NYMTC's rules require unanimity for decisions like TIP approval. Thus, all members essentially wield a veto powerover the entire regional project list. But this power has rarely been used, in part because it could lead to a stalemate that could delay the receipt of federal transportation funding in the region. Projects must be part of an approved TIP to receive federal aid.

It is well known that the Giuliani Administration is at odds with non-city agencies over several large projects. These pages have urged that the Administration challenge inclusion in the TIP of the NY State DOT's Long Island Expressway carpool lane highway widening project in Eastern Queens. The Mayor joined a lawsuit last year against the project by Queens officials and civic groups -- an attempt to exclude the L.I.E. project from the TIP would be consistent with that position.

More prominent is the conflict Mayor Giuliani is locked in with the Port Authority over rail transit access to New York City's airports and over the rent the PA pays for airport land. Although the federal funds the PA would use to build the JFK-Jamaica Station light rail line are not the federal highway or transit dollars that would require TIP inclusion, the JFK light rail line has been declared "regionally significant" in air pollution terms and thus must be accounted for there.

That the Giuliani-Port Authority fight has spilled over into NYMTC could be significant in a number of ways. First, it will probably mean a veto and delay of the TIP, since it is highly unlikely that City Hall and the PA will resolve their differences within a week. Delay of the TIP will mean a back-up in the flow of federal transportation funds to projects around the region -- some agencies say they are already near the point where needed resources are drying up.

It may also mean -- if the Mayor is actually aiming for more than just resolution of the airport rail problem -- stalemate over airport accessfor theforeseeable future. The two sides seemed close to an agreement earlier this summer that would have seen a sizable Port Authority contribution to a LaGuardia rail access project and the City's sign-off on the JFK-Jamaica project.

Even then, however, City officials were deriding the JFK-Jamaica project as inadequate, and big outstanding questions about the airport rent caused those talks to collapse. It is likely now that the Mayor will use his veto of the JFK project and the regional TIP as a lever in his campaign to boot the PA out of NYC's airports altogether (the City also filed suit recently in federal court against the PA effort to extend a Newark Airport runway, arguing that the analysis of regional traffic impacts the new air capacity would create was inadequate). In this case, the City's position on NYC airport rail will likely be that a better project, with the Port Authority out of the way, is worth an additional wait.

If no airport access deal is to be struck short of a radical reorganization of the Port Authority, the PA and Governor Pataki may have to cancel or significantly scale back the JFK-Jamaica rail project in order to get the TIP approved. The PA already looks like it will miss the Sept. 30 deadline to start spending the first $100 million of FAA funds for its JFK project. If the project is scrapped, the regional TIP may be further delayed for re-analysis of its air pollution impact.

While Traffic Simmers on the Van Wyck...

Groundbreaking for the new Northeast Corridor train station and Newark Airport monorail extension will take place next month, though work began in May. The projects will provide easy train access from NY Penn Station to Newark Airport terminals as of late 2000.

Projections say that up to 7,000 people per day will reach air terminals by train. The station site will feature two tracks that will enable Amtrak and NJ Transit trains to pull off of the Northeast Corridor to discharge and pick up passengers.

The City of Newark is seeking to extend the monorail slightly beyond the new station to a site where it hopes to build a convention center. That would require change of a rule that restricts funds raised with FAA approval to purposes that only serve airport customers and workers.