John F. Kennedy, November 22, 1963. LaGuardia Airport is located in East Elmhurst, in northern Queens, on Flushing Bay. Originally opened in 1939, the airport's two runways and four terminals cover , serving 28.4 million passengers in 2015. In 2014, citing outdated conditions in the airport's terminals, Vice President Joe Biden compared LaGuardia Airport to a "third world country". In 2015, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began a $4 billion project to renovate LaGuardia Airport's terminals and entryways. The project is expected to be complete by 2021. Public transportation Subways The MTA, New York City's 24-hour subway system, has 472 stations, more than any other metro system in the world – 81 of those stations on seven main lines are in Queens. The subway system has almost twice as many miles of track as any other North American system – (i) revenue length (the opposite of "revenue" track would be non-revenue track or dead mileage), (ii) total length, and (iii) route length. Queens has miles of route length – underground, elevated, other. The A train – from 207th Street in Manhattan to Far Rockaway in Queens – is the longest line, more than 31 miles. The subway system transports triple the number of people than the next five largest American systems – Chicago, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, and Philadelphia combined. The A, G, J/Z, and M routes connect Queens to Brooklyn without going through Manhattan first. The F, M, N, and R trains connect Queens and Brooklyn via Manhattan, while the E, W, and 7/<7> trains connect Queens to Manhattan only. Trains on the M service go through Queens twice in the same trip; both of its full-length terminals, in Middle Village and Forest Hills, are in Queens. Long Island Rail Road The LIRR, also part of the MTA, operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including holidays – carrying an average of 301,000 customers a day (80 million a year, adjusting downward for weekends) on about 735 scheduled trains. It is the busiest commuter rail hub in the United States. Most of its branches originate or terminate at Penn Station. All but one of its branches (the Port Washington Branch) pass through Jamaica. The New York City area served by the LIRR is called the City Terminal Zone. Within that zone, Queens has stations in Long Island City, Hunterspoint Avenue (in Long Island