New York To Study Extending 7 Line To Secaucus

After Gov. Chris Christie killed the ARC tunnel project and riled the likes of Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, one of the alternative proposals was that the MTA should extend the 7 line to Secaucus.

Well, the MTA and New York City are going to conduct a study whether it makes sense to do so.

The city hired engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff this week to analyze how many riders the line could serve, how they would connect to the NJTransit train hub in Secaucus and - most importantly - how much it would cost.

Their study is due in three months, which Deputy Mayor Robert Steel said will help show government and transportation agencies in the region whether to go forward.

"All of [them] are focused on trying to understand, is this a good alternative?" Steel said. "It's a matter of months, not years."

Other officials in New York and New Jersey are looking at the idea, but haven't put up any cash to make it happen.

It could give New Jersey residents their first direct train line to Grand Central Terminal, as well as to see the Mets or the U.S. Open in Queens.

"City Hall really does want to explore it," said one person involved in the multiagency talks.

"They have an incredibly reluctant MTA partner, and an incredibly wary New Jersey state government," the source cautioned. "[MTA Chairman] Jay Walder doesn't have enough money to finish what they're already doing."

The city is paying $2.1 billion to extend the 7 train to 34th St. and 11th Ave., where it will serve a massive office and housing development planned for the West Side rail yards.

Schumer, along with New Jersey's Sen. Lautenberg have been hypercritical of Christie's shutdown of the ARC tunnel over expected cost overruns that would likely leave New Jersey on the hook for an excess of $1 billion (some estimates put it as high as $5 billion).

Schumer and Lautenberg were unable to find additional funding to cover potential overruns, and the federal DOT could only provide additional loans to cover potential overruns. All they could do was snipe at Christie looking at the state's financial health and seeing that the state could not afford to cover cost overruns that were beyond its control. No one else was willing to step in to cover the overruns, which should be a warning sign that Christie was right to reconsider the project since if the costs could be contained, it should have been easy to convince other entities (the federal government, or New York) to cover potential cost overruns directly.

It's inexcusable on their part to not find the funding or ways to enable New York to pony up the overruns. New York state finances are in shambles as I've repeatedly warned and argued, but a new rail connection was critical to reducing congestion and improving service along the Northeast Corridor. Further, the new tunnels could support additional traffic that could be generated by a link to Stewart Airport in Newburgh. The Port Authority bought the airport in an attempt to reduce congestion at the other area airports but hasn't found a way to integrate it into the long term airport strategy. It needs a high speed rail link to make that a credible option, but no one has the money to make it happen.

That's where the federal stimulus funds should have come into play - using the federal government's funding to build major infrastructure that would help bring relief to the millions of commuters and travelers who rely on an aged and decrepit system.

The 7 line extension would be less costly than the ARC tunnel project, and would bring a more direct routing for commuters looking to get to the East Side of Manhattan and the rest of the City and it's an option worth seriously considering, even if a portion of the ill-conceived Xanadu looks like it will collapse under the strain of the latest snowstorm.

Moreover, the 7 line extension would likely be able to use much of the real estate procured for the ARC tunnel and the engineering expenditures and other work on the tunnel before it was cancelled. That will further reduce the New Jersey tab that it would owe to the federal government for canceling the project.

More Details Emerge On Thwarted NYC Terror Plot

While more details continue to trickle out about the thwarted NYC metro area terror plot, which included attempted bombings of two synagogues in the Bronx and steps taken to acquire surface to air missiles to hit military aircraft flying out of the Air National Guard base at Stewart Airport, Jammie notes that there are idiots who are trying to claim that this is just another setup.

These are many of the same people who want to believe that the Fort Dix Six weren't planning terrorist attacks against the military personnel at Fort Dix (5 of 6 were convicted and will spend life or life plus 30 years in prison; the sixth served 20 months on charges stemming from providing weapons to illegal aliens). They're quick to jump on the FBI for investigating and carrying out survelliance to thwart terrorists from carrying out their plans.

In this case, these four terrorist suspects were trying to actively bomb the synagogues. They obtained what they believed was C4 to bomb the synagogues and an anti-aircraft missile. Since the person providing the weapons and explosives was an informant posing as a Pakistani militant, the FBI swapped the real explosives for inert replicas. The intent was there, and these four were stopped only because of the FBI's actions.

The suspects - three U.S.-born citizens and one Haitian immigrant - at least three of whom were said to be jailhouse converts to Islam, were angry about the deaths of Muslims in Afghanistan, sources told The News.

"They wanted to make a statement," a law enforcement source said. "They were filled with rage and wanted to take it out on what they considered the source of all problems in America - the Jews."

The group's alleged ringleader, James Cromitie, according to the complaint, discussed targets with an undercover agent. "The best target [the World Trade Center] was hit already," he allegedly told the agent. Later, he rejoiced in a terrorist attack on a synagogue.

"I hate those motherf-----s, those f---ing Jewish bastards. . . . I would like to get [destroy] a synagogue."

The men allegedly parked car bombs wired to cell phones outside the Riverdale Temple and nearby Riverdale Jewish Center. They were also heading to Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, Orange County, when the law swooped in on them.

Read more: "FBI arrest four in alleged plot to bomb Bronx synagogues, shoot down plane" - http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/05/20/2009-05-20_fbi_arrest_four_in_alleged_plot_to_car_bomb_bronx_synagogue.html#ixzz0G9EKkDO1&A

New York area papers and media reports are clearly indicating that these were terrorists on jihad - that they sought to attack National Guard aircraft because they support the US mission in Afghanistan, and they wanted to target Jews living in the Bronx. Ray Kelly, commissioner of the NYPD says that the two synagogues targeted appear to have been selected because of their proximity to local highways for speedy access upstate to Newburgh where the four terrorist suspects lived. Stewart Airport is a short drive from Newburgh.

UPDATE:
Jules Crittenden links. Thanks!

Keep in mind that the same kind of complaints about entrapment were made about the Lackawanna Six and other terror plots disrupted around the nation both before and since 9/11. That they were disrupted should be applauded, but these people feel compelled to attack the FBI and local law enforcement for being proactive and doing their utmost to infiltrate and thwart these terror attacks. Imagine what would have happened had the NYPD and FBI thwarted the first WTC bombing or even the 9/11 attacks. That's the point of infiltrating the terror cells hellbent on carrying out mass casualty attacks - it's to prevent the kind of carnage seen on 9/11 and repeated elsewhere around the world in a series of mass casualty attacks.

UPDATE:
Sister Toldjah is following the situation and mentions a thwarted plot in Miami that resulted in convictions.

UPDATE:
The leader of the mosque that these four attended (and one of whose other members informed the FBI as to the intentions of the foursome) noted that he had to repeatedly correct one of the suspected terrorists on Islamic law.

Hamin Rashada told the Times Herald-Record of Middletown today that 21-year-old Laguerre Payen told him he was a Muslim. Rashada says Payen occasionally attended a Newburgh mosque where his statements on Islam often had to be corrected.

Rashada, an assistant imam at the mosque, says he met Payen through a program that helps parolees reintegrate after being released from prison.

Rashada says Payen lived in Middletown and Newburgh, where he stayed in a rooming house. State police and FBI searched his room for several hours last night and early this morning.

Video of the imam speaking about the arrests can be found here.

Rashada is a member of the Board of the Islamic Learning Center of Orange County/Masjid Alikhlas.

UPDATE:
No bail for three of the terror suspects. A fourth suspect is expected to be arraigned this afternoon.

The shackled suspects - James Cromitie, 55; James Williams, 28; and Onta Williams, 32 - were led into the courtroom in White Plains federal court wearing the same clothes they were wearing when they were arrested late Wednesday.

Snyder branded David Williams as the worst of the bad-news bunch of wannabe terrorists.

"[He was] bragging, boasting he would shoot anyone who tried to stop them," Snyder said.

The three suspects did not ask for bail and a judge ordered them detained until a hearing on June 6.

The fourth suspect, Haitian immigrant Laguerre Payen, was expected to be arraigned Thursday afternoon.

There were additional details about the takedown provided as well. They include that the suspects cased the two synagogues before attacking them with cars laden with 34 pounds of what they believed was C4. The NYPD cordoned off both ends of the block with 18-wheelers and swarmed in with their counter-terrorist police unit.

Some people want to think that the NYPD was some podunk police force and that the take-down should have been handled by the FBI, but in this case, the NYPD has more manpower and capabilities than the FBI.

After all, the NYPD has nearly 40,000 police officers with hundreds assigned to counterterrorism duties, while the FBI has just over 30,000 spread out across the nation.

Studying Stewart Airport Rail Link

The New York Sun reports that the MTA is looking to study a rail link that would tie Stewart International Airport to the Port Jervis Line and Manhattan.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is studying a one-seat, 75-minute train ride to Stewart International Airport in Orange County, N.Y., from Pennsylvania Station that could help divert more passengers from the three overcrowded regional airports, stimulate the region's economic growth, and increase real estate values upstate.

Transit officials say a three-mile spur off the Port Jervis line on Metro-North Railroad, which could cost more than $600 million to construct, could be an efficient way to attract passengers and airlines to the underutilized upstate airport, where the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is expected to take control of operations in October.

The airport now is accessible only by country roads, and driving to the airport from Manhattan takes about an hour and a half without traffic. The former military base, located about 60 miles north of Manhattan, accommodated 300,000 passengers last year; transit officials estimate that its infrastructure could be expanded to process up to 10 million passengers annually.

With the city's air routes as congested as its streets, business leaders say making Stewart International Airport accessible to New Yorkers is crucial if the city is to remain a financial and business capital. "Stewart Airport is the obvious solution, but only if it is serviced by fast rail into the city," the executive director and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, Kathryn Wylde, said. The rail link "will pay for itself, in terms of the economic growth it will enable in the region."

This is a proposal that I've suggested on this page in the past. However, I find it quite curious how and why the cost per mile of construction is more than ten times higher than the cost to build in Japan or France - and that's construction costs for high speed lines, although it is significantly cheaper than the cost to build the AirTrain connection between the LIRR and JFK Airport.

A three mile spur line from Port Jervis should cost considerably less than $200 million per mile, so I'm interested in knowing why the costs are estimated the way they are.

Proposals along these lines from 1994 can be found on the MTA website. Indeed, that study says that the Stewart Airport link should cost about $200 million, which is still high ($66.6 million per mile). The MTA is soliciting bids on a new study. No doubt that they'll find the same options and the costs will be considerably higher.

I expect that if this does come to pass, the costs of construction will be borne by those flying in and out of the airport via a fee - perhaps $5 per one-way ticket.

Media Could Simply Recycle Airline Delay Stories

I warned just yesterday that media outlets would start running a whole bunch of stories about how airline delays are up. I was right. See Bloomberg, Time, New York Times, IHT, USA Today, MSNBC, etc.

Yet, all of these stories could just as easily have been written in 2000 and 2001, before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, just like this one. The FAA claimed to have taken steps to alleviate delays going into the summer of 2001, after having the worst delays in history the year before. What was suggested at that time? Building new runways:

But earlier Thursday, Garvey told a House panel that runway construction is crucial for reducing delays in the longer term.

While technology can boost airport capacity up to 10 percent, new runways can improve it up to 40 percent.

She said the FAA is streamlining the environmental process for approval of new runways.

Well, this report in May of 2001 noted the problems.

If congressional shortcut efforts are successful, 39 runways at 25 airports
could be added across the country in the next 10 to 15 years at a cost of
$6.5 billion, aviation experts predict.

At least 18 new runways are planned to be operational by 2010.

Even so, the expansions would hardly be enough to keep up with expected air
travel demand. Today, 13 major U.S. airports are strained to overcapacity,
and by 2006, 32 of the nation's top 50 airports will be so too.

So, how many were actually built between 2000 and 2006? Anyone? Bueller?

It would appear to be a grand total of 15 runways (assuming all listed were completed in the time frame).

That barely keeps pace with the demand from 2000, let alone growth going forward.

The 9/11 attacks gave the travel industry and government a few extra years before the problems would once again resume their upward move beyond the existing capacity.

As this site notes, "..there are thousands of airports in the United States, yet more than 70% of commercial traffic is concentrated in 27 hub airports. These airports have added a total of four new runways since 1995."

You aren't going to reduce traffic and congestion at the airports unless new capacity is built into the system or alternatives are built to relieve that congestion.

Why has the situation returned to the pre-9/11 levels? Simple. People are traveling and the prices for air travel are still extremely reasonable and no new capacity has been added to airports or the routes that are causing problems and infrastructure has not been upgraded to handle higher capacities.

For example, there are no new runways at JFK, LGA, or EWR in the New York City metro area. The situation in New York City airspace is extremely crowded as the three area airports share the airspace and incursions are a disaster waiting to happen. Spacing aircraft out further means fewer planes in a given patch of the sky, and less planes in the air means less flights going where they have to go. It doesn't matter how many flights are scheduled.

Airlines may factor in waiting times into their flight schedules, but even those waiting times are still exceeded because of the ripple effect. Say a flight from Boston gets into New York 15 minutes late. That means that the turnaround runs late and the slot for that plane to fly out to Chicago gets bumped. The delays pile up and spread through the system. A problem in New York could have a ripple effect for days after the situation appeared to clear.

A passenger bill of rights pushed by Congress will do absolutely nothing to improve the number of planes that takeoff or land. It might help those planes delayed more than three hours. Duty rules limit the number of hours that pilots can be in the air. It also does nothing to deal with flight delays due to weather.

The outdated air traffic control system also plays a big part of the problem, and Congress is not even bothering to address that.

The fixes that need to be addressed:
1) new airports to relieve congestion at existing airports;
2) new runways at airports where there is room to expand and it makes sense to be incorporated into regional transportation systems;
3) fund high speed rail for the Boston to Washington, DC corridor, the San Francisco to San Diego corridor, and the New York to Chicago routes;
4) implement new air traffic control system that allows safer routings of planes in close proximity to each other;
5) identify bottlenecks in the existing system and begin working to reduce them until the long term solutions can be put in place.

In the New York metro area, this means making Stewart Airport a major part of the solution. That means building a link between the airport and Midtown Manhattan that enables high speed transfers. It would have the immediate impact of reducing congestion at LGA and JFK because they simply do not have capacity.

Similarly, the high speed rail links would provide city center to city center transit options that are comparable in time to airline flights for those cities. The US is severely limited in its rail options. Acela service on Amtrak has been limited due to top speed limitation and infrastructure limitations. Money must be spent to improve the infrastructure, enabling the trains to travel faster between NYC and Washington. Dedicated high speed rail lines should be considered, though the costs will be exorbitant, especially in the Northeast corridor.

So, who is to blame for the situation? Well, airlines continue to plan flights during peak areas knowing full well that there are simply not enough slots for take off, causing unnecessary delays. State and local governments plus NIMBY means opposition to airport expansion projects around the country. Congress and the Administration have decided to take the path of least resistance - sound and fury signifying nothing. There has been no leadership on the subject, and air travel and the transportation system are integral to long term economic growth. Neglecting the transportation system will have significant consequences going forward.

Solving the Air Traffic Crunch in NYC Metro Area

Much has been made of the air traffic woes in the New York City Metro region. Congestion at the three area airports, Newark Liberty, JFK, and LaGuardia, is often the worst in the country and causes problems for the entire system if there are delays there as the problems cascade throughout the air traffic system.

This is an untenable situation. The Port Authority is going to be studying the problem to see what else can be done.

I've got a few thoughts on the matter and the solution can be found 55 miles north of New York City:


That's Newburgh's Stewart International Airport. It's currently underutilized and is close enough to the NYC Metro area that it could serve as a fourth major airport. The Port Authority thought as much when it decided to purchase the airport and incorporate it into the system. The airport is 55 miles north of New York City and is adjacent to two major Interstate highways - I87 (NYS Thruway) and I84. Rail service is nearby as well.

To expedite matters and improve the situation at the other airports, there are a couple possibilities that will likely need to be implemented over the course of several years. One option would be to shift all cargo flights to Stewart and improve intermodal access to Stewart. This would not only free up ground operations at the airports, but reduce flights in and out of the other airports that could be used by passenger airlines.

The other, more costly option, would be to vastly expand passenger service at Stewart and create a sister airport system. Link Newark Liberty and Stewart to each other with a high speed rail system that has a link to Midtown. Do the same with JFK and LaGuardia using the AirTrain system.

For the Stewart-Newark train to work, it would require expanding and upgrading the right of way. High speed service costs roughly $40 million per mile in Japan or $20 million in France to build, and even if the costs are higher here in the US, the savings in improved air traffic would offset the initial expense.

A high speed link would cut the time between the City and the airport significantly, and offer an alternative airport to those living in Westchester, Rockland, and Northern New Jersey. The high speed link could operate along much of the present Bergen/Main line of New Jersey transit in New Jersey and the Port Jervis line in New York. A line could be built in conjunction with the rebuilding of the Tappan Zee Bridge such that direct service to the airport would be possible from Midtown via the Hudson River line that is shared with Amtrak.

At the same time, the AirTrain, which runs between the LIRR station in Jamaica and JFK airport should be extended to run through to LaGuardia airport. Such service would reduce congestion along the Van Wyck Expressway and allow passengers and airlines to better manaage their flights to both airports.

The construction of both links would not be cheap, but the alternatives are already costly - billions in losses due to delays, congestion, and pollution from emissions due to traffic and congestion.

In the interim, the Port Authority is trying to reduce congestion on the ground as well. They've created a new parking lot at JFK to enable cars awaiting to pick up passengers to wait without having to circle the airport.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey wants to put an end to that cat-and-mouse game. Last Friday, it opened a new parking lot at Kennedy International Airport where drivers can wait free until they get a call to come pick up their passengers.

Cellphone parking lots, as they are known, are not original to New York: Airports in Seattle, San Diego and Chicago already have them. But given the volume of traffic at Kennedy during the peak summer months, and New York’s notoriously aggressive drivers, the waiting area could alleviate one of the airport’s biggest bottlenecks.

“Air travel can be a trying experience,” said Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority, which owns and runs Kennedy, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia airports. “The countless hours circling, not to mention with the price of fuel these days, it could wind up costing you a lot of time and money in wasted gas. And it’s not very eco-friendly either.”

The Port Authority has no plans to open similar lots at Newark and LaGuardia because there is no available space at those airports.

If my suggestions are put into action, the other airports would have space freed up that could be put to such use. Other improvements to be implemented by the Port Authority in the short term include:

Some of the improvements, which cost $34 million, were funded in the authority's 2007 budget, which was approved in December.

They include hiring 200 more airport employees tasked with answering passengers' questions; 5,000 more seats inside terminals at Newark Liberty International Airport and La Guardia; more flight information monitors; valet parking at John F. Kennedy International Airport; and a free lot for motorists waiting to pick up arriving passengers at JFK.

Port Authority Signs Deal on Stewart Airport

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has signed a deal assuming the 97 year lease on Stewart Airport, located 60 miles North of New York City. The long term goal is to shift air travel resources in the NY metro area so that Stewart assumes a far larger role.

Stewart Airport is physically larger than Newark Airport and is in a separate parcel of airspace than the three NYC metro area airports - LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark-Liberty. All three of those airports are constrained by FAA flight limits and limited capacity to expand. The Port Authority is hoping to increase usage at Stewart from a current level of 300,000 to more than 3 million by 2015.

"This project represents an opportunity to alleviate congestion at Teterboro and Newark, and help the region continue to grow," Chairman Anthony R. Coscia said Wednesday.

There are hurdles to clear, not the least of which is persuading Teterboro's denizens to land 60 miles to the north. Even Coscia acknowledged that would be difficult.

"It is not the solution, but part of it," he said. "Our agency would love to see greater use of Stewart and less use of Teterboro. As a policy, that is the direction we are headed in."

Independent aviation experts said Stewart is probably too far from Manhattan to be a good substitute for Teterboro.

"The natural question is: Why aren't they going today?" said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition. "There would have to be some awfully strong inducements in order to effect that in a large way."

But some commercial passengers might pick Stewart instead of Newark, Mitchell said. Newark had the nation's worst rating among major airports for on-time arrival in 2006, a position that Coscia blamed on the region's crowded airspace.

The three major airports handled about 103 million passengers in 2006, and the airspace is likely to run out of room for more flights by 2015, Coscia said.

Stewart's flights would operate in a different airspace than flights at Newark, La Guardia, and John F. Kennedy International airports.

Stewart recently added JetBlue and AirTran Airways, but it remains dominated by general aviation. The airport needs more frequent commercial service to become a major airport, PA officials said.

What would make Stewart more attractive to consumers is a fast link to Midtown Manhattan. Extending the Port Jervis line to Stewart might be one possibility, as could a potential rail/car bridge replacement for the Tappan Zee bridge over the Hudson River enabling connections between Stewart Airport, hubs in Orange, Rockland, Westchester, Bronx, and the Manhattan terminus.

Seeing as the plans for Stewart are long term, combining the transit links and the expanded use of Stewart as a fourth major airport for the region makes sense and would complement other plans - including Access to the Region's Core.

The New York metro region is extremely crowded and since we have the opportunity to essentially open an airport in the area without going through the expense of having to buy thousands of acres of land, build the airport infrastructure from scratch, and can concentrate on airport links to the rest of the region makes this a no brainer.

If you live in Northern Bergen, you might be more tempted to fly out of Stewart than battle traffic heading to Newark or the other NYC airports. Bergen County residents would also benefit if they knew that they could get low cost flights out of Stewart and know that their flights would have a better chance of departing and arriving on schedule. That is far more difficult to accomplish at the other New York area airports as the number of departures now exceeds the pre-9/11 levels and delays are on the rise. JetBlue and ATA are expected to take advantage of this situation. This would also benefit the Hudson Valley and Newburgh, which should see an increase in business relating to the airport development.

On the downside, expect to see more traffic on the Thruway and nearby roads unless rail links and other transit options are put in place. That's why dealing with the traffic situation must be done in conjunction with the airport development. This is a long term project that will help the local economy immensely.