NYC's La Guardia Airport has emerged from an $8B renovation without the two items it probably needed the most—a rail link and a longer runway.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced this week that rising construction costs have doomed what was supposed to be the final piece of the La Guardia rebuild: a light-rail connection known as AirTrain that was the critical link in the original plan to create a commute from the airport in Queens to Midtown Manhattan of less than 30 minutes.

The two massive new terminals—decorated with museum-quality impressionistic art—that have reopened at La Guardia were designed with AirTrain stations in them. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, received expedited federal approval for the rail link, which would have connected La Guardia with the No. 7 subway line and the Long Island Railroad.