Daily News from New York, New York • 27

art--- .1 fci-aF i Thfeffgags, ties worker at laundry nnn ODMJ r-. i i r- -1 if 1 I -4 i K-eeastti? -wj 3 i JAMAICA 1 4.5. By JONATHAN LEM1RE and GREG GITTRICH DA1UT NEWS STAFF WRITERS A young woman was bound and gagged in the back room of a bustling Staten Island launder-mat yesterday during a brazen daylight robbery, police and witnesses said. Nearly a dozen people were washing clothes at the large laundermat around 10:30 a.m. when a gunman quietly tied up the 27-year-old employee and cleaned out the safe.

7 No one noticed the captive woman for 10 minutes until Wan-della Norwood walked over to a change machine and peered into the back of the Clean Rite Center on Port Richmond Ave. The gunman already had fled, Norwood said. "I saw her sitting there, in the back room," said Norwood, 31. "She had tape on her mouth and her hands were tied together." "She was making noise to try to catch someone's attention," said Norwood, who called 911. "People didn't know she was there.

They were all still doing their laundry." Cops and firefighters had to break open a door leading to the locked back room to free the woman, who was not identified. She was treated for minor injuries at the laundermat by EMS workers, an FDNY spokesman said. Police were investigating the robbery yesterday. It was not clear how much money was stolen. No arrests were made.

Woman raped at gunpoint A woman was raped at gunpoint on a Brooklyn street early yesterday after two men tried to drag her into a car, police said. The frightening ordeal unfolded at Broadway and Ellery St. in Tompkins Park North at about 3:30 a.m., police said. The 36-year-old woman told cops the two men tried to force her into a white car but she resisted, One of the men then pointed a gun at her and watched while his accomplice raped her on the secluded street, police said. The two men fled after the attack and the woman was treated at a nearby hospital, cops said.

The alleged rapist is described as "chubby and about 5-feet-3, while the man who held the gun is about 5-feet-9 with a slim build. Both are Hispanic, between 30 and 35 years old. Anyone with information is asked to call (800) 577-TTPS. Martin Mbugua By BRIAN HARMON DAIIY NEWS STAFF WRITER After being tied up for years in red tape, the newly opened AirTrain to Kennedy Airport is being snagged by green tape. Passengers said the riding was easy the hard part was finding the train.

That's because many of the Port Authority's $25 million AirTrain signs remained covered with green tape, a day after the train's debut. "Signs. Give me signs," a Mont-clair, woman barked at a customer service employee inside Jamaica's AirTrain station. The 51 -year-old woman, who did not want her name used, added, "New York, you got a long ways to go in terms of hospitality." Patricia Botti, 56, a Wantagh, L.I., resident who had just flown in from Orlando with her husband, Carl, said, "They need a little more information on the JFK end." Yesterday marked the first full day of operation for the 8.1 -mile, $1.9 billion light-rail system. Signs, or lack thereof, accounted for most of the complaints.

Still, the AirTrains which typically were less than half-full received high marks for comfort, convenience and timeliness. "I'm very impressed," said Ireland's minister of transportation, Seamus Brennan, who, coincidental-ly, traveled to New York yesterday and became the first foreign dignitary to ride the AirTrain. "Connecting the airport to downtown is the right thing to do. Cities need to get people out of their cars." The Bottis are convinced. They left JFK on the AirTrain at 1:10 p.m.

They made it to Jamaica by 1 :30 p.m. and were home on Long Island by 2:40 p.m. The 51-year-old woman disgruntled about the lack of signs boarded her AirTrain about 1:30 p.m. and made it to Penn Station via the subway by 2:45 p.m. Virginia Anderson, 51, a United Airlines flight attendant from the East Village, said the AirTrain cut some 20 minutes off her commute.

"And it's much more pleasant. This is beautiful," said Anderson, who j'umped on the train at 1 p.m., transferred to the train and exited the $5 AirTrain at JFK at 2:45 p.m. "This is such a face-lift for Kennedy Airport." Meanwhile, Joseph and Maureen Ross of Yorkshire, England, raced in a cab to JFK from Times Square in 45 minutes. The fast and bumpy ride caused Maureen Ross to lose her lunch on the airport curb. "I read about the AirTrain in the news today.

I suppose we should have taken it," Joseph Ross said. "I apologize for the mess we made on your curb." 1 I howard-- 1 tf-" -wr i I ll AIRPORT RIDERS' GUIDE TO THE AIRTRAIN It stops at each JFK terminal every two to four minutes, except from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., when it runs every eight minutes. Cost: $5 Trip from JFK to Jamaica or Howard Beach stations takes 8-12 minutes. if you connect to: LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD: Most weekday trains to Manhattan run every five to 15 minutes; most weekend trains run every 12 minutes.

Cost: $11.75 (includes AirTrain fee) SUBWAY: The A train from Howard Beach and the train from Jamaica generally run every five to 10 minutes, but they can run 20 minutes apart during extreme off-peak hours. Cost: $7 (includes Airtrain lee) Wn Woodbnj fc. MATTHEW ROBERTS The newly opened Airtain offers fast and UU1ILUIU4U Od nC WLVflbll iwtMnuj nnn wiim transit hubs. OM "0e.ft YiiiT'Oy IB 0ft.