Astoria Leader Demands End To Cuomo's LaGuardia AirTrain Plan

EAST ELMHURST, QUEENS — Three more Queens politicians joined a now-chorus of local leaders advocating against disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo’s LaGuardia Airport AirTrain plan, according to a new report.

State Sen. Michael Gianaris, the deputy majority leader of the Senate who represents western Queens, said that Cuomo pressured transit agencies to approve his logistically and financially misguided project, and Queens State Sens. John Liu and Toby Stavisky agreed that the plan should be reevaluated, the New York Post reported on Sunday.

These local leaders are among a slew of other politicians and transit experts who have long-maligned Cuomo's $2 billion proposal, arguing that the plan — which would link LaGuardia Airport with a 7- and LIRR-train station at Willets Point — would increase travel time and isn't worth the hefty price tag.

While the project aims to connect the airport with public transportation, Gianaris believes that the current plan would have the opposite effect — simply encouraging people to drive to Willet’s Point.

“There’s a value to connecting LaGuardia Airport to the subway system, but it has to make sense. The current AirTrain project is not the best option,” he said, instead pointing to a proposal that would extend the N and W trains to the airport along Astoria Boulevard and the Grand Central Parkway without cutting through residential neighborhoods.

Previously, Gianaris opposed attempts to extend the N train to the airport along 31st Street and 19th Avenue, arguing that the project would disrupt communities in Astoria, which he represents.

Governor Kathy Hochul will depend on the support of Gianaris, the deputy majority leader of the State Senate, and his colleagues, during her upcoming year of governance and re-election campaign — which is shaping up to be a competitive primary.

On Monday she asked the Port Authority to "thoroughly examine" Cuomo's plan and look into alternative proposals.

Port Authority staffers themselves have also expressed concerns about the project, arguing that Cuomo might have exerted "undue influence" in the process of getting his AirTrain proposal federally approved — a concern that was also raised in a recent lawsuit against the project.

Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton, a project proponent who is himself a Cuomo appointee, told reporters during the agency’s monthly board meeting that he would review Cuomo's project if asked to do so by the Governor — but he hasn't publicly responded to her Monday statement.

“We have been as responsive as possible to the concerns of the community,” Cotton said. “We’ll be, as I say, discussing this in whatever detail, providing whatever review Governor Hochul desires.”

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