KENNEDY AIRPORT AIRTRAIN PROBLEM

[daveklepper]

Service on the Port Authority's AirTrain JFK was suspended on Tuesday morning following a severe electrical cable fire.  The AirTrain, which is driverless and is thus heavily reliant on its communication systems, has not been working since. 

For several days, "limited shuttle bus service" was replacing the AirTrain's entire route as the Port Authority scrambled to get something in place.  A news release issued on Friday stated that they have been able to restore limited AirTrain service between Jamaica/Howard Beech stations and Federal Circle.  From there, passengers will be able to transfer to shuttle buses to the airline terminals.  

It looks like the Port Authority is operating the trains manually (all of the AirTrain cars have an operator's panel at the front that has all the necessary controls needed to operate the trains with a human) between Jamaica/Howard Beach and Federal Circle.  Presumably, they have the switches blocked and spiked, which would allow two trains each to run between Federal Circle and Howard Beach/Jamaica.   However, going by the wording of the news release, it seems like returning travelers (those arriving at the airport) will be brought from the terminals directly to either Jamaica or Howard Beach stations. That doesn't make too much sense to me, since you're having duplicate service with the buses and the AirTrain cars running empty half of the time.  I guess it is just a move to show they are operating "some AirTrain service" instead of none at all.

The Port Authority has not made a timeline for the restoration of regular AirTrain JFK service known.  Thus far they have only said that "workers are reviewing the damage, while assessing repairs and determining the length of the shutdown. The Port Authority regrets the inconvenience to its travelers."

At this point, it does look like you will be able to get to the airport from either Jamaica or Howard Beach, however you will have to leave plenty of extra time to do so.  Also, the following alternate routes are also available:

• From Manhattan or Brooklyn, take a Brooklyn-bound (3) or (L) train to New Lots Avenue.  There you can transfer to theB15 bus which will go to the airline terminals.
• From Manhattan or Queens, take a Queens-bound (F) train to Jamaica/179th Street where transfer is available to the Q3 bus to the airline terminals.
• From Manhattan or Queens, take a Queens-bound (E) or (F) train to Kew Gardens/Union Turnpike where transfer is 
  • available to the Q10 bus to the airline terminals.
  • From Long Island or Penn Station, take a LIRR train to Kew Gardens where connection is available to the Q10 bus to the airline terminals.
  In all the cases except the last, the transfer between the subway and bus is free if you use your MetroCard.
  
  The Port Authority has not given us any clue as to what the extent of the damage is, so we will have to wait and see when they get the AirTrain running again.  Judging on how serious the fire was (and it sounds pretty serious) we could be looking at a outage that could last months.

[NorthWest]

This is the Bombardier ART system, using Mark II trainsets, which, as Dave noted, are manually operable.

So, the fire probably destroyed power to the tracks, as otherwise full service is possible with manual operation. (Assuming switches have power, they can also be manually operated, but this may be a more expensive fix than bustitution.)

[narig01]

I am often reminded of BART and it's automatic computer run trains. Where nothing could go wrong, go wrong, goo wroongg, go wrang, ga wring.
Rgds IGN

[narig01]

PS looks like it has been corrected.

http://www.paalerts.com/recent_airportalerts.aspx

Rgds IGN