In the city's land use review process, the project has already received thumbs up from the Queens Borough President and community boards along the Van Wyck - City Council approval is the project's last local hurdle.

But the City Council last month released a report that at once denounced the AirTrain project as inadequate and recommended its construction. Adding to the confusion, City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, who normally controls Council action, has expressed no opinion about the project and has said that Council members would "vote their conscience" on the project.

NYC and the metro region have debated airport rail access for nearly 30 years. MTR contacted AirTrain debate participants and observers to solicit views on the likely consequences of a City Council "no" vote on the project.

Chris Ward, Port Authority Chief of Planning
There would be no rail access to JFK for the foreseeable future. The region would lose a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use federal funding to solve road problems with rail.

Gene Russianoff, Straphangers Campaign
The Straphangers Campaign shares the desire of opponents of the PA's plan for a one-seat ride to both LaGuardia and JFK airports. But those objecting to the Port's approach have failed to provide a credible and fundable alternative. The Straphangers Campaign fears a vote to kill the Port Authority's proposal will delay any rail airport access for another generation or more.

The JFK light rail line meets several principles essential to a workable project:

• Costs will be kept within realistic projections for revenue raised by the "passenger facility charge."
• The PA says it will keep options open for a future technology compatible with regional rail and subways.
• The JFK light rail will promote connections to existing public transportation. Competing proposals that would bypass central hubs, like Jamaica station, make no sense. On the other hand, the AirTrain presents an opportunity to lift the station at Jamaica out of its presently shabby state. The current cumbersome connection at the Howard Beach subway station is exactly what should be avoided.

City Council Member John Sabini aide Tom McKnight. (Sabini chairs the Land Use Committee's public siting sub-committee)
The question is whether a no vote will be, as the Port Authority claims, the death of any airport link project. The pro-air train advocates argue that if this project doesn't go forward, no project will, and there will be no airport connection at all. Those opposed to the current air-train proposal feel a no vote will result in a better air-train design. The project is coming to the Councilman's sub-committee, and he is waiting for the committee hearing before making any definitive decisions on the project. He understands the concerns and arguments of both sides, and wants to weigh the alternatives after the hearing.

George Haikalis, Committee for Better Transit
The costly and disruptive Van Wyck "el" portion of the PA's AirTrain would not be built. The PA would complete the on-airport segments of its AirTrain project ? the loop around the terminals and the Howard Beach spur. The PA projects that of the 7,000 daily Van Wyck el riders, 2,500 would shift to the Howard Beach spur. NYC Transit would improve A-train express service. The PA would drop its mean-spirited plan to charge air passengers $5 and employees $2 at the AirTrain-Howard Beach A-train transfer.

$598 million in passenger facility charge (PFC) funds saved by the demise of the Van Wyck el could ultimately be used for airport noise control and possibly LaGuardia rail access.

MTA will complete its under-wraps study of one-seat ride train service from Manhattan to JFK by August 1. Among the options MTA is studying is restoration of the disused LIRR Rockaway cut-off. This option is strongly favored by the Queens Borough President and the Mayor. Once the Van Wyck el is dead, the Mayor could strongly advance the Rockaway option. It can be built using the $300 million in regular PA funds now being used for on-airport AirTrain construction. The latter project would continue with PFC funding.

The MTA JFK access study would be opened to community input and coordinated with the LaGuardia access study. A special effort would be needed to increase East River tunnel capacity to allow one-seat airport trains to reach Manhattan during peak periods. This could be done according to Committee for Better Transit's proposal to streamline LIRR access to Grand Central Terminal, a concept the MTA is reviewing.

Jeffrey Zupan, Regional Plan Association
The Council should support the AirTrain. It offers not only a good two-seat solution in the short-term but also the potential for a one-seat alternative in the future. AirTrain creates this one-seat potential because it has been designed to be compatible with either a rapid transit or commuter rail, either of which could operate onto the airport, and because it is located so that it can be physically connected to either the subway or the railroad.

Like the Newark Airport project that is now under construction, AirTrain will connect air passengers and employees to a commuter rail station with frequent service into Manhattan at Penn Station and, after 2010, to Grand Central Terminal. The connection at the LIRR Jamaica Center station, with the station improvements that will be done for AirTrain, will be an easy one, requiring only an escalator ride and a short walk. AirTrain will also connect to three subway lines and serve Jamaica Center, one of the preeminent centers of commercial activity in Queens. AirTrain will also serve many Long Islanders who would ride the LIRR to Jamaica and transfer to the airport link. With these excellent connections, AirTrain will take 7,000 auto users off the road each day.

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• The City Council public siting subcommittee will hear the Port Authority's land use application in the City Council Committee Room Tuesday, June 1 11:00 a.m.
• The full Land Use Committee will take up items reported out of subcommittees on 6/1 at its Wednesday, June 2 meeting - Council Chambers at 10:00 a.m.