A Metro-North connection would allow passengers to take mass transit to Stewart.

For decades, aviation experts have urged the expansion of Stewart International Airport [1], located 55 miles north of the Big Apple in New Windsor, as an alternative to overused Newark, LaGuardia and JFK airports. But the plan's potential has been stymied by the lack of convenient mass transit connections to points south. That may change if the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Metro-North Railroad and the New York State Department of Transportation have their way.

Metro-North Railroad [2] announced July 17 that it plans to start a study of transit access to the airport and the railroad's west-of-Hudson territory. The study would build upon a 2003 report that concluded the best way to connect Stewart to mass transit would be to build a three-mile rail line between the airport and the Salisbury Mills Station. The new link would allow flyers to connect to Metro-North's Port Jervis line, a transfer station in Secaucus, N.J. and, eventually, Grand Central Terminal.

The new study would have two phases: first, a year of detailed field work and, second, an optional environmental impact study.

U.S. Reps. Maurice Hinchey [3] (D-Hurley) and John Hall [4] (D-Dover Plains) have put the expansion of Stewart Airport on top of their lists of local priorities. The new rail link would boost Stewart's role as the fourth major airport in the metropolitan area. Besides relieving runway congestion, noise and air pollution at the other airports, an expanded Stewart would serve as an engine for economic growth. It would also relieve highway congestion by expanding capacity closer to the growing population of the Hudson Valley, especially in Orange and Rockland counties.

Currently serving 300,000 passengers annually, Stewart's infrastructure could be expanded to service up to 10 million passengers.