Service on the Port Authority’s AirTrain JFK was suspended on Tuesday morning following a severe electrical cable fire. The AirTrain, which is driverless and is thus heavily reliant on its communication systems, has not been working since.
For several days, “limited shuttle bus service” was replacing the AirTrain’s entire route as the Port Authority scrambled to get something in place. A news release issued on Friday stated that they have been able to restore limited AirTrain service between Jamaica/Howard Beech stations and Federal Circle. From there, passengers will be able to transfer to shuttle buses to the airline terminals.
It looks like the Port Authority is operating the trains manually (all of the AirTrain cars have an operator’s panel at the front that has all the necessary controls needed to operate the trains with a human) between Jamaica/Howard Beach and Federal Circle. Presumably, they have the switches blocked and spiked, which would allow two trains each to run between Federal Circle and Howard Beach/Jamaica. However, going by the wording of the news release, it seems like returning travelers (those arriving at the airport) will be brought from the terminals directly to either Jamaica or Howard Beach stations. That doesn’t make too much sense to me, since you’re having duplicate service with the buses and the AirTrain cars running empty half of the time. I guess it is just a move to show they are operating “some AirTrain service” instead of none at all.
The Port Authority has not made a timeline for the restoration of regular AirTrain JFK service known. Thus far they have only said that "workers are reviewing the damage, while assessing repairs and determi