16 THE COURIER SUN • FEBRUARY 16, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com sun WWW.COURIERSUN.COM Victoria Schneps-Yunis Joshua A. Schneps Bob Brennan Robert Pozarycki Amy Amato-Sanchez Nirmal Singh Ron Torina Emily Davenport Katrina Medoff, Anthony Giudice, Angela Matua, Suzanne Monteverdi Cliff Kasd en, Samantha Sohmer, Elizabeth Aloni Dylan Frand Deborah Cusick Warren Susman Celeste Alamin Maria Valencia Victoria Schneps-Yunis Joshua A. Schneps editorial Publisher & E ditor Co-Publisher Associate Publisher Editor-In-Chief VP, Events, Web & Social Media Art Director Artist Social Media Manager Staff Reporters Contributing Reporters Events Coordinator Assistant to Publisher Senior Acount Executive Classified Manager Controller President & CEO Vice President Schneps Communications, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361 718-224-5863 • Fax 718-224-5441 www.qns.com editorial e-mail: editorial@qns.com for advertising e-mail: ads@qns.com Entire Contents Copyright 2017 by The Courier Sun All letters sent to THE COURIER SUN should be brief and are subject to condensing. Writers should include a full address and home and office telephone numbers, where available, as well as affiliation, indicating special interest. Anonymous letters are not printed. Name withheld on request. No such ad or any part thereof may be reproduced without prior permission of THE COURIER SUN. The publishers will not be responsible for any error in advertising beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. Errors must be reported to THE COURIER SUN within five days of publication. Ad position cannot be guaranteed unless paid prior to publication. VIctoria Media Services assumes no liability for the content or reply to any ads. The advertiser assumes all liability for the content of and all replies. The advertiser agrees to hold The Courier SUN and its employees harmless from all cost, expenses, liabilities, and damages resulting from or caused by the publication or recording placed by the advertiser or any reply to any such advertisement. THE HOT TOPIC Time for LaGuardia AirTrain to take flight We feel terribly for those unfortunate travelers heading to and from LaGuardia Airport last Friday who were subjected to one of the worst traffic jams in Queens history. The congestion was so bad that some people, stuck on the Grand Central Parkway leading into the airport, left their taxis and walked up the parkway exit ramp to the terminals. Not even the two Queens buses serving LaGuardia Airport were an option; they were both rerouted because of the heavy volume. You couldn’t make a better case for the proposed LaGuardia Airport AirTrain line than that the Great LaGuardia Logjam of 2017. This line, proposed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, must be built as quickly as possible. Prior to the huge traffic jam last week, Cuomo announced that the Port Authority was seeking requests for proposals to build the LaGuardia AirTrain, which would link the terminals to Willets Point; the train would most likely run above the Grand Central Parkway. A new transportation hub would be built at Willets Point to connect AirTrain riders with the 7 line or the Long Island Rail Road. While this is not the one-seat ride to and from LaGuardia that some transit advocates want, the LaGuardia AirTrain would be a boon to Queens in many different ways. It would be more effective than limited or local bus lines heading to and from the airport, and the Willets Point hub would serve as another springboard toward redeveloping the area into the borough’s newest residential and retail destination. Of course, there are challenges. The AirTrain would take travelers off the streets leading to the airport, but many of them would then use the already extremely crowded 7 line. Connecting to the LIRR at Willets Point would be a quicker alternative than the 7 line for most travelers, but service isn’t as frequent, and a oneway LIRR ride from Willets Point to Penn Station is $6 during off-peak hours, more than double the $2.75 7 train fare. The MTA has added trains to the 7 line in previous years, and one wonders if the line has the capacity to accommodate any more. So the next logical step would be to create an LIRR express between Penn Station and Willets Point, where there are two platforms and multiple tracks, and invent a discounted ticket to ride both the express and the AirTrain (the JFK AirTrain fare is already $5, and it likely won’t be any less when the LaGuardia AirTrain gets rolling). A combined AirTrain and LIRR express train option would be the cure for most of the traffic problems that ail LaGuardia Airport. ICE STORM IN BAYSIDE // PHOTO BY JEFFREY PFLAUM SEND US YOUR PHOTOS OF QUEENS AND YOU COULD SEE THEM ONLINE OR IN OUR PAPER! TO SUBMIT THEM TO US TAG @QUEENSCOURIER ON INSTAGRAM, VISIT OUR FACEBOOK PAGE, TWEET @QNS OR EMAIL EDITORIAL@QNS.COM (SUBJECT: QUEENS SNAPS). STORY: Lady Gaga is coming to Queens this summer as her world tour stops at Citi Field SUMMARY: In the wake of her phenomenal Super Bowl 51 Halftime Show performance, Lady Gaga announced her “Joanne” World Tour, which has a stop at Citi Field this August. 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