| LaGuardia Airport subway extension | |
|---|---|
  | |
| Overview | |
| Status | Proposed |
| Service | |
| Type | Rapid transit |
| System | New York City Subway |
| Operator(s) | New York City Transit Authority |
| Technical | |
| Character | Elevated |
The LaGuardia Airport subway extension is a proposed extension of the New York City Subway's BMT Astoria Line (currently served by the N and W trains) to connect to LaGuardia Airport, which has never had an airport rail link. Such a connection was first proposed in 1943, when LaGuardia was already surrounded by development.
Two proposals during the 1990s and 2000s received funding, In 1990, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) proposed a $1.6 billion, dedicated airport rail link from Midtown Manhattan to LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports, which would be developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ). The PANYNJ set aside $40 million for engineering and marketing before the line was canceled in 1995; part of the route became the AirTrain JFK people mover system. The MTA, PANYNJ, and federal, state, and local officials began considering another proposal in 1998, which would have entailed extending the Astoria Line. The plan received funding for construction in the early 2000s, but the plan was ultimately shelved in 2003 after opponents rejected the idea of constructing the extension through a residential area of Astoria.
In 2015, the planned AirTrain LaGuardia reflected a similar idea, although various media outlets criticized it as inferior due to its distance from the city, calling it a pet project of then-governor Andrew Cuomo. The AirTrain's future was placed in doubt after Cuomo's resignation in 2021, putting discussion of the subway extension back on the table, and the PANYNJ suggested the extension in a 2022 report. Despite this, the AirTrain was canceled in March 2023 and replaced with enhanced Q70 bus service, continuing to leave the airport without a rail link.