The new airport lease deal between the Port Authority and New York City includes provisions that direct the Port Authority to study a direct rail link between lower Manhattan and both JFK and Newark airports. The Daily News reported that the Port Authority would spend up to $90 million investigating the links, and $500 million in construction funds would be available for each link.

It’s unclear that such large-scale funding would come from the Port Authority’s current capital program, which has been reported to be strained by a variety of costs associated with the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

As part of a deal struck over the Port Authority’s toll and PATH fare hikes in 2001, New York and New Jersey each received a one-time cash fund of $250 million for projects of choice. New Jersey quickly allocated the money to buy double-deck NJ Transit cars. Earlier this year, NY had not identified a use for its portion. A Port Authority official told the Campaign he did not think the new airport lease deal had directed this $250 million toward the airport transit projects.

A downtown-Newark link would presumably involve an extension of the PATH train to the airport. That would be a far more modest undertaking than the new East River rail tunnel to bring LIRR trains into lower Manhattan that Mayor Bloomberg and others support as a JFK link. The MTA and transit advocates oppose this tunnel plan as an unwelcome addition to a transit expansion menu with many huge project and not enough money. The News mentioned that Governor McGreevey has concerns about the rail funding provisions. 

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