Is JFK direct? Looks like you have to connect in Queens. Last time I flew JFK was in early 2000s and they didn't have this yet. I've only flown into LaGuardia since then and there's nothing there that I know of.
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Yes, it was supposed to be part of a larger system that was never built. DPM itself was never meant to be the entire system. I don't think the M1 rail is the best design they could've come up with but it will also be a far cry from the DPM. The most obvious difference between the DPM and M1 will be that M1 Rail will travel in two directions instead of just going one way. Below is a quote from a good article that the LA Times wrote on the DPM back in 1985.
The DPM was actually a project created by SEMTA, the predecessor to SMART. It was turned over [[abandoned?) to the city after they failed to get funding from the Feds to build the corresponding light rail system:
Quote:
The real key to the project was a plan to link up with a proposed light rail system that would drop suburban commuters off downtown; the commuters could then board the People Mover and ride it to stops near their offices. Local planners hoped the ease of rail commuting would once again attract businesses and professional workers downtown, after so many had deserted the city in the wake of Detroit's bloody 1967 riots.
Since then, however, Detroit has lost about a third of its population, the downtown area has lost its last big department store and many suburbanites still shun the central city. Meanwhile, federal funding for the giant light rail project never materialized, so plans for a "feeder" rail system providing riders for the People Mover have been scrapped.
Left with a dwindling population base and no light rail system with which to connect, the People Mover lost its original function. The planners went ahead anyway, because a construction contract had already been awarded and the federal funds, which by law could not be used locally for other purposes, had been approved.
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-12-...t-people-mover
You have to connect using the AirTrain, which links directly to the subway system and the Long Island Railroad via Jamaica station. Newark also has an Airtrain that connects directly to the NJ Transit commuter rail line.
LGA will probably never have a direct rail connection until the country re-prioritizes how it funds transportation projects. No current subway line goes close enough to the airport to make an AirTrain practical. The best bet would be to extend the N/Q subway line across north Queens to the airport, but that ranks very low priority right now. It's taken sixty years for them to get funding on the Second Avenue subway, and that line is running parallel to the busiest subway line in the country.
JFK requires a connection at Howard Beach or Archer Avenue. I'd rather hire a Town Car. The AirTrain at Newark only goes to Penn Station and it's a $12 one way ticket. LaGuardia isn't rail-connected. When I lived in Brooklyn, I always flew in and out of Newark - took the R to WTC and the shuttle bus to the airport. I hated JFK and LaGuardia.
Did the commuter trains run by SEMTA ever factor into the DPM plans?
Ok, but nothing here contradicts the initial point, which is that the two major NYC airports have direct rail connections. JFK obviously its own station called Howard Beach/JFK, and Newark has its own station called Newark Liberty. And not getting how it's a problem that "Newark only goes to Penn Station". Penn is, by far, the main transit hub in Manhattan.