Big congratulations to LaGuardia Airport, long derided as an embarrassment to New York by travelers and this editorial page and, in 2014, then-Vice President Joe Biden. Biden, highlighting America’s failing infrastructure, said, “If I took you and blindfolded you and took you to LaGuardia Airport in New York, you’d think, ‘I must be in some Third World country.’” He was right: It was dirty, depressing and hard as hell to navigate. No more. Forbes Travel Guide’s inaugural Verified Air Travel Awards, reflecting the opinions of 5,000 seasoned travel experts, just deemed LGA the best airport in the United States. The transformation is a feather in the cap of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. We had lots of issues with the way Cuomo governed New York, but he understood the central importance of improving subways, bridges, tunnels and other basic pieces of government-owned brick and mortar the public relies upon every day. When our daily experience is frustrating and dispiriting, when big projects run way over budget and never seem to come to fruition, that rubs off on us — and on the now widespread impression that the people who represent us can’t really get anything significant done. When, on the other hand, the public sector and its partners manage to build big and beautiful things, it leads to a broader sense of confidence rooted in the earned belief that government has some basic competence. The LaGuardia renovation wasn’t cheap, nor was it without headaches. It cost $8 billion. It started back in 2016 and wasn’t completed until 2022. Cuomo and planners wanted to keep the old airport fully functioning while they built the new one, which meant some absolutely awful traffic days, especially early on. But in hindsight, six years doesn’t actually feel like a long time, and all the dust now feels worth it for those walking through the bright new terminals. Natural light floods most spaces. Wayfinding finally makes sense. Shopping and eating are perfectly pleasant. Bathrooms are clean. There are even some flashes of whimsy and beauty that lift travelers up rather than beating them down. Kudos to the governor. The big thing that’s still delayed on the departure board is a train to the plane — a one-seat ride from the center of New York City to its closest airport. There’s a not-especially-direct train (from another train) to JFK, and another to Newark. But LaGuardia remains accessible only by car, cab. Uber or car service — or public bus. A few go there, and one of them, the LaGuardia Link Q70, is reasonably fast and direct, not to mention free. But none of those modes carry people with the speed and reliability of a train, which is what travelers in London to Toronto to Paris to Chicago to D.C. to Tokyo to San Francisco do. Cuomo proposed a silly train (price tag: $2 billion) that would’ve made passengers take the No. 7 or the LIRR all the way out to Willets Point, then transfer to light rail to double back to the airport. There are a dozen better ways to connect travelers to LGA — which is why Cuomo’s successor, Kathy Hochul, was right to put down his bad plan. Ideally, just extend the N train, but until something better comes along, LaGuardia remains a wonderfully renovated airport that’s devilishly difficult to get to, especially for those hauling kids and luggage. The old airport is dead. Long live the new airport. The bad AirTrain is dead. Hope a better plan is born in its place, and soon.