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The Port Authority is planning to replace the AirTrain monorail at Newark Liberty International Airport, which links EWR to an NJ Transit station on the Northeast Corridor Line.

(Jerry McCrea | The Star-Ledger)

NEWARK -- The 19-year-old AirTrain monorail system at Newark Liberty International Airport is being targeted for replacement.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has not publicly estimated the cost of a new system, or said when it expected the project to begin or end. But Port Authority commissioners are scheduled to vote Thursday to authorize spending $40 million on planning and design work for the project.



"Although substantial investment has been made to maintain current operations, such investment has not extended the 25-year design life of the system, nor has it expanded capacity," states the planning resolution proposed for adoption Thursday.

The agency plans to ask the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to use $40 million in airline ticket surcharges to offset the planning cost.

The 3-mile system carries about 30,000 passengers a day between terminals A, B and C, the airport's parking and rental car lots, and a station linking the airport to NJ Transit trains along the Northeast Corridor line.

A 2011 report by the Regional Plan Association, a transportation research organization, recommended replacing the monorail system as part of a broader plan to expand the region's airport capacity. The RPA report criticized the AirTrain as slow and unable to accommodate growth.



"The AirTrain has been a problem for a while," Richard Barone, the RPA's director of transportation programs, said in an interview Monday. "It's unreliable."



Beyond reliability, Barone said increasing capacity of the airport's circulator system -- whether it turns out to be another monorail, a steel-wheel train, or some other mode -- has become even more critical with the Port Authority's plans to extend the PATH system to the airport train station. That project, still several years away, would pour even more riders onto the airport circulator, apart from increases relates strictly to growing demand for air travel.

The AirTrain, which is free within the airport, has been characterized by service interruptions due to power failures, accidents and maintenance. Last summer, the AirTrain was closed for two months to fill what were essentially 60 potholes in the steel and epoxy running surface. The weight of the cars is born by rubber tires that roll on the running surface.

The AirTrain system first opened in 1996 at a cost of $354 million, built by a company that is now a subsidiary of the Canadian aircraft and rail car maker Bombardier, which operates the monorail under a contract with the Port Authority through 2022.

In 2001, the system was linked to a heavy rail station just north of Newark Liberty, where fliers and airport workers can transfer between the monorail and NJ Transit trains heading in an out of Newark Penn Station. The monorail was also expanded from 12 cars to 18.

Thursday's authorization votes come four months after the Port Authority issued its first contract for preliminary work to extend the PATH commuter rail system from Newark Penn Station to the airport rail station, a project estimated to cost $1.5 billion.

The PATH extension is among 11 major projects, along with hundreds of less costly ones, included in a 10-year, $27.6 billion Port Authority capital plan adopted by the agency's board in February 2014, under then-Chairman David Samson, who resigned the following month amid investigations growing out of the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal.

However, like a new Port Authority Bus Terminal projected to cost $8-10 billion, a new AirTrain is not included in the capital plan, suggesting agency officials will have to come up with additional revenues or spending cuts, to pay for it.

"Not to disparage anybody who was involved in it," Barone said of the capital plan. "But I do think that capital plan was the product of a tumultuous period for Port Authority leadership."

The one Port Authority official who agreed to talk about the monorail replacement, Commissioner Ken Lipper, a June 2013 appointee of Gov Andrew Cuomo of New York, said the project was a necessity and that room would be made for it during a review of the capital plan that officials are just beginning to undertake.

"It is a priority," said Lipper, who said he did not play a role in the current capital plan's formation.

A report issued in December by the Special Panel on the Future of the Port Authority, convened last year by Gov. Chris Christie and Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, stresses the need to modernize and expand capacity at Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia Airports, gateways to the region that have been criticized as outdated.

"While some improvements have been made at these airports over the past decade, many of these faciliites are outdated and ill-equipped to meet the increased passenger demands of the future," the report stated.



Correction: This story originally reported that the Port Authority was scheduled to authorize spending $40 million on planning consultants, plus an additional $30 million for technical experts. The total amount of the authorization to be voted on is $40 million, including both planning and technical work.

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow hin on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.