The effort to replace Newark Liberty International Airport’s cantankerous 26-year-old monorail with a modern, more reliable AirTrain got a big boost from the Federal Aviation Administration, which green-lighted the plan.
Specifically, the FAA’s verdict determined the potential $2 billion project had no significant effect on the environment after reviewing an environmental assessment and rendering a decision on Aug. 13.
It also gives the Port Authority, which runs the three major metro area airports, approval to apply for federal Airport Improvement Program funding. It also allows for money gathered from the facilities charges that passengers pay to help fund the AirTrain.
The authority received 13 comments during public comment period between Feb. 11 to March 12, 2021 on the plan. The most critical comments questioned if a 2,200- foot walk between the proposed Station 3 to Terminal B would deter people from using the AirTrain, even if proposed moving sidewalks were installed.
“This plan is especially unfair to the elderly and the disabled, but anyone with bags will hesitate to use this new AirTrain given the long walk to Terminals B and C,” wrote one commentor, Brad Rusoff, in an email.
He also said the the current $10.75 combined AirTrain/NJ Transit fare from Newark Penn Station to the airport makes using a for hire vehicle more attractive.
“Add in the long walk to from the proposed AirTrain to the terminals and skipping the AirTrain will be a no brainer,” Rusoff said.
He and several other commenters suggested extending the AirTrain to Newark Penn Station instead. Others suggested expanding an existing plan to extend PATH between Newark Penn Station and Newark airport by having PATH serve airport terminals directly.
Port Authority officials responded that the project doesn’t preclude the ability to connect the Rail Link Station to the PATH system in the future, however the reply didn’t specify if that connection included PATH service to terminals or not.
The plan would replace the current monorail that has a capacity of 1,200 passengers per hour per direction. During some holidays, use surged to 1,370 passengers per hour, per direction, the study said.
A request for proposals for the new AirTrain is being worked on by four companies. It calls for a capacity of 2,000 passengers per hour per direction.
“The current AirTrain Newark has outlived its usefulness,” said Kevin O’Toole, Port Authority board of commissioners chairman. “Its replacement will create a new rail system that offers a 21st-century customer experience for airport visitors and employees, as we continue to reimagine and redevelop Newark Liberty Airport.”
Tentative plans call for keeping the current monorail running during construction of the new AirTrain, which will eventually serve the new Terminal One, which will replace Terminal A, and a future replacement for Terminal B. After completion in 2026, the old monorail system would be demolished.
The Authority hasn’t settled on what type of train or “automatic people mover” would be used of three options. Three likely technologies could be proposed by bidders: trains with steel wheels, trains with rubber tires, and trains that are cable propelled.
The environmental assessment examined an AirTrain with steel wheels because it had the most potential environmental impacts, the FAA said.
The FAA decision puts the agency closer to fulfilling a pledge Authority officials made to Gov. Phil Murphy in October 2019 when he called for a replacement of the monorail. Authority commissioners added the AirTrain to the agency’s 2017-2026 Capital Plan, during a reassessment of it in late 2019.
“This decision is a key step in replacing the long-outdated AirTrain,” said Governor Phil Murphy, in a statement. “New Jerseyans and travelers deserve a world-class transit system at Newark airport, and we are much closer to attaining that reality with the FAA’s latest action.”
The worst year for monorail reliability was 2017 when it had 220 “unscheduled service stoppages of 45 minutes or longer and 5 service interruptions where passengers had to be evacuated,” the study said.
The worst year for evacuations was 2016 when 11 service interruptions required passengers to be evacuated from the monorail, it said.
The FAA determined that the only source of air pollution that could result from the AirTrain operation is deploying supplemental busing to alleviate overcrowding on the existing monorail during construction of the replacement AirTrain.
The Authority started discussing the monorail’s replacement in 2015. Built for $354 million in 1996, it carried 33,000 people a day in 2019. The authority determined that replacing it would be more cost effective than rebuilding the existing system.
Plans call for construction of the AirTrain to begin in the first quarter of 2022, with testing of the new system in the first quarter of 2025.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at [email protected].
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