At a time of drastic cuts to established transit routes, New York’s transportation agencies are keeping an eye on the future — specifically, a future where Stewart Airport in Orange County is a bustling “fourth airport” for the region and the rapid growth of the mid-Hudson Valley requires new transit service. On Tuesday, Metro-North Railroad and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey revealed new, potentially costly transit options to address both issues.
The announced alternatives had been whittled down from over 100 options as part of the West of Hudson Regional Transit Access Study. In the short term, options include direct buses (from Midtown NYC, the George Washington Bridge, and Hackensack), along with a hybrid rail-bus connection from Beacon. The preferred mid-term option is a Bus Rapid Transit connection between the airport and the Salisbury Mills train station, and the long-term option, a direct rail link between the Port Jervis Rail Line and Stewart Airport.
The study makes the optimistic forecast that Stewart will handle 7 million annual passengers by 2035. Currently, 500,000 use the airport per year. The direct rail link would attract the highest ridership, just under 5,000 people per day, but would cost over $600 million. Ridership on the rail link and the BRT connection to Salisbury Mills are constrained by the limited capacity of the Port Jervis Line, which has only one track for most of its length.
| Alternative to be Studied | Travel Time to NYC | Daily Ridership | Capital Cost | Operations/ Maintenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short-term: Direct bus between Stewart area and NYC; Hackensack, NJ | 97-115 minutes | 700 airport trips, 1,200 commuter trips | $75-91M | $5-7M |
| Short-term: Hudson Line rail service to Beacon + bus to Stewart | 104-111 minutes | 680 airport trips, 400 commuter trips | $6-18M | $0.8-2M |
| Mid-term: Bus rapid transit between Stewart area and Salisbury Mills rail station | ~92 minutes | 100 airport trips, 800 commuter trips | $118-146M | $1M |
| Long-term: Direct Commuter Rail (Port Jervis Line spur to Stewart) | 88-99 minutes | 1,100 airport trips, 3,700 commuter trips | $610-840M | $26M |
Originally a military base, Stewart Airport is 60 miles from New York City and is relatively new to commercial air service—American Airlines was the first to establish service in 1990. The Port Authority took control in 2007 and has allocated $500 million for improvements and expansion in its 10-year capital plan. In early July, it was announced that the airport had received an undetermined amount of additional money from a federal program established for military airports making the conversion to commercial use. To date, the Port Authority has invested $32 million into the airport and is expected to increase that to $47 million by the end of this year.
I went to a presentation in 1986 where Stewart Airport Access was mentioned. At that time it was in the context of adding passenger service to the West Shore line. We’re still waiting for both.
This is absurd–why not spend the money on improving rail service? If we replaced all the short-haul flights out of NYC airports, we wouldn’t need any additional airport capacity. Oh, and we’d make travel more convenient and help the planet, too.
How much would it cost to get rail service directly to LaGuardia and how many people would that serve?
I keep waiting for there to be convenient flights out of Stewart. It’s the closest airport to me, and I”ve yet to fly from there. There’s never a flight that works for me, that’s affordable. I”m in PUtnam, so I drive all the way to NYC most of the time.