Deprecatory Rant on the coming Jamaica Station "Upgrade"

The new platform is already there. Between the platform and the AirTrain Terminal the space occupied by the station's through tracks is compromised to the point of the through tracks' effective nonexistence. This presents manifold problems of scheduling at Jamaica Station, before construction on any of the "further improvements" even begins.

Cross-platform transfers in both directions, a convenience for which the station was brilliantly designed, will be reduced to a bare minimum. They will be replaced largely by "up-and-over" transfers to a Brooklyn Shuttle having it's eastern terminus at the new platform. Contrary planners' repeated assertions that the new platform will increase throughput capacity at the station, it does exactly the opposite.