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Tam Metin
The AirTrain is finally here, even if it's not quite all there.
The first direct rail service to a New York airport, which opens Wednesday, has Gov. George Pataki glowing and the Port Authority patting itself on the back.
Kennedy Airport travelers, meanwhile, are considering the promise of a viable alternative to traffic-clogged trips along the Belt Parkway and Van Wyck Expressway.
But one word deflates the good news: Transfer.
The AirTrain doesn't provide a direct ride from Manhattan to Kennedy terminals. A switch is required at either Howard Beach or Jamaica, where customers arrive by the subway or the Long Island Rail Road.
That has many thinking the first AirTrain is not the last word on getting to the airport. "If they can have one train to JFK from Penn Station, that would be wonderful," said Ockert Du Plooy, exiting the Howard Beach subway station before boarding a bus to Kennedy for a flight to his native South Africa.
The Port Authority, which runs the region's three major airports, doesn't dispute that the ballyhooed project is not as convenient as it could be. And at Pataki's behest, planners are studying the possibility of a link from lower Manhattan directly to Kennedy. "We needed to get this first piece in place," Port Authority spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said. "There's no reason why we should have held up this project just because it couldn't be the one-seat ride initially."
The AirTrain project has not been without problems. At $1.9 billion, the project cost $400 million more than anticipated. Funding came from $3 surcharges on departing air passengers and Port Authority coffers.
A September 2002 test-drive ended in a fatality, when driver Kelvin DeBourgh, 23, derailed on the outskirts of Kennedy. A National Transportation Safety Board report concluded that as a result of poor training and a lack of communication, DeBourgh had rounded a curve too quickly; he was traveling about 55 mph on a stretch designed to handle a speed no faster than 25 mph. When the AirTrain begins operating, it will be automated.
Previous plans for rail...