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(erielack) Newark Airport rail service - Bergen Record

All aboard for the airport 
Monday, April 30, 2001

By DANIEL SFORZA, Staff Writer

Newark International Airport opened in 1928.

You'll be able to take a train there in September.

For the first time, one of the nation's busiest airports will be linked to
state and national rail lines.  Service will be provided from Manhattan in
September and from North Jersey in about a year.  Making such a
transportation network possible is a one-mile airport monorail extension
to a new rail station on Amtrak's and NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor.

"If you were building a new airport, you would bring trains to it," said
James Blackmore, director of the project for the Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.  "The airport was only
accessible by vehicles.  This takes public train transportation and
connects it to the airport."

Only sporadic service from North Jersey through Hoboken will be provided
by NJ Transit to the monorai link this year.  That will change once the
Secaucus Transfer Station opens next spring.  North Jersey travelers will
then avoid the Hoboken station altogether, making a quick transfer in
Secaucus for a 10- to 15-minute ride to the airport.

Passengers on NJ Transit's Main, Bergen, Morris, Essex, Gladstone,
Montclair, Port Jervis, and Pascack Valley lines will be able to ride to
Secaucus and hop a train to the monorail.

With this $415 million project, funded largely by a $3 federal airline
passenger surcharge, Newark will join the ranks of Atlanta, Washington,
D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Boston.  All have rail transportation
to their airports.

Officials are counting on many airline passengers to leave their cars at
home. They forecast 6,300 train trips a day, or 2.1 million a year, to the
airport by 2003.  By 2010, they hope that will climb to 9,100 trips a day
and 3.1 million a year.

But will it be worth it?

A typical car trip from North Jersey to the airport takes anywhere from 20
to 50 minutes, depending on the starting point.  New Jersey Turnpike tolls
to Newark are $1.45 from Exit 18 and parking at the airport is $8 a day in
long-term lots and $24 a day in daily lots, which are within walking
distance of the terminals.

A train trip from North Jersey will take between 50 and 65 minutes,
including transfers in Secaucus, to get to the new airport monorail
station. Then it's another transfer and a seven-minute ride to Terminal C.


Doug Bowen, president of the New Jersey Rail Passengers Association, a
rail advocacy group, said the double transfer will discourage some people
-From trying the service. And, noting construction of two airport parking
decks with 6,600 spaces, Bowen says he believes the train service is not
intended to relieve congestion.  "The Port Authority is still so heavily
weighted toward highways and parking, it's in their best interest to keep
Newark Airport congested," he said, adding that more cars means more
money. "They are not going to undercut their revenue stream. You don't
relieve congestion by building huge parking decks on airport property."

Port Authority spokesman Pasquale DiFulco dismissed Bowen's concerns,
saying not everyone will use the train and the airport must be ready to
handle more cars.  "It's incumbent on the Port Authority to not only
anticipate future growth, but to improve access" in all areas, DiFulco
said.

Making the transfers more difficult will be moving luggage from train to
train. NJ Transit rail cars aren't equipped to handle the vacationing
family and all its bags.  "We are typically not going to see the family of
four going to Disney World for a week," said NJ Transit Executive Director
Jeff Warsh.  "We are going to see the business travelers who will not have
a problem accommodating luggage in overhead racks."  Warsh said if it
becomes necessary to retrofit trains with luggage racks, the agency will
do so.   "We do have the ability to retrofit trains quickly," he said.

The new service will cost NJ Transit $20 million to $30 million a year to
run, Warsh said.  A special fare will be charged for the airport run.  But
that has not been determined, he said, making it difficult to predict
revenue.  "It's going to be an extraordinary improvement in terms of
people's mobility options from points in New Jersey to Newark Airport,"
Warsh said.

Travelers already seem to agree.

"I think I would use it," said Kathleen Morley, a train commuter from
Ho-Ho-Kus.  "If it means not paying for parking, people are certainly
going to do it.  The parking fees at airports are exorbitant."

David Berger, a daily NJ Transit commuter who lives in Glen Rock, thinks
the service will work if it is efficient.  "If it ran frequently and I
could depend on getting there at a certain time, I would probably use it,"
said Berger, who routinely takes a taxi to and from the airport at a cost
of $85.  "I ride mass transit every day.  I take it where I think it's
appropriate.  If the Main Line and all the other lines get there, it would
be a plus."

Others worry about their baggage making it to the plane.

"I think the big test will be if it runs efficiently," said Tom Smith of
Rutherford, who commutes by train to Manhattan. "If you are schlepping a
lot of luggage and they actually get it right, meaning you get to the
monorail and the luggage makes it to the plane when you get to the plane,
then I definitely think it will have an impact on how people travel."

Airport-bound passengers will exit onto one of two, 1,050-foot-long
platforms and enter a climate-controlled station.  Escalators, elevators,
and stairs will take them up to an enclosed concourse, where they can
check their luggage, purchase tickets, and catch the monorail for the
seven to 11-minute ride to one of the airport's three terminals.

The train station is largely enclosed by glass, giving travelers a glimpse
of planes taking off and landing.  Below, Amtrak and NJ Transit trains
will race through.  Electronic message boards will display flight arrival
and departure times.  Monorail trains are expected to pass through the new
station every two minutes, and NJ Transit expects to run four trains from
the Secaucus Transfer Station to the airport every hour.  Baggage will be
checked at the station and travel by conveyor belt to transport trucks,
which will drive the luggage to planes, Blackmore said.

Newark isn't the only airport getting new rail service.

The Port Authority is working to link Kennedy International Airport with a
train.  AirTrain, scheduled to begin in about two years, will let
passengers transfer at the Long Island Rail Road's Jamaica station and the
Howard Beach subway station and ride the rails to Kennedy, bringing the
airport within 40 minutes of New York City's Penn Station.

____

My comments:

Although the story (and most planners) prominently mentions business
travellers, I doubt that they will be seen in the rail station.  The vast
majority of the users will be airport workers, who will have a special
fare arrangement.  There are thousands of them, and they go every day. 
Next on the list will be budget-minded people, including car-less
Manhattan residents, European tourists (who are already used to taking
transit to airports), and college students.  Also among the users will be
transit proponents (hopefully) like myself.

Business travelers, who often have NO luggage - they make a lot of one-day
trips, leaving Newark by 7:30am and returning late at night - will stick
to the limos they currently ride...  When I travel for work, sometimes I
do that; I do ride NJT to Newark and take the current Airlink bus as well.
 It takes SUBSTANTIALLY longer to do that, and it will still take longer
to ride the train from here to Secaucus than the limo ride to the airport
takes.  

For everyone else, the upper concourse is the key to this station.  Once
you leave the train, you go up and check in - and shed your luggage.  The
upper concourse is equivalent to Newark airport's departures level!  Ride
the monorail, go through security, and out to the gate, bypassing the
often-jammed front end of the airport.

=====
Gary R. Kazin
DL&W Milepost R35.7
Rockaway, New Jersey

New Jersey Transit - THE WAY TO GO!!!

(I have no affiliation with New Jersey Transit.)

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