Here’s when the new AirTrain monorail will be up and running at Newark airport

Port Authority officials first said in 2015 it was time to scrap the 1996 vintage monorail system that was starting to show its age, saying Newark Airport had outgrown it.

A decade later, substantial construction of its replacement will begin after Port Authority officials approved a contract to build replacement AirTrain guideways, the equivalent of elevated track, and three stations, with an option to build a fourth when the new Terminal B is constructed.

Approval came in two phases on Thursday. The first authorized a higher total project cost of $3.5 billion, representing a $1.45 billion increase from the cost anticipated in a 2019 authorization. Some of the funding to cover the additional cost will come from funds for a dormant project to extend PATH service from Newark Penn station to the airport , which is on the back burner, documents show.

The Port Authority's board of commissioners also awarded a $1.184 billion construction contract to the joint-venture firm of Tutor Perini and O&G to design and build a new 2.5-mile elevated rail structure and three new stations to replace its existing monorail, which was considered the best of three proposals made.

"It minimizes (construction) impacts to airport users" and has a commitment to meeting the authority's commitment to minority, women-owned and local business targets, said Jim Heitmann, chief operating officer.

Construction is expected to begin in 2025, with passenger service expected in 2030.

The three AirTrain stations and new Northeast Corridor rail station will continue the architectural theme of the airport's terminals, which was continued in the new Terminal A, Heitmann said. The new rail station will feature high ceilings and "lots of light," he said.

For Terminal A users, the new AirTrain system will end the current unloved trek by shuttle bus or on foot from the existing Monorail station to the new terminal. A new AirTrain station will be built "across from the new Terminal A," Heitmann said

Heitmann explained the cost to replace the monorail would have been more if the authority stuck with its original plan to award one "mega project" contract for the entire plan in 2022 for which proposals came in at $4.6 billion.

"We met with the industry and there was no appetite for mega projects," Heitmann said.

Instead, officials paused the project and abandoned the plan to hire one company to design, build, operate and maintain the AirTrain, dividing it into five pieces.

Despite cost savings from that move, other factor that increased the overall budgeted cost to $3.5 billion, including a five-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 pause and restart, was a spike in inflation and even higher prices in the construction market, Heitmann said.

Funding for the increased total project costs will come from funds designated in the 2017-2026 Capital Plan for extending the PATH line from Penn Station Newark to Newark Airport, which was deferred to a future capital plan. Another $760 million will be funded by new passenger facility charges which will be applied for to recover eligible expenses for planning, design and construction.

What's left to build? Several smaller contracts remain to build the new AirTrain's maintenance and control facility, and the pedestrian connectors, and to demolish the monorail current system.

Last December, commissioners awarded two contracts totaling $950 million to Doppelmayr Cable Car Company to design and build cable drawn railcars, automatic train control and electrical distribution systems, and to operate and maintain the system for 20 years.

That system is similar to similar to a cable-powered system used on the 3.1-mile Bay Area Rapid Transit connector line that serves Oakland's airport, and in other airports around the globe.

Plans call for five-car "cable liner" trains that feature walk through open gangway designs instead of separate closed off rail cars. The cars will have doors large enough for passengers in wheelchairs to access and for passengers with large luggage, officials said. The existing monorail's cars have compartments that can barely hold seven people and their luggage.

Renderings showed trains styled like aerodynamic European light rail trains. That work at the airport could start in the second quarter of 2025.

Built for $354 million in 1996, the current monorail carried 33,000 people a day in 2019. In 2013 and 2017, the authority's net cost of repairs to the existing AirTrain's guideway was $19.6 million. That was on top of $84 million spent to extend the system, which still sees shutdowns for repairs.

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