Fatal derailment postpones JFK AirTrain

NEW YORK -- Kennedy Airport's AirTrain, the $1.9 billion service linking the airport's terminals to city subways, has been indefinitely postponed since a September derailment that killed a train operator.

The service had been scheduled to begin by the end of the year, but the train's builders and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have not resumed testing or set a new opening date, agency spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said.

"The priority is determining what happened," DiFulco said Tuesday. He said the Port Authority was awaiting results of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation and its own probe.

The Port Authority decided to build the 8.1-mile light rail system to relieve traffic congestion around Kennedy, an airport notorious for difficult access to Manhattan.

Three AirTrain cars went off the tracks during a test run Sept. 27. Train operator Kelvin DeBourgh, 23, was killed when he was pinned by concrete blocks in the train to simulate a load of passengers.

NTSB spokeswoman Lauren Peduzzi said the train was traveling at 50 mph to 55 mph when it derailed on a curve that had a speed limit of 25 mph, and that the concrete blocks were not secure.

The NTSB has not released its final report. Such reports typically take nine months to a year to produce.

Meanwhile, NYC Transit pulled hundreds of maintenance workers off its tracks Saturday after two of them were struck and killed by trains in as many days.

NYC Transit president Larry Reuter said except for emergency repairs, the workers would be off the tracks for 24 hours while the agency reviews its rules and procedures.