News reports say the Port Authority's intention to lease the World Trade Center to a private operator could bring the bi-state agency an extra $200 million a year. Honing the PA's mission to a more exclusive focus on transportation is a worthy goal.

Governor Pataki said a lease deal would bring a stable source of revenue to the PA "to support important transportation projects." At a meeting Thursday, reporters asked Port Authority board members what projects they had in mind, but the board kept its counsel.

Positive efforts the Port Authority could undertake include contributing to the next MTA capital plan (as it did in 1981-85), which will need to find new sources of revenue after 1999, funding rail freight improvements, including cross-harbor rail float barges and a new rail tunnel, rail access to LaGuardia Airport and cross-Hudson transit capacity improvements.

A poor choice for the Port Authority would be revival of its proposal to build a new highway span alongside the Staten Island-New Jersey Goethals Bridge. Citizens and officials in S.I. and the Elizabeth area have already made it clear that they will fight the project, and the region's need for more rail freight - not expanded truck routes - is far more pressing.