Responding to Governor Cuomo’s $10 billion overhaul plan for JFK International Airport, for which a Request for Proposals was issued today, Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato (D-Rockaway Beach) applauded the plan, which she called “absolutely vital for safety, for tourism, and for the creation of a 21st-century air infrastructure for Queens.” She also urged Governor Cuomo, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and all other agencies involved with the overhaul to incorporate the Governor’s proposal for a “single-seat ride” from JFK to Midtown Manhattan in all phases of the planning and development process.

“As the Governor’s press release from today says, ‘JFK is one of the only major airports in the world that does not offer travelers a one-seat ride from its city center. Therefore, [we recommend] that the MTA and its partners jointly explore the feasibility of a one-seat ride to JFK,’” said Pheffer Amato. “This proposal is about keeping JFK world-class and making it serve the people of New York. Some of the changes are long overdue; some are great bits of forward thinking. All of them are badly needed. My message to Governor Cuomo, the MTA and the Port Authority is: you can’t have a world-class airport without quick travel to the city center. South Queens has been isolated from the transit grid for too long, and we know that because we can’t get to jobs, family and recreation as fast as the rest of the City. We used to have a forty-minute commute to Midtown; now, it’s twice that.

Pheffer Amato has been a staunch advocate for reactivation of the Rockaway Beach Rail Line, a relatively inexpensive reactivation of a right-of-way that carried commuters between South Queens and Manhattan from 1880 to 1960. “This is one solution; there may be another,” said Pheffer Amato. “But whatever the solution winds up being, Governor Cuomo is right that we need single-seat rail travel from the airport to the hub of the City. While we’re redeveloping our infrastructure, why not kill two birds with one stone and give the airport’s surrounding community – South Queens – a huge economic boost? That’s what we’re calling for.”

Pheffer Amato made headlines recently for working to obtain a joint study on reactivation of the RBRL with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Long Island Rail Road, and New York City Transit. The study is due for release this coming winter.