Despite questionable new projections of reduced airport passenger use of Stewart International Airport, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has ponied up the remaining $2.7 million needed to fund an “alternatives analysis” study that is the first step in achieving the long-held dream of nonstop rail service from the growing airport to Manhattan. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, the highest-ranking booster of Stewart in the nation’s government, appeared in the New Windsor terminal’s baggage claim on Friday, May 9 to herald the move, accompanied by U.S. Rep. John Hall; MTA executive director Lee Sander; Metro-North Railroad president Peter Cannito; Stewart Airport general manager Diannae Ehler of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PA) and a bevy of local officials.
Reducing traffic, helping the economy, attracting airlines and saving the planet
Standing before a wall-sized mural of the Hudson Valley that looks better in photos than in real life, Schumer lost no time in extolling the benefits of the eventual train connection.
“When I first took office, one of my goals was to bring Stewart back to life,” said Schumer. “Over the past few years we’ve been able to see Stewart Airport become an economic stimulus for the entire Hudson Valley region, offering low-cost service and convenient air travel for residents throughout the valley. … And that’s what we’re so proud of because after much talk, after much waiting, we have secured the money to take action on the first step to bringing a rail link from Metro North right up here to Stewart. And that rail link will be vital not only to people using Stewart, but to people on this side of the Hudson, in Orange County, in Rockland County, and in New Jersey because it will mean a one-stop from Stewart and from the west side of the Hudson all the way into Manhattan.”
Schumer said the proposed rail link would also alleviate traffic, clear the air of hydrocarbons from auto emissions, shorten travel times for existing commuters by 25 percent and attract more air service. “What do airlines look for?” posed Schumer. “I’ve been able and I’ve been very active in persuading Jet Blue and AirTran, Delta and some of the others to come here and use Stewart; that’s why ridership is way up. But what do they want to know? They want to know can we service an area. Now we’re a fast-growing part of the New York area here in the Hudson Valley. Orange County is growing, Dutchess County is growing, Sullivan County is growing, Ulster County is growing. Northern Westchester is even still growing. And Putnam County is growing. But if you have a rail link it’ll mean more choices. And some kid who’s traveling to Europe can put on their backpack, get on a train, come up to Stewart and maybe fly to London one day – provided the dollar goes up one day a little bit so they can afford it.
“Most of all (the rail link) will be an economical shot in the arm right here in Orange County, creating jobs, creating livelihood, creating smart growth.”
A bulked-up Congressman Hall strolled in a tad late, but didn’t miss a beat in expanding on Schumer’s themes, paying particular attention to the economic and environmental angles. “The work enabled by this announcement will make it easier to get here and in turn make this area a more attractive option for employers,” said Hall. “It will also be consistent with Stewart’s visionary goal of negating the carbon footprint by alleviating congestion and tailpipe emissions, which I’m also interested in as a member of the House (Select Committee for) Energy Independence and Global Warming. The fewer traffic jams we have and the less tailpipe emissions from trucks and buses on the Van Wyck, for instance, or even on the Thruway, the more we can reduce the emissions that are damaging the environment and the more we can save the fuel from being consumed unnecessarily.”
Ridership puzzle
The evening before, airport GM Diannae Ehler had surprised a citizens’ advisory committee with the announcement that the Port Authority, which is co-financing the study, had lowered the projection for total passengers at the airport this year from a million to 850,000.
The traffic numbers for the first four months of this year indicated an impressive increase of 83,113 passengers over the number that used the airport in the same period last year. That number seemed to indicate greater rather than lesser urgency. Port Authority spokesperson Pasquale DiFulco said that there was absolutely no indication any of the carriers at Stewart were about to reduce their number of flights. The agency is expecting passenger ridership to decrease the rest of this year as a result of higher air fares, however, he said.
PA’s aviation department’s forecast division based its suspect estimates on current conditions. They are subject to change. Lowering the Stewart number for 2008 to 850,000 “as a result of Skybus ceasing operations,” as Ehler claimed last week, wasn’t the complete picture, it appears. The short-lived Ohio-based Skybus tallied only 19,214 passengers in its short existence at Stewart.
According to data Ehler distributed to an overflow audience at Stewart’s airport administration building last Thursday evening, 375,645 passengers – a new record – have used the airport thus far in 2008. This is well ahead of the record 292,532 passengers who had flown either in or out of the Newburgh facility in the first four months of 2007. Stewart ended 2007 with a passenger count of 913,927.
For Ehler’s full-year prediction to be accurate, an average of almost 60,000 passengers a month would be expected to use Stewart for the remainder of the year. According to Port Authority statistics, Jet Blue by itself has been generating a steady flow of 30,000 passengers per month out of the airport. AirTran has been reporting an average 26,000 Stewart passengers a month. Under the terms of Ehler’s forecast, the remaining airlines – Delta, USAir and Northwest – would collectively contribute 4,000 Stewart passengers per month for the rest of the year, less than any one of them has been reporting up to now.
Ehler’s announcement about ridership clearly had Schumer confused, forcing him to construct a logical detour around the problem. “It’s clear now that we’re going to see great things from Stewart in the coming years,” said the senator. “Ridership overall is up. I know it’s going down a little bit this year; I know that simply because of Skybus. But overall last year Stewart reported 900,000 passengers. And so far in 2008 Stewart has outpaced that growth. It’s had 375,000 from January through April, which is higher, as I said. Skybus may make it go down a little. Skybus’s own service was very successful here, but they had other problems and Stewart is going to keep growing and growing and growing.”
Fast track
When completed, the MTA-PA study will be followed in short order by an environmental impact study (EIS), after which construction could begin as soon as 2009. Saying he is already preparing to get a $6 million earmark in next year’s federal budget for the EIS, Schumer wishfully threw out a target date of 2010 for completion of the rail link. Sander and other officials declined to offer a ballpark figure for what the building of a railroad extension from the Salisbury Mills station north to Stewart – three-and-a-half miles – would cost, not to mention other improvements to the existing Metro-North Port Jervis line to speed up the commute.
Schumer’s aggressive support could make the rail link a high priority for federal transportation dollars. In 2003 the consulting firm Earth Tech Northeast, Inc. a subsidiary of Tyco Corp., had used a range of $197 million to $592 million as the cost of the rail link. The same consultant late last year was selected from a group of applicants to perform the upcoming study by Metro-North, which owns the Port Jervis line and is the lead agency. Earth Tech’s 2003 study, upon which it will build in the upcoming effort, 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.”
Put bluntly, PA, the airport operator, has the capacity to bond large capital projects out of current cash flow. MTA, its impecunious sibling, is dependent on state largesse and federal support – two things that the politicos can deliver. Besides, in the race for federal and state funding, political support ultimately trumps objective need. So it’s likely Schumer’s and Hall’s attention to the Stewart rail link, if sincere, is more significant than how urgent the need for it is.