This was a mindblowing discovery for me when I flew into NYC for the first time. One of the largest subway systems in the world and some of the busiest airports in the world a few miles from each other but not connected was/is confusing.
I've looked into this some - but if someone is better versed in the history of this stuff, please jump in.
For LGA, there have been attempts for years to extend the N train north from its current terminus in Astoria, to LGA. This is the most economical way to connect the airport to the mass transit system (there is currently no train whatsoever, the only way to LGA via public transit involves a bus).
Most proposals for this line extension called for the N train to become elevated on its approach to the airport, and the neighborhood has loudly opposed any of the nuisances that come with living next to an elevated train. This political pressure has been impossible to overcome, while tunneling has not been considered feasible or affordable.
On top of this, the state government which runs the NYC subway is reluctant to endorse this plan also, since connecting LGA to the NYC subway doesn't serve the (very important) suburban electorate. The state government has consistently pushed instead for the airport to be connected to a nearby suburban commuter rail station instead (Mets-Willets Pt on the LIRR). The political calculations behind this are pretty obvious, despite this option being far less connected to the greater transit network and promising far less ridership, and also perpetuates the need for a "monorail" transfer, like JFK and EWR.
The history of the transit situation for JFK and EWR are also interesting (and like most things NYC-infrastructure related, extensively documented), but this post is running pretty long. Happy to go into it if people are interested, but the tl;dr is: funding instability, financial downturns, squabbling fiefdoms, jurisdictional battles between NJ/NY, and the ever-present NIMBYism.
My father (retired railroad management in New York and then Los Angeles) used to blame taxi and limousine commissions and lobbies.
He was resigned to the fact that rail will never get built to most American airports, at least not in the way it's built in Europe.
LaGuardia, by all rights, shouldn't exist. It needs to be shut down - aside from the fact that the airport itself is already falling part, its mere existence actually creates delays across all three airport systems in the area (JFK, LGA, and EWR). Because of the way the traffic zones intersect, it would actually be more efficient to reroute all existing traffic from LGA to EWR and JFK, and we'd end up with fewer delays with the same overall capacity.
Unfortunately, LGA is the most convenient airport for people who live on the Upper East Side. They're wealthy and politically well-connected, so they would strongly oppose any efforts to shut it down. They also are only a $20 cab ride away from LGA, so the fact that it doesn't have heavy rail/light rail transportation there doesn't bother them.
This post is literally ridiculous, I don't think a single thing in it is true.
The constraining factor for flights in and out of NYC, or nearly any place, is runway capacity, not available airspace. For all practical purposes airspace is essentially unlimited. You could bulldoze Brooklyn, strategically place a couple hundred runways on it, and land thousands of planes per hour if you wanted to, maybe a couple less if it got foggy.
For reference I have a pilots license and have flown across and through NYC's class B airspace many times. This post makes no sense.
> This post is literally ridiculous, I don't think a single thing in it is true. The constraining factor for flights in and out of NYC, or nearly any place, is runway capacity, not available airspace.
What you're saying flies in the face of a decent amount of reporting on the matter, as well as what I've been told by a friend of mine who happens to work in ATC at one of the aforementioned airports.
Is there a well understood reason why?