Federal Circle & Airline Terminals
Jamaica Station (Originally named station D – Jamacia Station) is the AirTrain’s major transfer point for passengers leaving the Airport and connecting to the Long Island Rail Road and New York City Subway E, J, and Z trains. It is the end of the line for Jamaica Trains (colored Red on system maps) that make an impressive run after leaving the airport at Federal Circle on a concrete viaduct above the Van Wyck Expressway with trains moving as fast as 60 mph feeling like they are going faster than traffic.
The AirTrain station and two-track line is located along the southern end just south of the tracks at the Long Island Railroad’s Jamaica Station. The AirTrain is located on a tall viaduct at two levels above the street and one level above the LIRR’s embankment. The AirTrain station is directly connected to the large Vertical Circulation Building, just beyond the end of the AirTrain tracks that end in bumper blocks alongside it. The “VCR” is a 7 story terminal office building that is used to access the AirTrain platform. This is a modern blue-glass tower building with the office space used to both support AirTrain operations and for extra LIRR office space, it provides a modern contrast to the historic Long Island Railroad Station and headquarters building on the opposite side of the LIRR tracks.
The Vertical Circulation Building is located at the NW corner of 94 Avenue and Sutphin Blvd. The lowermost story is open-air with a set of silver columns running along 94 Avenue cantilevering the building above what was designed to be a vehicle drop-off/pick-up loop directly under the building. Post-9/11 security concerns (AirTrain opened in 2003) prohibited this vehicle pick-up/drop-off loop from ever being properly used with bollards now surrounding the building, and barricades preventing any vehicles from entering the vehicle loop. 94 Avenue itself has major issues with illegally parked cars from police agencies and placards. The street was two-way until 2019 with vehicles illegally parked on the sidewalk outside the station, the street was restriped to be one-way with a curbside bike-lane in 2019 but this bike lane is completely useless because of illegally parked cars with government placards.
The AirTrain station contains four sets of doors from this unused car loop. Two are automated doors, and two are manual doors, there is a final (more heavily used entrance) from Sutphin Blvd next to the staircases directly up to each LIRR platform). These lead to an airy atrium on the first floor of the building, that includes a few concessions. Elevators and a long set of escalators lead directly up to the third story of the building where the AirTrain station is. At this level there is a direct connection (used by most passengers) via doors outside to the long and main LIRR mezzanine level, which also include the easiest connection to the NYC subway via moving walkways to elevators that lead directly underground (with intermediate landings at the surface) on the northern side of the pedestrian bridge opposite the AirTrain.
On the north side by the AirTrain entrance is a deli, a Tim Hortons, and the AirBar with “open-air” seating leading out to one side of the concourse area into the AirTrain. When the AirTrain opened this area airline ticket counters. The idea that was that passengers could check-in for their flight and drop-off their checked luggage directly at the AirTrain station, where it would then be transported separately and securely into the airport.
Just beyond this area is a wide bank of faregates protected by bollards to prevent any SmartCarts from leaving Airport property (they can be brought on AirTrain and dropped-off or picked up after the faregates). At these faregates passengers pay the (as of March 2024) overpriced $8.50 AirTrain fare to both enter or leave the AirTrain station. AirTrain has always accepted pay-per-ride MetroCard, with MVMs on both sides of the faregates. Contactless OMNY readers were finally installed in October 2023 (nearly 3 years later than the subway, it was previous fully installed on all subway trains and buses at the end of 2020). There is also a newsstand that also sells MetroCards, supplementing the MVMs that often have long lines. Back in 2013 I witnessed aggressive employees of this newsstand scamming tourists and unsuspecting travelers by offering MetroCards with $10 in value that should have cost $9.75 because of the 5% discount when loading a MetroCard with more than $5 on it (they did sell $5.25 MetroCards properly for $5).
Passengers then continue onto the AirTrain entering its climate-controlled island platform with platform screen doors for the two-track AirTrain Line from beyond its bumper blocks. Trains use a diamond-crossover to change directions just before the station. Normally just one track is used in regular operations with the other track closed off by “Track Closed: Please Board on other side” on the LCD screens along each platform.
Photos 1-4: January 9, 2005; 5-10: February 12, 2005; 11: January 4, 2011; 12-14: June 11, 2013; 15 & 16: April 11, 2014; 17-33: May 27, 2014; 34-36: October 11, 2014
