Supporters of the JFK Air-Train - the light rail line that will connect JFK airport terminals to Jamaica Station and NYC subways - breathed a sigh of relief when the Federal Aviation Administration issued its record of decision on August 16 approving the project. The decision rejected an attempt by the airlines to stop funding for the project.

But the FAA's approval of the Port Authority's application to continue to collect the $3 per air ticket "passenger facility charge" (PFC) to fund the project was anything but helpful to intermodal transportation planning.

The FAA authorizes the PFC charge to be used to enhance airport safety, security or capacity (meaning more passenger air trips). But its application to airport access is uneven. The PFC can be used for airport access roads, but mass transit systems must actually be "on" the airport to be eligible for use. (This provision required the PA to obtain the Van Wyck right-of-way to Jamaica Station as part of the "airport" before construction begins; the NYC Council agreed to do that.) And while traffic congestion on the ground is considered a constraint on future airport passenger growth (which the PFC funds may address), the law contains no emphasis on reducing ground traffic by diverting auto and taxi trips to transit, which necessarily would begin off-airport. The Air Transport Association had charged that the FAA illegally considered the Port Authority's application to collect the PFC for the JFK rail system in isolation, rather than as part of a regional rail system that is partly ineligible for PFC funding. The FAA decision at least partly confirmed the airlines' narrow view of the law's purpose and effect.

For instance, the FAA determined that the Port Authority's design of stations and construction components to be compatible with both the subway system and the Long Island RR was "ineligible" for PFC funding. As such, the 3.3 mile $456 million light rail section from the NYCT Howard Beach subway station to JFK central terminal is only partially approved for PFC revenue, and the design cost of integrating NYCT subway cars into the light rail system in the future was prohibited. The component cost to accommodate MTA trains' possible future use of the $94 million terminal loop (e.g., station length, structural strength, controls to accommodate off-airport users, etc.) was disallowed. The 3.1 mile $598 million segment of the light rail connecting Jamaica Station to the JFK segment was also only partly approved for PFC revenue for the same reason; fare collection equipment at Jamaica was also disallowed.

Before PFC expenditures can begin, the FAA is requiring the PA to submit detailed cost and design information, after which the FAA will make a determination of the exact amount of ineligible costs. The PA is then required to amend the amount of the PFC collected. The PA has a viable independent funding to finance the ineligible portions of the Airtrain project, according to the FAA decision. The $3/boarding charge has been collected since 1992 and will amount to $1.6 billion total, of which about $1.2 billion may be used for this project.

Without the light rail, the PA claimed that ground-level traffic congestion would constrain projected air passenger growth at JFK after 2003. The light rail line, as an alternative way to access JFK, will serve about 11% of ground access trips to JFK in the future, and will enable an additional 3.35 million passengers/year between the end of construction and 2013 to use the airport than would otherwise be able to do so. In 2013, the airport will have no room to accommodate additional flights or passengers. The light rail will principally be used by airport employees, not air travelers. The PA has projected that 7.7 million airport users will travel on the light rail from Howard Beach; 6.3 million of these now use buses and vans to access the airport. 2.6 million people will use the light rail from Jamaica.

Explicit in the FAA decision is the fact that the light rail will create a "more efficient vehicular flow at the airport by removing buses, shuttles vans and private autos currently used by air passengers, airport visitors and airport employees at JFK." Implicit is the supposition that the freed-up roadway space will be taken up by new air travelers, in a classic case of induced highway travel demand.

The project still faces some local opposition: Southeast Queens groups have alleged disproportionate construction and operating impacts from the elevated portion of the line, and the lack of service in Queens, in hiring a lawyer to bring a civil rights challenge against the project.

In its initial PFC application, the PA projected that the light rail line would allow a small increase in capacity- 134,000 new air passengers/year and 4 flights/day by 2003 (projections were made in 1996). The ATA attacked the 134,000 new passengers as too small a benefit for a $1.5 billion project, and the figure had caused the FAA to initially re-think the Airtrain in 1996. In 1997, the PA bolstered its application with more information, clarifying that demand for JFK would continue to grow and that the light rail would help accommodate an additional 3.35 million air passengers by 2013.

The prospect of JFK airport reaching capacity in 13 years is similar to that facing many airports around the country. Airlines and freight interests and others are about to convene a national meeting to figure out how the airlines, airports and the FAA itself will do business in the future.