Queens Borough President Donovan Richards supports plan to use ferries to get people to LaGuardia Airport
NEW YORK -- There could soon be a new way of getting to LaGuardia Airport.
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards is floating the idea of adding boat service, CBS2's Kevin Rincon reported Monday.
The trek to LaGuardia isn't easy, but Richards has a new suggestion.
"It's a ferry, ferry good plan," Richards said.
He's looking to utilize the waterways. He's backing a Port Authority proposal to have a ferry line extended from Manhattan to Queens.
"The stops the ferry would make would be LaGuardia Airport, 14th Street and then up to 34th Street," Richards said.
It would also make stops along East 90th and Pier 11 downtown.
Better access to LaGuardia has been a focus for years, and this plan follows Gov. Kathy Hochul's decision last October to pull the plug on former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's $2.1 billion air train plan.
"It didn't seem to take in to account the local community," Richards said.
He said ferry service would help connect more than just tourists, but also Queens residents, who right now lack public transit options.
The planes coming into LaGuardia hover just feet over where the ferries would be arriving and the borough president says the infrastructure needed for the terminals is already here and could be up and running rather quickly. Some folks Rincon talked to said taking the ferry would not only be a quicker option, but safer.
"To be honest with you, I'd rather be out there than on the subway," one person said.
"The ferries in general are actually brilliant, the amount of people that use them. I walk this river all the time and it's extremely busy," added Gerri Meegan of Stuyvesant Town.
Along the East River, Jay and Nina levy, as Brooklynites, said if the ferry got them to LaGuardia, it's an option they'd consider.
"Generally, a good idea, and we would use it," Jay Levy said.
"I think it's a wonderful idea. The more transportation on the water and not on the streets, I'm for it," Nina Levy added.
Congestion on the roadways is something the borough president also talked about.
"Moving folks off of the highways, out of cars, this is a common sense plan that could go a long way if there's the political will to make it happen," Richards said.
Critics of the plan say ridership could be an issue.
From here, the proposal, along with more than a dozen others, will undergo an independent review, with the hope, as Richards said, of moving Queens into the future.
