<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Factotum:
Well, I tried the AirTrain over the holiday weekend and was very satisfied. Total travel time from the vestibule of the LIRR train at Jamaica to Terminal 7 was 22 minutes, and from the gate area at Terminal 7 to Jamaica station, 15 minutes. As I noted earlier, these travel times actually make Jamaica station more convenient to the central terminal area than the long-term parking lot used to be.
The transfer at Jamaica is quite painless. The only change of elevation is from the LIRR platform to the station mezzanine and, as has been observed, all LIRR platforms have elevators so even my earlier concession that the single set of stairs may be a problem for some is not valid. I'd certainly much rather transfer from AirTrain to the LIRR at Jamaica than cart my luggage around an airport parking lot! The only bad thing I noticed was there's no waiting area for people who have some time to kill before their LIRR train comes. There were a number of people sitting on the floor. Hopefully they'll address this problem and at least put in a bench. (If nothing else it cheapens the experience of using the shiny new AirTrain station.)
For those going to Manhattan the AirTrain, while far from an ideal solution, makes JFK the best of the three area airports for transportation - certainly better than the rail connection at EWR which, for some reason, many people apparently do consider a one-seat ride to Manhattan. (Why? Because the station happens to be called Newark Airport? You still have to transfer to an airport people-mover and spend just as much time on it as on AirTrain JFK from Jamaica.) LIRR runs twice as many trains from Jamaica to Manhattan on any given day as NJT does from EWR, and has much more even scheduling too. LIRR has only one gap in service that matches those ugly 50-minute waits you see at EWR on the weekend: No trains between 3:08 AM and 4:25 AM. (Apologies to everyone coming in on those ultra-popular 2:30 AM flight arrivals.)
IMO the AirTrain has caused JFK to go from worst to first for metro NY travelers. I'll never want to take a flight from LGA again!</font>
Now that was quite a review. Thank you for sharing that. I've always been glued to flying in and out of LGA but I might just try a JFK experience. If these elevators are working like you and others have said, well this sounds certainly a lot better than the NJ Trains to the EWR train stop. Do you feel safe in the elevators? I would love to hear from a woman travelling alone so I can see what her experience is like. I'm still hesitant to go to Jamaica alone with luggage and a laptop.