In July, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Port Authority, Mayor Giuliani, Governor Pataki and Queens Borough President Shulman signed a Memorandum of Agreement to improve airport access to LaGuardia airport. The state has agreed to spend $100 million on the project.

The MTA and PA outlined four possible routes of extending the N subway line to La Guardia Airport at a public meeting last week. Two proposals extend from the N at its last station, the elevated Astoria Ditmars Avenue station. One route would run under Ditmars Avenue to the airport and the other above ground along 31^st Street and turn east on 19^th Avenue. A third proposal would break from the N at approximately the Astoria Boulevard Station and be placed along the Grand Central Parkway to the airport. The final route would run from Queensboro Plaza through the Sunnyside Yard, along the Amtrak line and then through St. Michaels Cemetery to the Grand Central Parkway.

MTA favors using the N line because its unused third track would allow the La Guardia service to bypass many stops - essentially providing an express service like the 2, 5 or A in Manhattan. (The third track is not currently used to provide customers with service although trains are stored on the track for additional rush-hour capacity.) The N also makes stops in both the midtown and Wall Street central business districts. The MTA and PA believe that the passengers most likely to take the service are business travelers who do not carry a lot of luggage. The agencies have not yet developed ridership projections for the service.

Several additional routes were suggested by those who attended the meeting including use of either the Port Washington branch of the Long Island Railroad or the E, F, G, R, 7 subway lines which meet at Roosevelt Avenue. Although almost everyone who spoke at the meeting supported a one-seat-ride to the airport, some expressed specific concerns about routes that passed near their homes.

The MTA will hold a scoping meeting for an environmental impact statement in the next few months and hopes to produce a draft EIS by December 15 with a final EIS in March of 2000. A comprehensive funding proposal will be developed by the end of the year.