and unsuccessfully challenged the rule in federal court.) Later, the Port Authority also moved to connect JFK and Newark Airport to regional rail networks with the AirTrain Newark and AirTrain JFK, in an attempt to make these more distant airports competitive with LaGuardia. In addition to these local regulations, the FAA also limited the number of flights and types of aircraft that could operate at LaGuardia. LaGuardia's traffic continued to grow. By 2000, the airport routinely experienced overcrowding delays, many more than an hour long. That year, Congress passed legislation to revoke the federal traffic limits on LaGuardia by 2007. The reduced demand for air travel following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City quickly slowed LaGuardia's traffic growth, helping to mitigate the airport's delays. Ongoing Port Authority investments to renovate the Central Terminal Building and improve the airfield layout have also made the airport's operations more efficient in recent years. FAA approved Instrument Departure Procedure "Whitestone Climb" and the "Expressway Visual Approach to Runway 31". When adopting the Expressway Approach, when the aircraft crosses the intersection of I-278 and the Long Island Expressway in Long Island City, it turns northeast on 85° and follows the Long Island Expressway, after reaching Flushing Meadow Park, the aircraft executes a 135° left turn over the Flushing Bay and joins the final approach to the Runway 31. When adopting Whitestone Climb, aircraft will circle over Flushing and head to Whitestone Bridge on the North upon takeoff from Runway 13. Such patterns aim to reduce the noise, avoid the traffic of the JFK Airport and maximize the air traffic capacity in the New York TRACON. In late 2006, construction began to replace the Wallace Harrison designed air traffic control tower built in 1962 with a more modern one. The tower began operations on October 9, 2010. On August 12, 2009, Delta Air Lines and US Airways announced a landing slot and terminal swap in separate press releases. Under the swap plan, US Airways would have given Delta 125 operating slot pairs at LaGuardia. US Airways, in return, would have received 42 operating slot pairs at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., and be granted the authority to begin service from the US to São Paulo, Brazil, and Tokyo, Japan. When the swap plan was complete, Delta Shuttle operations would have moved from the Marine Air Terminal to Terminal C (the