NEW YORK CITY LIGHT RAIL
AirTrain JFK

Unlike any other urban rail system in the country, AirTrain JFK is designed to serve and support a single facility: New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport.  The total system length is just over eight miles, and the AirTrain network consists of three lines.  Two services connect with Queens transportation centers at Howard Beach and Jamaica.  The third loops through the terminal area of the airport.

AirTrain technology is similar to that of Vancouver's SkyTrain, and the fully-automated cars, built by Bombardier, are very much like the newer model used on that Canadian system.     

AirTrain is probably borderline  between "light rail" and "heavy rail."  The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates AirTrain JFK (as well as PATH), calls it "light," and at least for now these pages will also classify it as such.

In this photo the generous rear window of a clockwise-running "Inner Loop" train allows for a view of the front portion of a train going the other way, bound for either Jamaica Station or Howard Beach.