(The following article by Pete Donohue was posted on the Daily News website on January 18.)
NEW YORK — AirTrain is taking off.
During the first month of the new rail link to Kennedy Airport, the Port Authority system averaged 15,000 to 20,000 daily riders, according to the PA.
That puts it on track to reach the PA’s stated goal of a daily ridership of 34,000 in AirTrain’s first year, spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said.
“People were saying no one would use it and we have demonstrated that is simply not true,” DiFulco said. “It’s a new system and the more people become aware of it, the more they will avail themselves of it.”
The approximately 8-mile light-rail network runs from the Long Island Rail Road’s Jamaica Station, which also has subway connections, to the airport. At Kennedy it connects to terminals, parking lots and the rental-car area at Federal Circle.
A spur also runs to the A-train subway station in Howard Beach.
The cost is $5 per trip and riders now must use pay-per-ride MetroCards. Authorities are working on making it possible for travelers to use unlimited-ride MetroCards, the PA said.
“It’s a success story, so far,” said Tom Wright, executive vice president of the Regional Plan Association.
Ridership could get a boost when taxicab fares go up, which is expected to happen in the coming months. The current flat-rate cab fare from Kennedy to Manhattan is $35, but fleet owners want it increased to $49.
A Bloomberg administration source said City Hall wants to boost cabbies’ income, but also to encourage use of mass transit.
“Maybe a portion of the population will say it’s too expensive to take a cab from Kennedy and will take the AirTrain,” the source said.
Launched on Dec. 18, the rail link was designed to make the airport, an economic hub for the city, easier to reach than fighting traffic on the notoriously jammed Van Wyck Expressway and other often-clogged arteries.