Soon after AirTrain JFK has begun accepting OMNY payments, comes the first phase in updating Newark’s monorail system, better known as the AirTrain Replacement Program.
According to the program’s website, “The current AirTrain Newark, which has reached the end of its useful life, will be replaced with a new AirTrain system which will meet increasing passenger demands and enable world-class operations that provide for a 21st century customer experience for airport visitors and employees.”
The current system services an average of 33,000 passengers per day (approximately 12 million passengers per year) with transportation between terminals at the airport and access to the Northeast Corridor Rail Link Station, parking lots and rental car facilities. Travel within the airport is free, while the fare to or from NJ Transit is $8.25.
With the help of Doppelmayr, an international manufacturer for cable-propelled transport systems, the new Airtrain will be a “modern, reliable 2.5-mile automated people mover train system.”
Phase one of the multi-phase procurement includes everything from the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the new system to the furnishing, delivery, installation, testing and commissioning of its technological components (ie. train control, electrical power, communications, propulsion, and Maintenance and Control Facility equipment).
In Doppelmayr’s selection, the firm will be required to select and support various hirees from minority-owned business enterprises, women-owned business enterprises, service-disabled veteran-owned business enterprises, and locally owned business enterprises, as mandated by Port Authority. Additionally, Doppelmayr must create “a locally based workforce development program” in hopes to employ members of the program with future work on the new system.
The new AirTrain will further transform Newark International Airport into a modern, “world-class gateway for the New Jersey and New York region,” similar to the new Terminal A that opened around this time last year. Next developments to the airport will be made under the EWR Vision Plan through 2065.