail service from the Stewart terminal just southwest of Newburgh to Manhattan via Metro-North Railroad’s Port Jervis line would require a substantial capital investment. Can such an investment – estimated to cost, depending on what is involved, from $197 million to $592 million in 2003 dollars – be justified? That’s what the new study will confirm, and if its answer is positive, will plan for.
The study will build on the conclusions of earlier consultant work completed in 2003. That study looked at various commuter rail alternatives, as well as a system of express buses, ferries and monorail transit. Narrowing the choices down, the consultants argued that: “only the commuter rail alternatives can provide shorter trip times, greater reliability and a single convenient transfer compared to other modes.”
The previous lessee of the airport, the British tour bus firm National Express, was lukewarm to the idea of such a large investment. When the lease changed hands to PA last October, however, prospects for the follow-up study brightened. The powerful interstate agency signaled that it was not only interested in the rail transit tie to the metropolitan area but was also able and willing to contribute financially to its careful study.
Though not publicly committed to Stewart as an overflow facility to the three major metropolitan airports it manages, PA is well aware that its JFK, Newark and LaGuardia facilities handled 110 million passengers in 2007 as compared to 104.1 million the year before and 99.8 million in 2005. PA is not blind to the fact that Stewart, located 55 miles north of New York City, might play a significant role in relieving chronic conditions of crowded airspace and longer airport delays. That is one of the reasons why the agency’s capital budget through the year 2015 allocates $500 million for Stewart.
Six bidders responded to the request for consultants from Metro-North, which will serve as lead agency in the new study. After technical review, Earth Tech Northeast, Inc. a subsidiary of Tyco Corp., was recommended for the contract. In an internal staff summary, Metro-North lauded Earth Tech Northeast for its knowledge of local west-of-Hudson needs and concerns and knowledge of existing conditions at the airport.
It should be knowledgeable. Earth Tech was the firm that wrote the 2003 study supporting the commuter rail option.
As well as PA’s involvement as leaseholder at Stewart Airport, two other major events have occurred since Earth Tech’s 2003 study. One is that a rebuilt Tappan Zee Bridge seems no longer under serious consideration as a rail link between the two sides of the Hudson. The other is that there’s a good chance that a $7.6 billion second rail tunnel will be built from New Jersey to Penn Station, cutting west-shore travel time to the heart of Gotham and eliminating the train change at Secaucus.
The new contract with Metro-North specified that the Earth Tech team be available to begin the project as early as March 31.