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Comment by ablefire | Hacker News Reader

More mass transit is great and this will be a big upgrade for the east side. I would love to see some kind of modern link from NYC to JFK. The subway + airtrain thing is not up to par for a global capital. The Heathrow Express in London is a good example of what a decent link looks like. Before Heathrow Express it was possible to take the tube to Heathrow but it was an hour-long journey with stops every couple of minutes, not unlike the current NYC-JFK option. The Heathrow Express is leave every 15 minutes and takes 15 minutes. Getting to Heathrow used to be a real headache. Now it's simple and predictable and has cut the best part of an hour out of a door-to-door journey. NYC needs something similar or better.

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I agree but going from JFK to Penn Station via the LIRR/Airtrain isn't too bad. From the Jamaica station I think its 1-2 stops?

Ideally there would just be a train every hour from Penn Station and Grand Central directly to JFK and LaGuardia but I don't see that happening in the next 20-50 years.

The Penn Station option is not bad but it's not good. For me the difference is that in NYC I always take a cab or car vs in London I always take the Express. There are bunch of factors including price (cab from Heathrow is a lot more expensive than the Express; tube is cheaper). The train from Penn would need to be a non-stop every 15 mins from the same 2 platforms so you can just head to Penn, know exactly where to go and know that you'll be at the airport within 30 mins (assuming 15 min travel time) no matter what.

My understanding is that a new link to the airport was in play when they chose the 2nd Av. line. The 2nd Av. will obviously benefit many more people and is a good choise. I hope it won't take decades to sort out the airport connection. The cab ride to and from JFK is one of the most disheartening parts of living in NYC.

It's about 40mins from Penn to JFK via the LIRR/Airtrain (to go maybe 20 miles). There's about 6 trains/hour. I really don't see how you'd get this journey down to 15 minutes without having to build a new tunnel all the way, it's never going to happen.

The real annoyance is how hard it is to get to LGA and that you're reliant on buses. It's a shame that they ran out of money building the N/R and it stops at Ditmars instead of continuing on to the airport.

I fly out of NYC biweekly, I generally fly out of JFK so I can take the E/Airtrain there (about 50 mins) and then fly back to LGA and take a towncar home, due to landing later and avoiding traffic. I'd never take a cab to JFK, it can be nearly 2 hours from midtown in traffic.

Airtrain is less than a decade old. You're in for a long wait. :(

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