Heavy price of $7 airport rail service

IT seems your writer James Gliden has left out the most important consideration of them all [“JFK to Manhattan for Only $7? Yes, If You Take the Train,” Travel Insider, April 3]. Arriving by train or subway from JFK into Manhattan, travelers are often faced with steep flights of stairs, no escalator and no elevator, just the opportunity to have to lift and carry those rolling suitcases up and up and up.

Add a shoulder bag with a laptop, books for the trip, etc., and you have an aerobic workout at the end of a long trip that only a triathlete would love. It’s happened to me in Paris, Rome and New York so often that the cab price seems worth it — and I am an athlete! These systems are flawed, at best.

Jenny Peters