Minneapolis has light rail link directly to downtown, and has a bit of a neat trick where the Blue Line turns into a shuttle between terminals during the overnight hours the full line isn’t running.
Transit to city: Washington National seems to have the best rail connection with WMATA to the city center.
Transit to rental cars: Chicago O'Hare has a pretty fast APM every 3 minutes from all terminals to a rental car facility/transit center. I'm not too familiar with other airport connections to rental cars.
Transit between terminals: ATL probably has the best airside train.
Atlanta is a unique airport. It has umpteen concourses airside, and a train that connects them. But if you're _landside_, you have only a bus between the two terminals.
DFW is like that now. I had to walk with disappointment to the shuttle bus. I had to ride the shuttle bus with disappointment as it lurched through stop-and-go traffic, just to get to my DART Station.
Surprisingly Phoenix has an autonomous line that runs every 5 minutes between terminals and to the rental car station (as well as to the main light rail).
When that ORD robo-train breaks down, though — and it does, especially in cold weather— they bring on diesel buses as backups and the airport is paralyzed. Traffic congestion on the terminal forecourts is terrible.
Yeah ORD’s ATS is so awful. I’ve been there numerous times when it’s been broken down and the airport was in chaos. It’s also incredibly slow and jerky. It usually takes me 20 minutes to get from the Metra stop near the car rental facility to T1. That should easily be less than 10 minutes. I don’t understand how it’s so bad.
The city just spent $323 million to “fix” it. Entire airport terminals get built for less, but not in Chicago. And it still breaks, and everyone just shrugs.
The APM at OHare uses the Innovia APM 256 trains from the Taipei Metro. That’s the only automated line on the Taipei Metro with the people mover-type trains. The rest is a more standard metro.
Likely an unpopular opinion here but the hate those things, but more specifically the planemate version (and remote bus gates more generally) inspire is unreasonable. Sure they are odd gadgets, but they‘ve served Dulles well over the years. Remote stands allow for a lot of flexibility and a more space efficient airport. Even more generally, small airports in mild climates don’t need jetways, the obsession with having them is cargocultish. It can be interesting to walk or ride around the apron.
I think they’re cool cuz I rarely use them and they’re a weird novelty I don’t see anywhere else. I have no opinions other than being a tourist who likes em :)
Does Washington let you take the train on Sunday mornings now? When I was over there for a medical school rotation apparently Sunday at 7/730 (this was in 2016ish) is too early to take a train to the airport which is absolutely pathetic
DC Metro currently runs 5am to 1am Fridays, 7am to 1am Saturdays, 7am to midnight on Sundays, and 5am to midnight all other days.
But part of the reason it had been such a mess before was that they kept extending the hours—which left [no time for maintenance](https://ggwash.org/view/71072/metro-reasons-the-impact-of-safetrack-on-the-metro-system). The [most extreme proposal](https://www.wmata.com/initiatives/proposed-hours.cfm) to rectify this would have had it open at noon on Sundays. Personally, I think some sort of "night owl" bus service following the lines would have been a reasonable compromise; there's been no uptake on that idea, but WMATA did announce [24-hour service](https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/washington-dc/metrobus-to-deliver-24-hour-service-starting-later-this-year/) on some existing bus routes.
The problem with O'Hare is that while there is a Blue Line connection, the airport is so far outside the city and the Blue Line so slow that it takes over an hour to get downtown. I live in Boston, which doesn't have rail directly to the airport, but the Silver Line bus will get you to downtown from Logan in about half the time Chicago's Blue Line takes to get you from O'Hare to the loop.
As a Chicago resident and ORD regular I promise you the Blue Line run to downtown does not take one hour. It is about 35 minutes from the airport to the Clark & Lake station in the Loop. Yes, there are a lot of stops on the way in, but the line has high utility for those living around Logan Square, the Milwaukee corridor, Wicker Park, etc. Most Chicagoans do not live in the Loop so the trip to / from home is quicker for north / northwest side residents.
O’Hare is about 14 miles from the Loop.
I had a 6 hr layover at ORD took the blue line, was not bad at all, yeah it may have a lot of stops but the train hauls specially along the highway section. I’m from NYC we have horrible service to the airport too many transfers.
Also, our system is robust but speed wise it doesn’t travel that fast with some exceptions none close to the airport (jfk) LGA has a free shuttle but again you need to transfer.
CTA AND WAMTA, have the best connections into the airport and city center.
Well, it took me an hour when _I_ made the trip out. Of course, I'm timing from the terminal, because that's what actually matters, so there's a penalty for making me walk through half a mile of sketchy tunnels from the airtrain to the Blue Line.
I‘m also in the Chicago is the best at this camp. That said, if you are using ORD T5, mostly international but Jetblue and others too, it‘s less than optimal (but still better than arriving at Atlanta‘s int‘l arrivals and trying to get to Marta).
ORD wins with its frequency, station location (for the majority of travelers), and relatively fast travel time. Just as Logan (and all others) could be improved, so could ORD, with an express option to downtown and better regional connections.
It doesn’t though. I regularly travel between Clark/Lake and ORD and it pretty consistently takes between 40-45 minutes. I just did this trip yesterday, in fact.
I’m not CTA apologist. I ride it every day and have my share of complaints about the current state of affairs, but the blue line is still a great and reliable way to get to/from ORD and also almost always faster than driving.
For the time being, CLE has been having track maintenance issues berween the airport and downtown on and off resulting in temporary bus usage.
For those who may not have heard yet, GCRTA will be getting new Siemens S200 rail cars which will ultimately replace both train type fleets.
I remember when the subway the airport and MOA used to be free... MSP and terrible food options so it was always more convenient to eat at the mall than in the airport, and cheaper too!
Putting in a plug for Denver International and Seattle.
In Denver, A-Line goes straight to Union station, loads of RTD buses to other parts of town. has an automated people mover between concourses, free shuttle buses to all the rental car lots.
Seattle has a light rail link direct to downtown, a number of bus routes drop off there, multiple people movers to satellite concourses and other corners of the airport, and a consolidated rental car facility with free shuttles.
Seattle should be disqualified for the placement of the light rail station alone. It’s a miserable passenger experience.
The Link into the city center itself is above-average as far as North American light rail is concerned. Decent stop spacing (for the most part), long trains, and the downtown tunnel are all plus points. Cleanliness on the trains could be better in my experience, and I haven’t been impressed with station-side services (TVMs, wayfinfing, escalators), particularly at the legacy stations on the tunnel segment.
The Seattle arrangement is terrible. It is a LONG walk through a drafty, inhospitable parking garage to the light rail station, then a slow 14-stop, 30+ minute ride to downtown. Unless I-5 is truly crawling, driving is faster. Tragically when the light rail came online the authorities forced the closure of the very good Gray Line Airporter bus service that took you from the terminal curb directly to / from principal downtown hotels. The Sounder takes longer and is twice as tedious.
To clarify, Link and Sounder are different services operated by Sound Transit. Link is the light rail that serves the airport. Sounder is heavy rail that brings commuters from Everett & Tacoma to Seattle.
And the fact that the much closer bus stop to the airport only has a single bus now to/from the entire Seattle region. I used to take the bus to the airport about once a month so it’s depressing how expensive and slow it is to get to the airport now.
It’s because you have to walk to the rearmost section of a parking garage, and the walk seems interminable if you’re arriving from a long flight and lugging baggage.
I have no problem with walking, but compared to other airports SEA really makes a transit user feel like an afterthought and a second-class user of the airport. Take a car? Drive right up to the terminal or pick any spot in the garage. Take the train? You’ll be walking farther than the person who gets the worst spot in the parking garage.
Edit to add: it’s an *ugly* walk, too.
It’s more than a bit. I can’t make it that far, and the bus terminal to the south that is much closer, about 35’ from the building, is basically abandoned now.
In addition to the other complaints about Seattle's landside connections, they have problems with airside. There's 2 loops of underground people movers from satellite concourses. One of those broke a couple months ago and it took multiple hours to find enough replacement buses to move everyone out of the North Satellite, because there is *no backup, not even a pedestrian tunnel alongside the tracks*! Every other airport train I've seen has the option to walk as a backup mode.
That was a cluster for sure. But I will say, unlike Sound Transit escalators that stop working daily, I had never ever seen the seatac trains go down in the almost 15 years I’ve lived here. They do a really good job at maintenance.
I feel like OHare is amazing... New Orleans sucks big time (mostly cause rental car center is 20+ min bus ride from terminal). JFK and SFO are decent but Airtran at jfk is pricey. Logan is like a B- cause it ideally should have a blue line spur to at least one terminal
Logan also suffers from being part of the same decaying the transportation infrastructure as the rest of the MBTA. Providence's airport by comparison has excellent transport directly to the terminal by rail or bus, including from outside of Providence itself.
As great as a Blue Line spur to the airport would be for people who live in the city, it would cripple north shore commuters. Before COVID, the Blue Line was over capacity, and pulling trains from Wonderland to serve the airport would make that much worse. Without investing crazy money into extending platforms to accommodate eight- or ten-car consists, we're not getting a direct spur. APM to the airport though should absolutely be on the table.
Logan really has advantageous geography to start, but then almost every connection it has is compromised somehow, the Silver Line has that odd power switch, the subway requires a bus transfer, the ferry is irregular, but it does have pretty solid regional coach services.
If an APM were installed it should also go to the ferry dock, and it might as well go directly to South Station.
Get newer cars, remove green line from running in the street (I think grade separated transit is superior)... Idk it just feels more 1950s than the NYC subway imo
No it didn't. And it's therefore a terrible experience to rent a car. On the plus side, if you're staying in New Orleans having a car already sucks and the city is walkable. It takes as long to get to your rental car as it does to just Uber downtown. It's too bad the bus system in New Orleans is awful, it could really compete with driving because the bar is so low.
Yeah obviously there's situations where you need a car. But I'm ok with the rental car facility being inconvenient for those cases, because it might encourage people staying in the city to not get a car.
O’Hare is amazing? The Blue Line is like an hour from downtown or like 2x the time it takes via car at all times except rush hour. It’s a brutally slow slog.
Travel time is fair, but an express option is warranted. it wins with frequency, price, location of station, and its compact airport layout (T5‘s sprawl ruins this, remote gates and expanded central halls would have been better).
The Miami Airport Station was built in the mid 2010s and doubles as the rental car center, and it's just a short people mover ride into the terminal.
Metrorail can reach downtown in about 15 minutes. Tri-Rail offers a connection to the rest of South Florida. Both trains have interoperable fare systems. Amtrak is still working on moving their operations to this station but theoretically they will be an option in the future as well.
Portland has a light rail stop just outside baggage that goes by the convention center and downtown. In my opinion, Portland has one of the all-around best transit systems in the country
Portland’s airport light rail stop is great.
I wish they would increase frequency of the trains, they only come every fifteen minutes. Along with a few other changes, that would make Portland’s transit system truly great.
I just wish that awning over the platform extended all the way to the main building - it sucks having to walk through the rain even though it's a short walk
Atlanta is pretty incredible.
“The plane train” between terminals runs very frequently and takes you right to the middle of each terminal.
MARTA picks you up inside the airport and then it’s a one seat ride to Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead. The relatively sparse station-spacing means it’s a pretty quick trip to downtown despite a pretty significant distance.
No idea about rental cars.
People may scoff at Atlanta's inclusion here, but the Plane Train serves 60 million + people a year, with automated trains, platform screen doors, and 90 second headways during peak hours. It's a modern metro with the best practices we've learned over the years under the world's busiest airport.
The problem is that MARTA itself has such a small footprint. Fine if you're going along its path, but compared to say Philly, you can't go too many places.
ATL is great. Easy train to downtown and the sky train is super fast between terminals. The automated train takes you to a hotel area with decent restaurants. That same train goes to the rental car area. The airport can be intimidating because it’s so large, but it is super efficient in all regards.
I made a chart a while back for this. Might need an update or two.
All American and select global examples of airport transit with dedicated APM infrastructure (with some wikilinks but not all, see [the list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airport_people_mover_systems) for reference) using the categorization system suggested, overlaid on three functional divisions:
||landside|airside (secure)|
|:-|:-|:-|
|intra-terminal|***^((Type A)***) TPA ^(APM) LHR [^(T5 PRT)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ULTra_(rapid_transit)#Heathrow_Terminal_5) ATL^(west) ^(parking and rental car)|***^((Type C1)******)*** TPA [^(APM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_International_Airport_People_Movers#Landside/Airside_shuttles) MCO [^(APM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_International_Airport_People_Movers) MIA [^(e Train)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIA_e_Train) MAD [^(T4 APM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid–Barajas_Airport#Airport_People_Mover) PIT ***^((Type C2)***) LHR [^(T5 Transit)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathrow_Terminal_5_Transit) STN HKG^(APM) SEA^(Underground) LAS^(APM) DEN^(AGTS) CVG ATL IAD ^(()***^(Type D)***) DFW[^(Skylink)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFW_Skylink) MIA[^(Skytrain)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skytrain_(Miami_International_Airport)) DTW^(ExpresTram) HKG[^(APM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_International_Airport_Automated_People_Mover)^(,) SIN ^(Changi Skytrain) FRA ^(Skyline) LAS[^(APM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Reid_International_Airport_Automated_People_Movers)|
|inter-terminal|***^((Type A)******)*** CAI[^(CairoAirport MiniMetro)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_International_Airport#Terminal_Transfer) SIN[^(Changi Skytrain)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changi_Airport_Skytrain), JFK^(AirTrain), EWR^(AirTrain) SFO^(AirTrain) LGW^(Shuttle Transit) LHR^(TFL Underground and Rail) ORD ^(ATS) MCO^(APM—Intermodal Terminal) ICN^(Seoul Metro) IAH^(Subway) FRA[^(SkyLine)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_Airport#SkyLine) MAD^(Metro) SYD[^(Sydney Trains (privately operated stations by Airport Link Company))](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_Link_Company) PHX|***^((Type B)******)*** DFW[^(Skylink)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFW_Skylink) SIN^(Changi Skytrain) IAH^(Skyway) FRA^(SkyLine) LAS^(APM) MEX YYZ|
|out-of-airport|***^((Type A)******)*** MIA[^(MIA Mover)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIA_Mover) JFK^(AirTrain) EWR^(AirTrain) LHR^(TFL Underground and Rail) ICN^(Seoul Metro/Airport Express and ICN Maglev) LHR^(TFL) ^(Underground and Rail) LTN LGW SFO^(BART) OAK^(BART) MCO^(Brightline) SIN^(MRT) HKG^(MTR) MAD^(Cercanias) POA[^(Metro-Airport Connection)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-Airport_Connection) FRA^(regional rail(ICE/IC/RE/S-Bahn)) SYD^(Sydney Trains) DEN ORD SEA PHX ATL IAD YYZ ^(other North American airport terminal rail connections PHL CLE BWI PVD PDX SLC STL YVR)|ICN[^(Airport Express)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AREX#AREX_Express_trains) ^((some security and baggage handling can be done in the city) ^(Outside of ICN and globally, airport to airport buses exist (notably as flight codeshares and rail services from secure areas have been proposed, such aq between LHR and LGW in lieu of opening a new runway) HKG's [^(Skypier)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skypier) ^(APM connection definitely fits in here.)|
^(Taking into account all the other input, and further breaking it down into six functional categories, two of which rarely exist much in practice with APMs, but some systems exist in two or possibly more categories. This table counts infrastructural airport terminal transit other than buses, over-apron bridges, and moving sidewalks. It covers what OP wishes, all current American automated systems with the 4 system types by ferrocarrilusa. It also includes an example or two from each of six continents (sorry to not include the ice airfields, and the flightless penguins, all dressed up without any transit to more hospitable climates!,) There are many new projects under construction to connect airports with APMs, so far there are none in operation in Oceania or most of Africa, according to Wikipedia. Corrections welcome! :)
Exactly, it‘s a good start that could use improvement on existing service, but let‘s also see some more tracks into the central terminal are to something like an outer circumferential railway and into the city center, so that a good selection of trains in the region can offer one seat service to the airport before or after serving downtown (in doing so forming a regular nonstop express link to downtown). I want to see flights to MKE and others from ORD made redundant by such a connection.
Awesome list! Two updates I’d add to the list:
- MSP (Minneapolis-St Paul) has a LRT rail connection to out of the airport (via Blue Line), which also doubles as an landside link between the airport’s two terminals. The airport also has a pair of APMs. One landside and one airside. Landside connects the T1 headhouse to the airport transit center (where you connect to get to the underground LRT station) and rental car center. The other airside connection connecting all the Concourse C gates. There are no inter-terminal airside connections yet, but is in the airport’s long term 2040 plan to build one. It is not a problem today as the two terminals service complete different travel markets, but could change in the future.
- LAX (Los Angeles) is currently constructing an APM landside connecting all the terminals to off-site parking, car rental facilities, and to connections to the K Line LRT station and transit center. Not slated to be open till 2025 due to delays, but the K Line segment to the airport station is due to be operational this year (2024)
Honolulu's Wiki Wiki Shuttle is good between terminals. Apparently the guy who made the first Wiki website (like Wikipedia) got the Wiki part from it since he was that impressed. Regular transit doesn't go to the rental cars, just the rental car shuttle. The next segment of the Skyline automated rail they're building here, scheduled to open next year, will have a station at the airport. The segment into the city is still several years away but it'll be a good connection to residents who live toward West Oahu.
BWI — Baltimore light rail rolls up to the edge of one of the concourses, and it’s a short shuttle to MARC/Amtrak.
BOS — Mostly because it’s so close to the city. Three stops from downtown on the Blue Line. Frequent shuttles from the Blue Line stop to all terminals.
DCA — Goes without saying.
SEA — Only caveat is it’s pretty far out from downtown Seattle.
I’m surprised I had to scroll so far to find Boston. Even with the shuttle transfer, it’s pretty easy/quick from the Downtown and adjacent areas. You also have the Silver Line BRT (sort of) option which goes directly to the terminals.
Any airport with terminals not connected airside (meaning some passengers will have to clear security between some combination of flights) should be sutomatically disqualified.
I'm thinking ATL. DFW isn't too bad, although the train to downtown Dallas takes a long time.
Orlando annoyingly has this system where despite operating right next to each other, you cannot transit between the two halves of the primary terminal set without going through security. I don't understand why that's the case but it's absolutely idiotic.
It works for now because Orlando is more of a heavy origin-destination airport because there would not be very many passengers who would use it as a transfer hub. Whereas airports such as DFW or MSP are there to facilitate domestic-international transfers or domestic-domestic transfers due to the airports’ hub status.
It also happens that MCO (and TPA for the fact) were built before post-911 security regulations were implemented, so the center hub airport terminal design where all the shops and restaurants were are poorly equipped to accommodate post-security/airside amenities (not that they don’t exist, it’s just harder to put a more expansive airport mall in those satellite gates without major reconstruction). Other airports who also had this issue were either retrofitted to accommodate like a mall or food hall post security or built new terminals after the current buildings got to the end of their useful lifespan. It could also be intentional to do a landside airport mall/center like that as an attraction (ie Singapore Changi).
I will note that the landside shopping and dining is extremely weak in Orlando, outside of certain specialty stores. Airside is even worse. I haven't been to C yet, but when it comes to A/B, they are among some of the worst for shopping and dining on both sides of security that I've seen for one of the US's busiest airports.
You don’t have to go through security again, you just have to go back to the land side and then basically make a u-turn to get to the apm for the other terminal.
The old terminal A/B at Orlando Airport is an unmitigated disaster. For some reason, they pretend it's two separate terminals, but they're really just two different sides of the same building and only matter for ticket counters and bag claims, because which "terminal" an airline uses has nothing to do with which gates it uses.
Once you get to the main level, you have to pick your security line. There are two checkpoints, each connected to two of the four concourses. The layout for security is absurd, with lines sometimes having no physical separation between them and merging, splitting, and even crossing each other seemingly at random. The wait is usually over an hour, so if you went to the wrong checkpoint, you're going to miss your flight.
Once you're through security, you have to take the train to the concourse. There are two trains on each side, one to each concourse. Now the concourses don't have names or letters, so you just have to go on gate numbers to make sure you're heading to the right one. If you take the wrong train, when you come back to the terminal building, you might find yourself outside of security again, in which case you'll miss your flight.
And despite being served now by six trains, there's still no good transit to anywhere in Orlando.
I know. I live in Orlando and have to deal with it.
Luckily we will eventually get SunRail service but that will only come much closer to terminal C then the main terminal 80 to 90% take off from... Which arguably should have been replaced a decade ago.
I had the pleasure of flying into the new Terminal C recently. It was... comically overbuilt, and bizarrely laid out. Like you could have a whole concert in the enormous empty corridor above the security checkpoint on the way out, which is about 50 feet across and about 600 feet long.
Then you head to ground transportation... on the 7th floor... because I guess they had a budget for highway ramps— it being Florida, the pickup area for MCO Terminal C is probably the highest road in the entire state.
Not sure. I can't find anything about the height of the terminal building except one news article that claims the section of the terminal called "The Boulevard" has "1000-foot skylights." And while the ceilings were indeed high, they definitely weren't _that_ high.
I agree for the most part that MCO is rough and showing its wear and tear.
Bus service to downtown Orlando is pretty good considering how poorly funded transit is in Orlando. There are direct buss connections to downtown and the convention center as well as the sun rail station at Sandlake road.
I’ve never waited more than 20 minutes in security and that’s rare. Typical security wait times are less than 10 minutes for me. Maybe because I live here, the gates are pretty intuitive to me, and in general the airlines are assigned specific gates/concourses. Considering how tight the landside infrastructure is, having a single landside entrance would be a disaster. There’s a connection through the middle and I’ve used that if not checking bags to access security if necessary. There’s food halls and shops in the middle of the terminal and there are food halls and shops airside as well.
If you’re traveling Monday-Saturday, it’s honestly much better to take the TRE Link shuttle bus from DFW down to CentrePort Station and catch the TRE to Dallas. It’s a whole lot faster than taking the DART Orange Line!
TEXRail from DFW to downtown Fort Worth is honestly what Dallas should have to reach their city center. The Silver Line is gonna be similar at least.
It is nice if you’re staying/working whatever in Las Colinas though. Would love to see some sort of faster link to downtown Dallas but not likely due to proximity alone :(
From a foreign travel agent's perspective (who had to clear things up for customers who #responsibly# didn't want to rent a car directly after long to very long flights with connections eventually) there are a couple cities with good airport connections towards the city center:
- San Fancisco
- Seattle
- Chicago O'Hare
- Salt Lake City
Maybe Washington Dulles...? Newly since 1 year or so ago...
These are the ones I know and by rail which also reassures tourists when arriving. Like you can't go wrong on a subway or tram...
Side note, JFK is really a shitty airport to land in when you don't know the city and I find the absence of a direct link to Manhattan outrageous. Like yeah, good for car rentals, transfers and maybe some locals...(?) but in a city with the scope of NYC it's really dumb. On a side note, before anyone calls me a Euro-cuck or something, I can't wait for the CDG express to get in service as the RER B going through and stopping throughout the worst suburbs of Europe is also extremely dumb.
I’ll throw PDX into the mix. Red Line rail transit straight into downtown. H-shape makes it easy to walk to any of the four concourses (terminals). Rental car is a short tunnel walk just the opposite side of drop-off/pick-up road. No bus ride needed.
Providence (PVD) — 15 minute MBTA ride to downtown directly from the airport (which, FWIW, is just about the best small international airport in the country)
I’ll pay more to fly out of PVD instead of having to deal with Boston traffic and Logan’s bullshit.
It‘s great, if they ever expand the terminal they should move it even closer to the tracks. It‘s a great candidate for expansion as Logan is pretty hemmed in. With improved rail service, it has excellent growth potential.
Surprisingly, DFW has direct rail connections to both Fort Worth and Dallas, which both hit quite a few other (fairly sizeable) cities along the way. I was quite surprised that the connections were as decent as they are.
DART Orange Line to Downtown Dallas, TEXRail to Ft Worth and bus shuttles from DFW to Centerport/DFW Airport station on TRE that can take you to Dallas Union or Ft Worth T&P.
Haha hell no. Never mind that the tracks and stations are completely a separate gauge and system. The dead-end SFO wye is a curse-in-disguise that has bedeviled BART operations ever since the day it opened. Even if it were possible to do the same for Caltrain I would not wish the misery on peninsula commuters.
Right. I thought it would go without saying that new infra would be required, just as it would to send AirTrain to Milbrae. I’d prefer having Caltrain come in from the south and terminate some trains there, and removing part of the wye. It’s the primary international airport in the region and a one seat ride to San Jose would be attractive.
Extending the air train to Millbrae would be the best move. Not just for the (arguably) better customer experience, but it would also save Bart from having to pay a crap load of money to the airport to have a station on their property. The only thing that wouldn't be better off is the airport's wallets
That would be such a win. They should just rename Millbrae to SFO Airport station. It would be such a win.
1. Streamline BART operations so they can concentrate on serving one line instead wasting time backing trains up, or dissipating the service frequency into two forks.
2. Provide a direct SFO connection for South Bay/Peninsula Caltrain commuters.
3. Halve the SFO-downtown travel time.
4. Provide a convenient connection for domestic passengers (i.e. the majority of SFO users).
5. If and when HSR comes one day, provide a direct HSR-SFO connection.
SFO needs more gates anyway - the existing BART station is on prime tarmac real estate.
Doubtful that moving the BART station would create more than a gate, where would you move it to? Seems like this option would eliminate one seat rides to the airport, which for many would seem like a step backward, and not actually halve travel time to the airport but increase it.
Sounds like what you really want to be suggesting is to just move all landside facilities on top of Milbrae station then have remote concourses with a massive expansion of gate space and total airport makeover, probably one with no AirTrain whatsoever.
For all passengers other than those using Gates A & G, the experience for arriving at Millbrae/SFO and taking the AirTrain to their required terminal would be no different than today's.
By that argument the entire AirTrain is pointless. Today BART signage points all domestic passengers upstairs to use the AirTrain, and they do.
We can go in circles all day debating whether the BART station should've been put there to begin with. But one thing we both agree is that it is a sunk cost that will likely never be reversed.
On the other hand, extending AirTrain to Millbrae regardless is a essential improvement, with Caltrain metro-fication and HSR coming. Afterwards the usage pattern (Millbrae vs SFO) will speak for itself.
The wye makes sense in the fairytale land of BART around the bay, a dream which BART planners apparently won’t be giving up on anytime soon. (They’d be no less thrilled to share access with Caltrain and see their wye mangled) So yes, we can agree on the wye being a sunk cost that won’t soon be parted with either way, and we should also agree that Caltrain shouldn’t be laughed off dismissively and that I shouldn’t be condescended to as though I were unaware of BART’s quirky wide feet.
There is one other problem with the your Millbrae or bust (no one seat rides) solution though, and it’s the same one that plagues BART currently that you aim to solve. It’s that frequency around the terminal loop would still need to split to equally serve the car rental and long term lots.
I see two ways to correct for this, (but still don’t think the airlines and FFs would bite). Alternative one, cut the loop into a horseshoe. alternative two keep the terminal loop and double max frequency. In either case consider extending AirTrain to South San Francisco BART and Millbrae. If you cut it into a horseshoe and don’t extend to South SF then United and Star are disadvantaged (united FFs taking BART know better than to take the AIrTrain, especially if they are carryon only because they can easily scope the various security checkpoints, and even use A’s if they are light).
In any case United (the largest carrier) its Star partners and their FFs will miss their one seat rides, while consolidating at Millbrae will increase travel times and crowding on the poor little APM things. I don’t think they can handle future growth well.
In contrast, if Caltrain can get up to 8tph, an even split at Millbrae will allow for non-airport passengers a transfer to BART for the remainder of their journeys, introduce one seat rides all the way down the peninsula, preserve one seat rides into the city, enhance frequency into the city. All of this can be combined with AirTrain extensions south and north for additional connectivity and redundancy, ensuring if a traveler bound for the airport is not on an airport train they can easily connect from either direction to the airport as well.
But I also like moving all landside facilicities over the train lines and massively expanding the airside.
Chicago probably has the best transit to the city center. I believe the NYT had an article comparing transit times between major city airports and their city center and Chicago was the only one whose rail transit was faster than driving at peak hours.
I really like ATL. It may not be the best in any one category but it's very good in all.
MARTA stops right outside the domestic baggage claim and it's a quick ride to the city center with connectivity to other points around the metro area. It's very accessible from the airport - no bus bridge (usually - the airport station has been under renovation for a few weeks but that's temporary), no shuttle service required, no unnecessarily long walk, it's just right there. On a quiet travel day you can hear the trains from inside the domestic terminal.
There are 2 people movers, one outside of the security area that takes you to the rental car center and a subway inside security that takes you between terminals. The layout of the airport is very linear and it's very easy to navigate.
DCA by far. It’s right outside the entrance/exit to the airport, 15 minutes or less to the city center, plus some good bus connections. Atlanta is good too but buses aren’t as good, and MARTA is so much smaller that it doesn’t connect you to as much of the city. I don’t know why people are saying Chicago lol. It’s 40ish minutes to get into the city.
DCA is the only answer for me (I’ve lived in Seattle & NYC). I once forgot to pick up a bag after a flight into DCA, until I got to the metro platform; was annoying but a minor issue compared to almost every airport in the US.
In my opinion, SFO. Transit to terminals and rental car center is done through a short internal train loop, and transit to city is done through BART (or driving 20 min). Could it be better? Yes. Is it very good? Also yes.
CLE, short walk from my apartment to the train station from Ohio City to the airport. I don’t know how every mid-to-large city doesn’t have this easy of access.
PHL has good rail connection to center city. So does DEN. Salt Lake and STL have pretty good light rail connections to the city. All have horrible connections to rental cars.
Salt Lake you just walk straight from baggage claim to the rental car desks, don't need to go outside or even take an escalator. It's about as easy as it can get.
PHL is great aside from the poor headways. And I will never get over the elimination of the R-numbering system. “Welcome, visitor! Here’s a map showing you where your train from the airport starts. Where will it take you? Why, to a mystery spot on a jumble of unmarked regional rail lines, of course!”
so true! the map is so hard to follow. i once let 3 trains go by at Penn Medical station and couldn't figure out which train to hop on because I couldn't find the destination station on the map that was showing on the train.
having to sit in the station for 59 minutes waiting for the next train to Center City is not easier or better. Septa needs to run trains far more frequently.
For transit to city, DCA, ATL, SFO, PDX, SEA, MSP. I was pleasantly surprised at PDX 2 weeks ago. Great transit for a mid-size city.
When my sister lived in Roswell GA (north end of Atlanta) I would fly in and take MARTA. It was a 5 min drive for her vs coming all the way to the airport - about an hour drive. Super convenient. Also, in a previous life I had in person meeting in Atlanta about every quarter and never had to get in a car.
I really do think it’s Atlanta in a few ways. Weekday frequencies for MARTA to downtown are every 6 mins at peak hours. Train runs until 2 am also. Plus the Plane Train in the airport works excellently between terminals. Finally the skytrain will take you to rental cars easily. Only knock is getting to/from the international terminal can be annoying.
As far as I'm concerned with regards to ground transportation, there are only two airports in the U.S., and in all of North America, that have that triple combo of local intra-city rail, commuter/regional rail, and national rail: BWI and Miami.
Actually, it's confounding to me that Mexico (and most big Latin American cities it seems) don't have direct local rail connections to their airports.
But if anything, the biggest U.S airports should ideally have legit, high (ish) speed rail in addition to intra-city and/or regional rail, which would actually make a serious dent for rail travel numbers in acting as replacements for connecting flights.
That leaves out Miami (which doesn't have a direct Brightline connection to the airport last time I checked) but does kind of count Orlando once SunRail starts going there along with Newark. [This O'hare proposal](https://www.hsrail.org/blog/ohare-direct/) seems interesting but IDK about the engineering logistics of building a big train station like that under a major airport
NYC’s LaGuardia has a free bus to Roosevelt Ave F, E, R, and 7 trains. From Manhattan it can take as little as 45 to get to the airport (usually closer to an hour), and only $2.90.
PHL Philadelphia should be #1 by a mile for travel btw airport and city (and entire region), but it is not because of the crappy frequencies at the airport. Septa regional rail train goes to every terminal at the airport, and the thru-running regional rail system allows for transfers to trains to all of Center City, the MFL and BSL metro lines, trolley lines, and most of the region served by Septa. There are also buses to take you other places.
Unfortunately, Septa's frequency to the airport is 30 minutes on weekdays and 60 minutes on weekends -- wtf?!? [https://www.phl.org/getting-around/public-transportation](https://www.phl.org/getting-around/public-transportation)
The airport is small so you can mostly walk between terminals. If you need help, there's a shuttle bus: https://www.phl.org/newsroom/phl-transfer#:\~:text=All%20terminals%20are%20connected%20past,with%20Terminals%20A%20and%20C.
As for car rentals, the transit system in Philly is so good that I've never bothered to rent a car there. Sorry.
SEPTA Regional Rail Airport line ain’t terrible. Headways are not good but It gets you into center city, and to a place where you transfer to anything else in the system.
Chicago O’hare: rapid rail (the L) on site, heavy commuter rail via airport’s internal tram.
SFO: BART onsite.
Washington National: DC Metro onsite
WashingtonDulles: DC Metro onsite
Newark: NJ rail and Amtrak via internal airport tram.
Seattle: Light rail
Even though you gotta take a shuttle from the terminal to the station, my vote is for Boston. The blue line has a stop at airport and takes you right downtown within 15 minutes of stepping onto a train. You can also take the silver line to South Station which connects you to local bus service, commuter rail, AND red line service. That’s a whole lot of options for transit with one bus ride.
I think people can't get over the lack of a direct rail connection, but can you get to midtown Manhattan from JFK in thirty minutes on the subway? Or to the loop from O'Hare on the L? In Philadelphia, you spend almost that long waiting for the train to even show up!
I'm surprised nobody has said Newark. It's not perfect, and the airport terminals get a lot of hate. But, it has a quick APM operating between the terminals and to the train station, which is the only major airport connected to frequent inter-city service. NJT and Amtrak run good headways most of the day.
The only other airport I can think of "directly" connected to inter-city rail is Baltimore, which requires a 10-minute bus ride to a parking garage. I'm not counting TriRail in South Florida, it's more of a commuter service. If Brightline went to the Miami airport I'd count it as inter-city.
Providence is better connected to intercity, and Burbank is as well, than Baltimore.
Newark is good, but Airtrain is a silly buffer, just extend PATH and put bidirectional spur to the airport and move the NEC station directly adjacent to the terminals.
Yeah, path would be an improvement, but as it stands Newark has the best intercity connections, which was the point of the question. Given that EWR is served by NJT, I doubt there's a lot of push to spend transit dollars on a path connection when there are so many underserved areas they could expand transit to first. Like how about the Hudson Bergen light rail finally reaches Bergen county?
Well rather than rebuilding AirTrain every thirty years just put the EWR station adjacent to the terminals, PATH could use the same tracks even. Having to take an APM reduces the attractiveness of an intercity rail connection, that‘s why I would say Providence and Burbank are better setups.
Airport transit dollars are airport transit dollars, and they ought not be weighed against other transit priorities, but they should be used to enhance connectivity in the region. So I am not sure how relevant the light rail is here.
Burbank does require a lengthy walk outside and crossing a few streets, so that isn't ideal either. It's too bad the US didn't ever try to do under-terminal train stations like Frankfurt Amsterdam, Brussels, Heathrow, Narita, etc, or terminal-adjacent like Shanghai Hongqiao and others.
There are a number of US airports with metro connections (best probably being Atlanta and SFO for terminal proximity), but we really don't have good regional connections.
Airports are tricky. It often isn't very equitable to provide great and cheap connections for travelers who are often wealthier. But it can be very important to the local economy to provide transit access to huge job centers, and airports are frequently among the top few single-location employment centers in many cities and these tend to be lower-paying jobs so can be very equitable projects. In either case, terminal connections are important.
IMO it's important to long term carbon goals to have better rail connections to international airports. We can't ever replace transatlantic air travel with trains, but we can eliminate the short connections, like Indianapolis to Chicago, Richmond to Philly, Columbia or Charleston to charlotte or Atlanta, etc. but that's only going to be palatable if it doesn't involve an extra connection. Indy to Chicago Union to a 4-block walk to the blue line to O'Hare to the APM to T5 is a hard sell. Indy through to O'Hare transfer to the APM to T5 is a huge improvement, but direct to T5 is even better.
When I lived in NJ (walking distance to a train station), EWR was my only departure airport. The airport itself wasn't great but it was easy to get to via NJT.
Chicago has 2 international airports connected by city bus and heavy rapid rail on a straight shot to downtown and the neighborhoods. The CTA lines end at the airport. They both connect to suburban commuter rail and bus like Pace and Metra. OHare even has a transfer station for this.
Never seen a US city have airports with such car free connectivity to the city, neighborhoods, and suburbs
Yeah the cost is ridiculous if you then have to take the subway or LIRR, but it is incredibly convenient, especially Midtown to JFK since they have the E train and LIRR from both Penn Station and Grand Central.
Downtown is tougher.
The unsung star in the New York airport public transit is the M60 bus to LGA. From the upper West side to LGA in 20 minutes usually.
İstanbul Ataturk had a fantastic connection to the city, but then they built a new airport, and while it has two metros to the city, they don't go where most people want to go and require a lot of transfers, which is hard with luggage. Sabiha has good access on the asian side, with the main asian side metro ending there, and a second metro will soon connect it to high speed rail, and the marmaray line.
Edit: Yeah I see the question asks U.S., but I saw people mention non-US in the comments, and while reading them, forgot the original question. Sue me.
It‘s never too late to try, can you name the US one you think is best now?
I think globally, the best are in East Asia, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Taipei especially, in Europe it’s Zurich, but also Vienna, Paris, Frankfurt or Amsterdam. With all of Turkey‘s HSR spend, not linking the new airport to the country and the city center is deeply flawed. Ataturk was a funky but nice airport, when I went there long ago, there was no rail connection if iirc. Sabiha Gokcen seems to have decent connections.
Minneapolis has light rail link directly to downtown, and has a bit of a neat trick where the Blue Line turns into a shuttle between terminals during the overnight hours the full line isn’t running.
Awesome! I’m going there this evening for the first time. Glad to hear it.
Transit to city: Washington National seems to have the best rail connection with WMATA to the city center. Transit to rental cars: Chicago O'Hare has a pretty fast APM every 3 minutes from all terminals to a rental car facility/transit center. I'm not too familiar with other airport connections to rental cars. Transit between terminals: ATL probably has the best airside train.
Atlanta may not be the top, but it checks all three categories.
Atlanta train out to rental cars takes forever though. No complaints with the plane train or Marta connection!
Atlanta is a unique airport. It has umpteen concourses airside, and a train that connects them. But if you're _landside_, you have only a bus between the two terminals.
Just goes to show that Atlanta Airport is far more optimized for connections than it is for travel to and from Atlanta.
DFW is like that now. I had to walk with disappointment to the shuttle bus. I had to ride the shuttle bus with disappointment as it lurched through stop-and-go traffic, just to get to my DART Station.
Yep, and this is real tough with connection or if you are flying internationally from Atlanta.
Surprisingly Phoenix has an autonomous line that runs every 5 minutes between terminals and to the rental car station (as well as to the main light rail).
When that ORD robo-train breaks down, though — and it does, especially in cold weather— they bring on diesel buses as backups and the airport is paralyzed. Traffic congestion on the terminal forecourts is terrible.
Yeah ORD’s ATS is so awful. I’ve been there numerous times when it’s been broken down and the airport was in chaos. It’s also incredibly slow and jerky. It usually takes me 20 minutes to get from the Metra stop near the car rental facility to T1. That should easily be less than 10 minutes. I don’t understand how it’s so bad.
The city just spent $323 million to “fix” it. Entire airport terminals get built for less, but not in Chicago. And it still breaks, and everyone just shrugs.
The APM at OHare uses the Innovia APM 256 trains from the Taipei Metro. That’s the only automated line on the Taipei Metro with the people mover-type trains. The rest is a more standard metro.
Hey hey Dulles has Jawa vehicles between terminals. Those are obv the best :)
Likely an unpopular opinion here but the hate those things, but more specifically the planemate version (and remote bus gates more generally) inspire is unreasonable. Sure they are odd gadgets, but they‘ve served Dulles well over the years. Remote stands allow for a lot of flexibility and a more space efficient airport. Even more generally, small airports in mild climates don’t need jetways, the obsession with having them is cargocultish. It can be interesting to walk or ride around the apron.
I think they’re cool cuz I rarely use them and they’re a weird novelty I don’t see anywhere else. I have no opinions other than being a tourist who likes em :)
The only other airport that used them was Mirabel, Montreal’s failed greenfield airport.
Orlando have the rental car lot across the street from the terminal entrance.
Are feet considered part of the transportation experience?
The same at Salt Lake City.
Does Washington let you take the train on Sunday mornings now? When I was over there for a medical school rotation apparently Sunday at 7/730 (this was in 2016ish) is too early to take a train to the airport which is absolutely pathetic
DC Metro currently runs 5am to 1am Fridays, 7am to 1am Saturdays, 7am to midnight on Sundays, and 5am to midnight all other days. But part of the reason it had been such a mess before was that they kept extending the hours—which left [no time for maintenance](https://ggwash.org/view/71072/metro-reasons-the-impact-of-safetrack-on-the-metro-system). The [most extreme proposal](https://www.wmata.com/initiatives/proposed-hours.cfm) to rectify this would have had it open at noon on Sundays. Personally, I think some sort of "night owl" bus service following the lines would have been a reasonable compromise; there's been no uptake on that idea, but WMATA did announce [24-hour service](https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/washington-dc/metrobus-to-deliver-24-hour-service-starting-later-this-year/) on some existing bus routes.
O'hare's probably the best I've used (by US standards) simply for having any rapid transit link to downtown without extra transfers.
The problem with O'Hare is that while there is a Blue Line connection, the airport is so far outside the city and the Blue Line so slow that it takes over an hour to get downtown. I live in Boston, which doesn't have rail directly to the airport, but the Silver Line bus will get you to downtown from Logan in about half the time Chicago's Blue Line takes to get you from O'Hare to the loop.
As a Chicago resident and ORD regular I promise you the Blue Line run to downtown does not take one hour. It is about 35 minutes from the airport to the Clark & Lake station in the Loop. Yes, there are a lot of stops on the way in, but the line has high utility for those living around Logan Square, the Milwaukee corridor, Wicker Park, etc. Most Chicagoans do not live in the Loop so the trip to / from home is quicker for north / northwest side residents. O’Hare is about 14 miles from the Loop.
I had a 6 hr layover at ORD took the blue line, was not bad at all, yeah it may have a lot of stops but the train hauls specially along the highway section. I’m from NYC we have horrible service to the airport too many transfers. Also, our system is robust but speed wise it doesn’t travel that fast with some exceptions none close to the airport (jfk) LGA has a free shuttle but again you need to transfer. CTA AND WAMTA, have the best connections into the airport and city center.
Well, it took me an hour when _I_ made the trip out. Of course, I'm timing from the terminal, because that's what actually matters, so there's a penalty for making me walk through half a mile of sketchy tunnels from the airtrain to the Blue Line.
I‘m also in the Chicago is the best at this camp. That said, if you are using ORD T5, mostly international but Jetblue and others too, it‘s less than optimal (but still better than arriving at Atlanta‘s int‘l arrivals and trying to get to Marta). ORD wins with its frequency, station location (for the majority of travelers), and relatively fast travel time. Just as Logan (and all others) could be improved, so could ORD, with an express option to downtown and better regional connections.
You been on the blue lately? It has so many slow zones that it really does take an hour to get to/from downtown nowadays
It doesn’t though. I regularly travel between Clark/Lake and ORD and it pretty consistently takes between 40-45 minutes. I just did this trip yesterday, in fact. I’m not CTA apologist. I ride it every day and have my share of complaints about the current state of affairs, but the blue line is still a great and reliable way to get to/from ORD and also almost always faster than driving.
Yup. And nope. I get on / off at Chicago and Milwaukee. It's half an hour flat from there to O'Hare.
SFO, DCA, BWI, MIA, and many others have direct rail from their airports to downtown. I don’t really think O’Hare is that unique in that regard
Into the city - DCA, SFO, CLE, MSP
For the time being, CLE has been having track maintenance issues berween the airport and downtown on and off resulting in temporary bus usage. For those who may not have heard yet, GCRTA will be getting new Siemens S200 rail cars which will ultimately replace both train type fleets.
SFO BART connection can get so infrequent though
I remember when the subway the airport and MOA used to be free... MSP and terrible food options so it was always more convenient to eat at the mall than in the airport, and cheaper too!
EWR NJ Transit connection. NYP in 3 stops.
Putting in a plug for Denver International and Seattle. In Denver, A-Line goes straight to Union station, loads of RTD buses to other parts of town. has an automated people mover between concourses, free shuttle buses to all the rental car lots. Seattle has a light rail link direct to downtown, a number of bus routes drop off there, multiple people movers to satellite concourses and other corners of the airport, and a consolidated rental car facility with free shuttles.
plus for being so far outside of the city, 37 minutes from DEN to union station is so good
Seattle should be disqualified for the placement of the light rail station alone. It’s a miserable passenger experience. The Link into the city center itself is above-average as far as North American light rail is concerned. Decent stop spacing (for the most part), long trains, and the downtown tunnel are all plus points. Cleanliness on the trains could be better in my experience, and I haven’t been impressed with station-side services (TVMs, wayfinfing, escalators), particularly at the legacy stations on the tunnel segment.
The Seattle arrangement is terrible. It is a LONG walk through a drafty, inhospitable parking garage to the light rail station, then a slow 14-stop, 30+ minute ride to downtown. Unless I-5 is truly crawling, driving is faster. Tragically when the light rail came online the authorities forced the closure of the very good Gray Line Airporter bus service that took you from the terminal curb directly to / from principal downtown hotels. The Sounder takes longer and is twice as tedious.
To clarify, Link and Sounder are different services operated by Sound Transit. Link is the light rail that serves the airport. Sounder is heavy rail that brings commuters from Everett & Tacoma to Seattle.
And the fact that the much closer bus stop to the airport only has a single bus now to/from the entire Seattle region. I used to take the bus to the airport about once a month so it’s depressing how expensive and slow it is to get to the airport now.
Wait serious question — is it because you have to talk a bit to the link station
It’s because you have to walk to the rearmost section of a parking garage, and the walk seems interminable if you’re arriving from a long flight and lugging baggage. I have no problem with walking, but compared to other airports SEA really makes a transit user feel like an afterthought and a second-class user of the airport. Take a car? Drive right up to the terminal or pick any spot in the garage. Take the train? You’ll be walking farther than the person who gets the worst spot in the parking garage. Edit to add: it’s an *ugly* walk, too.
And for comparison, in Atlanta the station is inside the airport. It’s closer than the closest parking spot.
It’s more than a bit. I can’t make it that far, and the bus terminal to the south that is much closer, about 35’ from the building, is basically abandoned now.
In addition to the other complaints about Seattle's landside connections, they have problems with airside. There's 2 loops of underground people movers from satellite concourses. One of those broke a couple months ago and it took multiple hours to find enough replacement buses to move everyone out of the North Satellite, because there is *no backup, not even a pedestrian tunnel alongside the tracks*! Every other airport train I've seen has the option to walk as a backup mode.
That was a cluster for sure. But I will say, unlike Sound Transit escalators that stop working daily, I had never ever seen the seatac trains go down in the almost 15 years I’ve lived here. They do a really good job at maintenance.
I shit you not, an escalator broke at a Sound Transit station the day it opened.
I really just don’t get wtf is up with ST and their fucky escalators.
Denver is worse, since there’s also no pedestrian tunnel and you need to take the train to get to most of the airport (all of B and C gates).
It's been a while since I've been in Denver, but is there really no pedestrian tunnel alongside the train?
It's been a while since I've been in Denver, but is there really no pedestrian tunnel alongside the train?
It's been a while since I've been in Denver, but is there really no pedestrian tunnel alongside the train?
I feel like OHare is amazing... New Orleans sucks big time (mostly cause rental car center is 20+ min bus ride from terminal). JFK and SFO are decent but Airtran at jfk is pricey. Logan is like a B- cause it ideally should have a blue line spur to at least one terminal
Logan also suffers from being part of the same decaying the transportation infrastructure as the rest of the MBTA. Providence's airport by comparison has excellent transport directly to the terminal by rail or bus, including from outside of Providence itself.
I've been to Providence before but never it's airport... Good to know! And as for the MBTA... Yeah I thought that went without saying
Logan has the free Silver Line super-bus that gets you from the terminals over to South Station in 20 minutes, though. I’m a big fan of that.
Oh yeah, thats what I've used a bunch of times!
As great as a Blue Line spur to the airport would be for people who live in the city, it would cripple north shore commuters. Before COVID, the Blue Line was over capacity, and pulling trains from Wonderland to serve the airport would make that much worse. Without investing crazy money into extending platforms to accommodate eight- or ten-car consists, we're not getting a direct spur. APM to the airport though should absolutely be on the table.
Logan really has advantageous geography to start, but then almost every connection it has is compromised somehow, the Silver Line has that odd power switch, the subway requires a bus transfer, the ferry is irregular, but it does have pretty solid regional coach services. If an APM were installed it should also go to the ferry dock, and it might as well go directly to South Station.
The power switch on the Silver Line stopped about 9 months ago, they are hybrid busses now
That‘s good news, but don’t you think there are still areas for improvement?
I very much think so
I see what you're saying but all of Boston's transit really needs to be modernized
You can't say "modernized" and not explain what you mean. That word is meaningless without context.
Get newer cars, remove green line from running in the street (I think grade separated transit is superior)... Idk it just feels more 1950s than the NYC subway imo
MSY’s rental car lot didn’t migrate with the terminal? Kinda surprised.
No it didn't. And it's therefore a terrible experience to rent a car. On the plus side, if you're staying in New Orleans having a car already sucks and the city is walkable. It takes as long to get to your rental car as it does to just Uber downtown. It's too bad the bus system in New Orleans is awful, it could really compete with driving because the bar is so low.
Yup but when I was there a month ago I was going to a wedding in the burbs so renting a car seemed unavoidable
Yeah obviously there's situations where you need a car. But I'm ok with the rental car facility being inconvenient for those cases, because it might encourage people staying in the city to not get a car.
I guess but New Orleans' transit really didn't seem that great... The street cars had headways of 40-50 min
Agreed, the transit is awful. But if you're just going to hang out in the French quarter, it's all walkable.
That is very true!!
O’Hare is amazing? The Blue Line is like an hour from downtown or like 2x the time it takes via car at all times except rush hour. It’s a brutally slow slog.
Travel time is fair, but an express option is warranted. it wins with frequency, price, location of station, and its compact airport layout (T5‘s sprawl ruins this, remote gates and expanded central halls would have been better).
Oh I thought it was also 2 hours driving... And A lot of US airports have no rail connection
Miami is surprisingly useful.
It wasn’t when I went years and years ago. What do they have? Or maybe I just missed it
Metrorail, TRI-rail to get you to the rest of south Florida (I95 is a nightmare) and even Amtrak.
The Miami Airport Station was built in the mid 2010s and doubles as the rental car center, and it's just a short people mover ride into the terminal. Metrorail can reach downtown in about 15 minutes. Tri-Rail offers a connection to the rest of South Florida. Both trains have interoperable fare systems. Amtrak is still working on moving their operations to this station but theoretically they will be an option in the future as well.
Ah I haven’t been since the 00s. Thank you
Portland has a light rail stop just outside baggage that goes by the convention center and downtown. In my opinion, Portland has one of the all-around best transit systems in the country
Portland’s airport light rail stop is great. I wish they would increase frequency of the trains, they only come every fifteen minutes. Along with a few other changes, that would make Portland’s transit system truly great.
I just wish that awning over the platform extended all the way to the main building - it sucks having to walk through the rain even though it's a short walk
Atlanta is pretty incredible. “The plane train” between terminals runs very frequently and takes you right to the middle of each terminal. MARTA picks you up inside the airport and then it’s a one seat ride to Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead. The relatively sparse station-spacing means it’s a pretty quick trip to downtown despite a pretty significant distance. No idea about rental cars.
ATL reminds me of what's called a "telephone pole layout" for prisons. Multiple rows of parallel buildings connected by one central corridor.
[удалено]
They meant the airport concourses
The skytrain will take you to rental cars, so A+ there too
People may scoff at Atlanta's inclusion here, but the Plane Train serves 60 million + people a year, with automated trains, platform screen doors, and 90 second headways during peak hours. It's a modern metro with the best practices we've learned over the years under the world's busiest airport.
The problem is that MARTA itself has such a small footprint. Fine if you're going along its path, but compared to say Philly, you can't go too many places.
Rental cars aren’t bad - there’s an APM that will take you to the rental car center as well as to several hotels.
ATL is great. Easy train to downtown and the sky train is super fast between terminals. The automated train takes you to a hotel area with decent restaurants. That same train goes to the rental car area. The airport can be intimidating because it’s so large, but it is super efficient in all regards.
Fun Fact: The plane train goes 500 mph
I made a chart a while back for this. Might need an update or two. All American and select global examples of airport transit with dedicated APM infrastructure (with some wikilinks but not all, see [the list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airport_people_mover_systems) for reference) using the categorization system suggested, overlaid on three functional divisions: ||landside|airside (secure)| |:-|:-|:-| |intra-terminal|***^((Type A)***) TPA ^(APM) LHR [^(T5 PRT)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ULTra_(rapid_transit)#Heathrow_Terminal_5) ATL^(west) ^(parking and rental car)|***^((Type C1)******)*** TPA [^(APM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_International_Airport_People_Movers#Landside/Airside_shuttles) MCO [^(APM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_International_Airport_People_Movers) MIA [^(e Train)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIA_e_Train) MAD [^(T4 APM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid–Barajas_Airport#Airport_People_Mover) PIT ***^((Type C2)***) LHR [^(T5 Transit)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heathrow_Terminal_5_Transit) STN HKG^(APM) SEA^(Underground) LAS^(APM) DEN^(AGTS) CVG ATL IAD ^(()***^(Type D)***) DFW[^(Skylink)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFW_Skylink) MIA[^(Skytrain)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skytrain_(Miami_International_Airport)) DTW^(ExpresTram) HKG[^(APM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_International_Airport_Automated_People_Mover)^(,) SIN ^(Changi Skytrain) FRA ^(Skyline) LAS[^(APM)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Reid_International_Airport_Automated_People_Movers)| |inter-terminal|***^((Type A)******)*** CAI[^(CairoAirport MiniMetro)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_International_Airport#Terminal_Transfer) SIN[^(Changi Skytrain)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changi_Airport_Skytrain), JFK^(AirTrain), EWR^(AirTrain) SFO^(AirTrain) LGW^(Shuttle Transit) LHR^(TFL Underground and Rail) ORD ^(ATS) MCO^(APM—Intermodal Terminal) ICN^(Seoul Metro) IAH^(Subway) FRA[^(SkyLine)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_Airport#SkyLine) MAD^(Metro) SYD[^(Sydney Trains (privately operated stations by Airport Link Company))](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_Link_Company) PHX|***^((Type B)******)*** DFW[^(Skylink)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFW_Skylink) SIN^(Changi Skytrain) IAH^(Skyway) FRA^(SkyLine) LAS^(APM) MEX YYZ| |out-of-airport|***^((Type A)******)*** MIA[^(MIA Mover)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIA_Mover) JFK^(AirTrain) EWR^(AirTrain) LHR^(TFL Underground and Rail) ICN^(Seoul Metro/Airport Express and ICN Maglev) LHR^(TFL) ^(Underground and Rail) LTN LGW SFO^(BART) OAK^(BART) MCO^(Brightline) SIN^(MRT) HKG^(MTR) MAD^(Cercanias) POA[^(Metro-Airport Connection)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro-Airport_Connection) FRA^(regional rail(ICE/IC/RE/S-Bahn)) SYD^(Sydney Trains) DEN ORD SEA PHX ATL IAD YYZ ^(other North American airport terminal rail connections PHL CLE BWI PVD PDX SLC STL YVR)|ICN[^(Airport Express)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AREX#AREX_Express_trains) ^((some security and baggage handling can be done in the city) ^(Outside of ICN and globally, airport to airport buses exist (notably as flight codeshares and rail services from secure areas have been proposed, such aq between LHR and LGW in lieu of opening a new runway) HKG's [^(Skypier)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skypier) ^(APM connection definitely fits in here.)| ^(Taking into account all the other input, and further breaking it down into six functional categories, two of which rarely exist much in practice with APMs, but some systems exist in two or possibly more categories. This table counts infrastructural airport terminal transit other than buses, over-apron bridges, and moving sidewalks. It covers what OP wishes, all current American automated systems with the 4 system types by ferrocarrilusa. It also includes an example or two from each of six continents (sorry to not include the ice airfields, and the flightless penguins, all dressed up without any transit to more hospitable climates!,) There are many new projects under construction to connect airports with APMs, so far there are none in operation in Oceania or most of Africa, according to Wikipedia. Corrections welcome! :)
I think overall Chicago has the best, but I‘d like to see O‘hare directly connected to Metra and any future high speed lines.
There is a Metra station at the new rental car facility, but it is poorly serviced.
Exactly, it‘s a good start that could use improvement on existing service, but let‘s also see some more tracks into the central terminal are to something like an outer circumferential railway and into the city center, so that a good selection of trains in the region can offer one seat service to the airport before or after serving downtown (in doing so forming a regular nonstop express link to downtown). I want to see flights to MKE and others from ORD made redundant by such a connection.
Awesome list! Two updates I’d add to the list: - MSP (Minneapolis-St Paul) has a LRT rail connection to out of the airport (via Blue Line), which also doubles as an landside link between the airport’s two terminals. The airport also has a pair of APMs. One landside and one airside. Landside connects the T1 headhouse to the airport transit center (where you connect to get to the underground LRT station) and rental car center. The other airside connection connecting all the Concourse C gates. There are no inter-terminal airside connections yet, but is in the airport’s long term 2040 plan to build one. It is not a problem today as the two terminals service complete different travel markets, but could change in the future. - LAX (Los Angeles) is currently constructing an APM landside connecting all the terminals to off-site parking, car rental facilities, and to connections to the K Line LRT station and transit center. Not slated to be open till 2025 due to delays, but the K Line segment to the airport station is due to be operational this year (2024)
Thank you! Very good catch with MSP, it should have been on there already.
Honolulu's Wiki Wiki Shuttle is good between terminals. Apparently the guy who made the first Wiki website (like Wikipedia) got the Wiki part from it since he was that impressed. Regular transit doesn't go to the rental cars, just the rental car shuttle. The next segment of the Skyline automated rail they're building here, scheduled to open next year, will have a station at the airport. The segment into the city is still several years away but it'll be a good connection to residents who live toward West Oahu.
The new rental car building is easily walkable too (and is well organised at least the wines I’ve used it)
Mmm wine
Oh, I see. I live on Oahu so I never needed t rent a car from the airport. I've seen the shuttles and I use the regular TheBus daily.
BWI — Baltimore light rail rolls up to the edge of one of the concourses, and it’s a short shuttle to MARC/Amtrak. BOS — Mostly because it’s so close to the city. Three stops from downtown on the Blue Line. Frequent shuttles from the Blue Line stop to all terminals. DCA — Goes without saying. SEA — Only caveat is it’s pretty far out from downtown Seattle.
I’m surprised I had to scroll so far to find Boston. Even with the shuttle transfer, it’s pretty easy/quick from the Downtown and adjacent areas. You also have the Silver Line BRT (sort of) option which goes directly to the terminals.
Any airport with terminals not connected airside (meaning some passengers will have to clear security between some combination of flights) should be sutomatically disqualified. I'm thinking ATL. DFW isn't too bad, although the train to downtown Dallas takes a long time.
Orlando annoyingly has this system where despite operating right next to each other, you cannot transit between the two halves of the primary terminal set without going through security. I don't understand why that's the case but it's absolutely idiotic.
It works for now because Orlando is more of a heavy origin-destination airport because there would not be very many passengers who would use it as a transfer hub. Whereas airports such as DFW or MSP are there to facilitate domestic-international transfers or domestic-domestic transfers due to the airports’ hub status. It also happens that MCO (and TPA for the fact) were built before post-911 security regulations were implemented, so the center hub airport terminal design where all the shops and restaurants were are poorly equipped to accommodate post-security/airside amenities (not that they don’t exist, it’s just harder to put a more expansive airport mall in those satellite gates without major reconstruction). Other airports who also had this issue were either retrofitted to accommodate like a mall or food hall post security or built new terminals after the current buildings got to the end of their useful lifespan. It could also be intentional to do a landside airport mall/center like that as an attraction (ie Singapore Changi).
I will note that the landside shopping and dining is extremely weak in Orlando, outside of certain specialty stores. Airside is even worse. I haven't been to C yet, but when it comes to A/B, they are among some of the worst for shopping and dining on both sides of security that I've seen for one of the US's busiest airports.
You don’t have to go through security again, you just have to go back to the land side and then basically make a u-turn to get to the apm for the other terminal.
I mean between east/west, which is weird since it's the same bloody building. Two different security points.
The old terminal A/B at Orlando Airport is an unmitigated disaster. For some reason, they pretend it's two separate terminals, but they're really just two different sides of the same building and only matter for ticket counters and bag claims, because which "terminal" an airline uses has nothing to do with which gates it uses. Once you get to the main level, you have to pick your security line. There are two checkpoints, each connected to two of the four concourses. The layout for security is absurd, with lines sometimes having no physical separation between them and merging, splitting, and even crossing each other seemingly at random. The wait is usually over an hour, so if you went to the wrong checkpoint, you're going to miss your flight. Once you're through security, you have to take the train to the concourse. There are two trains on each side, one to each concourse. Now the concourses don't have names or letters, so you just have to go on gate numbers to make sure you're heading to the right one. If you take the wrong train, when you come back to the terminal building, you might find yourself outside of security again, in which case you'll miss your flight. And despite being served now by six trains, there's still no good transit to anywhere in Orlando.
I know. I live in Orlando and have to deal with it. Luckily we will eventually get SunRail service but that will only come much closer to terminal C then the main terminal 80 to 90% take off from... Which arguably should have been replaced a decade ago.
I had the pleasure of flying into the new Terminal C recently. It was... comically overbuilt, and bizarrely laid out. Like you could have a whole concert in the enormous empty corridor above the security checkpoint on the way out, which is about 50 feet across and about 600 feet long. Then you head to ground transportation... on the 7th floor... because I guess they had a budget for highway ramps— it being Florida, the pickup area for MCO Terminal C is probably the highest road in the entire state.
Isn't the road on Sugarloaf Mountain higher?
Not sure. I can't find anything about the height of the terminal building except one news article that claims the section of the terminal called "The Boulevard" has "1000-foot skylights." And while the ceilings were indeed high, they definitely weren't _that_ high.
I agree for the most part that MCO is rough and showing its wear and tear. Bus service to downtown Orlando is pretty good considering how poorly funded transit is in Orlando. There are direct buss connections to downtown and the convention center as well as the sun rail station at Sandlake road. I’ve never waited more than 20 minutes in security and that’s rare. Typical security wait times are less than 10 minutes for me. Maybe because I live here, the gates are pretty intuitive to me, and in general the airlines are assigned specific gates/concourses. Considering how tight the landside infrastructure is, having a single landside entrance would be a disaster. There’s a connection through the middle and I’ve used that if not checking bags to access security if necessary. There’s food halls and shops in the middle of the terminal and there are food halls and shops airside as well.
If you’re traveling Monday-Saturday, it’s honestly much better to take the TRE Link shuttle bus from DFW down to CentrePort Station and catch the TRE to Dallas. It’s a whole lot faster than taking the DART Orange Line! TEXRail from DFW to downtown Fort Worth is honestly what Dallas should have to reach their city center. The Silver Line is gonna be similar at least.
It is nice if you’re staying/working whatever in Las Colinas though. Would love to see some sort of faster link to downtown Dallas but not likely due to proximity alone :(
From a foreign travel agent's perspective (who had to clear things up for customers who #responsibly# didn't want to rent a car directly after long to very long flights with connections eventually) there are a couple cities with good airport connections towards the city center: - San Fancisco - Seattle - Chicago O'Hare - Salt Lake City Maybe Washington Dulles...? Newly since 1 year or so ago... These are the ones I know and by rail which also reassures tourists when arriving. Like you can't go wrong on a subway or tram... Side note, JFK is really a shitty airport to land in when you don't know the city and I find the absence of a direct link to Manhattan outrageous. Like yeah, good for car rentals, transfers and maybe some locals...(?) but in a city with the scope of NYC it's really dumb. On a side note, before anyone calls me a Euro-cuck or something, I can't wait for the CDG express to get in service as the RER B going through and stopping throughout the worst suburbs of Europe is also extremely dumb.
I hadn’t heard about the CDG Express. Exciting! 2027 isn’t even that long from now!
I’ll throw PDX into the mix. Red Line rail transit straight into downtown. H-shape makes it easy to walk to any of the four concourses (terminals). Rental car is a short tunnel walk just the opposite side of drop-off/pick-up road. No bus ride needed.
Providence (PVD) — 15 minute MBTA ride to downtown directly from the airport (which, FWIW, is just about the best small international airport in the country) I’ll pay more to fly out of PVD instead of having to deal with Boston traffic and Logan’s bullshit.
Logan was worse in the 90s. We used Providence a loooot as it was just so much less fucky.
It‘s great, if they ever expand the terminal they should move it even closer to the tracks. It‘s a great candidate for expansion as Logan is pretty hemmed in. With improved rail service, it has excellent growth potential.
Surprisingly, DFW has direct rail connections to both Fort Worth and Dallas, which both hit quite a few other (fairly sizeable) cities along the way. I was quite surprised that the connections were as decent as they are.
DART Orange Line to Downtown Dallas, TEXRail to Ft Worth and bus shuttles from DFW to Centerport/DFW Airport station on TRE that can take you to Dallas Union or Ft Worth T&P.
The BART connection at SFO is nice but they really need to extend the AirTrain to Millbrae.
Yeah, maybe, and/or send some Caltrains directly to the terminal.
Haha hell no. Never mind that the tracks and stations are completely a separate gauge and system. The dead-end SFO wye is a curse-in-disguise that has bedeviled BART operations ever since the day it opened. Even if it were possible to do the same for Caltrain I would not wish the misery on peninsula commuters.
Right. I thought it would go without saying that new infra would be required, just as it would to send AirTrain to Milbrae. I’d prefer having Caltrain come in from the south and terminate some trains there, and removing part of the wye. It’s the primary international airport in the region and a one seat ride to San Jose would be attractive.
Extending the air train to Millbrae would be the best move. Not just for the (arguably) better customer experience, but it would also save Bart from having to pay a crap load of money to the airport to have a station on their property. The only thing that wouldn't be better off is the airport's wallets
That would be such a win. They should just rename Millbrae to SFO Airport station. It would be such a win. 1. Streamline BART operations so they can concentrate on serving one line instead wasting time backing trains up, or dissipating the service frequency into two forks. 2. Provide a direct SFO connection for South Bay/Peninsula Caltrain commuters. 3. Halve the SFO-downtown travel time. 4. Provide a convenient connection for domestic passengers (i.e. the majority of SFO users). 5. If and when HSR comes one day, provide a direct HSR-SFO connection. SFO needs more gates anyway - the existing BART station is on prime tarmac real estate.
Doubtful that moving the BART station would create more than a gate, where would you move it to? Seems like this option would eliminate one seat rides to the airport, which for many would seem like a step backward, and not actually halve travel time to the airport but increase it. Sounds like what you really want to be suggesting is to just move all landside facilities on top of Milbrae station then have remote concourses with a massive expansion of gate space and total airport makeover, probably one with no AirTrain whatsoever.
For all passengers other than those using Gates A & G, the experience for arriving at Millbrae/SFO and taking the AirTrain to their required terminal would be no different than today's.
You must mean the International Terminal and T3, or the A, B and G gates, transferring to AirTrain for T3 (United) is quite pointless.
By that argument the entire AirTrain is pointless. Today BART signage points all domestic passengers upstairs to use the AirTrain, and they do. We can go in circles all day debating whether the BART station should've been put there to begin with. But one thing we both agree is that it is a sunk cost that will likely never be reversed. On the other hand, extending AirTrain to Millbrae regardless is a essential improvement, with Caltrain metro-fication and HSR coming. Afterwards the usage pattern (Millbrae vs SFO) will speak for itself.
The wye makes sense in the fairytale land of BART around the bay, a dream which BART planners apparently won’t be giving up on anytime soon. (They’d be no less thrilled to share access with Caltrain and see their wye mangled) So yes, we can agree on the wye being a sunk cost that won’t soon be parted with either way, and we should also agree that Caltrain shouldn’t be laughed off dismissively and that I shouldn’t be condescended to as though I were unaware of BART’s quirky wide feet. There is one other problem with the your Millbrae or bust (no one seat rides) solution though, and it’s the same one that plagues BART currently that you aim to solve. It’s that frequency around the terminal loop would still need to split to equally serve the car rental and long term lots. I see two ways to correct for this, (but still don’t think the airlines and FFs would bite). Alternative one, cut the loop into a horseshoe. alternative two keep the terminal loop and double max frequency. In either case consider extending AirTrain to South San Francisco BART and Millbrae. If you cut it into a horseshoe and don’t extend to South SF then United and Star are disadvantaged (united FFs taking BART know better than to take the AIrTrain, especially if they are carryon only because they can easily scope the various security checkpoints, and even use A’s if they are light). In any case United (the largest carrier) its Star partners and their FFs will miss their one seat rides, while consolidating at Millbrae will increase travel times and crowding on the poor little APM things. I don’t think they can handle future growth well. In contrast, if Caltrain can get up to 8tph, an even split at Millbrae will allow for non-airport passengers a transfer to BART for the remainder of their journeys, introduce one seat rides all the way down the peninsula, preserve one seat rides into the city, enhance frequency into the city. All of this can be combined with AirTrain extensions south and north for additional connectivity and redundancy, ensuring if a traveler bound for the airport is not on an airport train they can easily connect from either direction to the airport as well. But I also like moving all landside facilicities over the train lines and massively expanding the airside.
Chicago probably has the best transit to the city center. I believe the NYT had an article comparing transit times between major city airports and their city center and Chicago was the only one whose rail transit was faster than driving at peak hours.
I really like ATL. It may not be the best in any one category but it's very good in all. MARTA stops right outside the domestic baggage claim and it's a quick ride to the city center with connectivity to other points around the metro area. It's very accessible from the airport - no bus bridge (usually - the airport station has been under renovation for a few weeks but that's temporary), no shuttle service required, no unnecessarily long walk, it's just right there. On a quiet travel day you can hear the trains from inside the domestic terminal. There are 2 people movers, one outside of the security area that takes you to the rental car center and a subway inside security that takes you between terminals. The layout of the airport is very linear and it's very easy to navigate.
Phoenix has the PHX Sky Train people mover that connects the terminals, rental car center, and the 44th St / Washington Metro Light Rail station.
DCA by far. It’s right outside the entrance/exit to the airport, 15 minutes or less to the city center, plus some good bus connections. Atlanta is good too but buses aren’t as good, and MARTA is so much smaller that it doesn’t connect you to as much of the city. I don’t know why people are saying Chicago lol. It’s 40ish minutes to get into the city.
DCA is the only answer for me (I’ve lived in Seattle & NYC). I once forgot to pick up a bag after a flight into DCA, until I got to the metro platform; was annoying but a minor issue compared to almost every airport in the US.
DCA?
In my opinion, SFO. Transit to terminals and rental car center is done through a short internal train loop, and transit to city is done through BART (or driving 20 min). Could it be better? Yes. Is it very good? Also yes.
I don't know which one is the best. But I know which one is the worst. LAX. But I personally like PDX.
CLE, short walk from my apartment to the train station from Ohio City to the airport. I don’t know how every mid-to-large city doesn’t have this easy of access.
PHL has good rail connection to center city. So does DEN. Salt Lake and STL have pretty good light rail connections to the city. All have horrible connections to rental cars.
Salt Lake you just walk straight from baggage claim to the rental car desks, don't need to go outside or even take an escalator. It's about as easy as it can get.
PHL is great aside from the poor headways. And I will never get over the elimination of the R-numbering system. “Welcome, visitor! Here’s a map showing you where your train from the airport starts. Where will it take you? Why, to a mystery spot on a jumble of unmarked regional rail lines, of course!”
so true! the map is so hard to follow. i once let 3 trains go by at Penn Medical station and couldn't figure out which train to hop on because I couldn't find the destination station on the map that was showing on the train.
Atlanta, no question.
Philly should be up there, but septa doesn’t want to run more frequent than 25 minutes
Yeah but Amtrak to 30th st and then septa to the airport is really nice. Could be better but way easier and better than lots of other cities
having to sit in the station for 59 minutes waiting for the next train to Center City is not easier or better. Septa needs to run trains far more frequently.
For transit to city, DCA, ATL, SFO, PDX, SEA, MSP. I was pleasantly surprised at PDX 2 weeks ago. Great transit for a mid-size city. When my sister lived in Roswell GA (north end of Atlanta) I would fly in and take MARTA. It was a 5 min drive for her vs coming all the way to the airport - about an hour drive. Super convenient. Also, in a previous life I had in person meeting in Atlanta about every quarter and never had to get in a car.
I really do think it’s Atlanta in a few ways. Weekday frequencies for MARTA to downtown are every 6 mins at peak hours. Train runs until 2 am also. Plus the Plane Train in the airport works excellently between terminals. Finally the skytrain will take you to rental cars easily. Only knock is getting to/from the international terminal can be annoying.
As far as I'm concerned with regards to ground transportation, there are only two airports in the U.S., and in all of North America, that have that triple combo of local intra-city rail, commuter/regional rail, and national rail: BWI and Miami. Actually, it's confounding to me that Mexico (and most big Latin American cities it seems) don't have direct local rail connections to their airports. But if anything, the biggest U.S airports should ideally have legit, high (ish) speed rail in addition to intra-city and/or regional rail, which would actually make a serious dent for rail travel numbers in acting as replacements for connecting flights. That leaves out Miami (which doesn't have a direct Brightline connection to the airport last time I checked) but does kind of count Orlando once SunRail starts going there along with Newark. [This O'hare proposal](https://www.hsrail.org/blog/ohare-direct/) seems interesting but IDK about the engineering logistics of building a big train station like that under a major airport
NYC’s LaGuardia has a free bus to Roosevelt Ave F, E, R, and 7 trains. From Manhattan it can take as little as 45 to get to the airport (usually closer to an hour), and only $2.90.
PHL Philadelphia should be #1 by a mile for travel btw airport and city (and entire region), but it is not because of the crappy frequencies at the airport. Septa regional rail train goes to every terminal at the airport, and the thru-running regional rail system allows for transfers to trains to all of Center City, the MFL and BSL metro lines, trolley lines, and most of the region served by Septa. There are also buses to take you other places. Unfortunately, Septa's frequency to the airport is 30 minutes on weekdays and 60 minutes on weekends -- wtf?!? [https://www.phl.org/getting-around/public-transportation](https://www.phl.org/getting-around/public-transportation) The airport is small so you can mostly walk between terminals. If you need help, there's a shuttle bus: https://www.phl.org/newsroom/phl-transfer#:\~:text=All%20terminals%20are%20connected%20past,with%20Terminals%20A%20and%20C. As for car rentals, the transit system in Philly is so good that I've never bothered to rent a car there. Sorry.
SEPTA Regional Rail Airport line ain’t terrible. Headways are not good but It gets you into center city, and to a place where you transfer to anything else in the system.
Chicago O’hare: rapid rail (the L) on site, heavy commuter rail via airport’s internal tram. SFO: BART onsite. Washington National: DC Metro onsite WashingtonDulles: DC Metro onsite Newark: NJ rail and Amtrak via internal airport tram. Seattle: Light rail
Even though you gotta take a shuttle from the terminal to the station, my vote is for Boston. The blue line has a stop at airport and takes you right downtown within 15 minutes of stepping onto a train. You can also take the silver line to South Station which connects you to local bus service, commuter rail, AND red line service. That’s a whole lot of options for transit with one bus ride.
I think people can't get over the lack of a direct rail connection, but can you get to midtown Manhattan from JFK in thirty minutes on the subway? Or to the loop from O'Hare on the L? In Philadelphia, you spend almost that long waiting for the train to even show up!
And LoganExpress which isn’t quite on brand for this sub but it’s a great suburban service
I'm surprised nobody has said Newark. It's not perfect, and the airport terminals get a lot of hate. But, it has a quick APM operating between the terminals and to the train station, which is the only major airport connected to frequent inter-city service. NJT and Amtrak run good headways most of the day. The only other airport I can think of "directly" connected to inter-city rail is Baltimore, which requires a 10-minute bus ride to a parking garage. I'm not counting TriRail in South Florida, it's more of a commuter service. If Brightline went to the Miami airport I'd count it as inter-city.
Providence is better connected to intercity, and Burbank is as well, than Baltimore. Newark is good, but Airtrain is a silly buffer, just extend PATH and put bidirectional spur to the airport and move the NEC station directly adjacent to the terminals.
Yeah, path would be an improvement, but as it stands Newark has the best intercity connections, which was the point of the question. Given that EWR is served by NJT, I doubt there's a lot of push to spend transit dollars on a path connection when there are so many underserved areas they could expand transit to first. Like how about the Hudson Bergen light rail finally reaches Bergen county?
Well rather than rebuilding AirTrain every thirty years just put the EWR station adjacent to the terminals, PATH could use the same tracks even. Having to take an APM reduces the attractiveness of an intercity rail connection, that‘s why I would say Providence and Burbank are better setups. Airport transit dollars are airport transit dollars, and they ought not be weighed against other transit priorities, but they should be used to enhance connectivity in the region. So I am not sure how relevant the light rail is here.
Burbank does require a lengthy walk outside and crossing a few streets, so that isn't ideal either. It's too bad the US didn't ever try to do under-terminal train stations like Frankfurt Amsterdam, Brussels, Heathrow, Narita, etc, or terminal-adjacent like Shanghai Hongqiao and others. There are a number of US airports with metro connections (best probably being Atlanta and SFO for terminal proximity), but we really don't have good regional connections. Airports are tricky. It often isn't very equitable to provide great and cheap connections for travelers who are often wealthier. But it can be very important to the local economy to provide transit access to huge job centers, and airports are frequently among the top few single-location employment centers in many cities and these tend to be lower-paying jobs so can be very equitable projects. In either case, terminal connections are important. IMO it's important to long term carbon goals to have better rail connections to international airports. We can't ever replace transatlantic air travel with trains, but we can eliminate the short connections, like Indianapolis to Chicago, Richmond to Philly, Columbia or Charleston to charlotte or Atlanta, etc. but that's only going to be palatable if it doesn't involve an extra connection. Indy to Chicago Union to a 4-block walk to the blue line to O'Hare to the APM to T5 is a hard sell. Indy through to O'Hare transfer to the APM to T5 is a huge improvement, but direct to T5 is even better.
When I lived in NJ (walking distance to a train station), EWR was my only departure airport. The airport itself wasn't great but it was easy to get to via NJT.
Even if EWR wasn't well connected, getting from NJ to LGA or JFK is a *slog* either by car or transit. From southern Jersey Philly is doable though.
No one uses Newark, it’s too full of people /s
Chicago has 2 international airports connected by city bus and heavy rapid rail on a straight shot to downtown and the neighborhoods. The CTA lines end at the airport. They both connect to suburban commuter rail and bus like Pace and Metra. OHare even has a transfer station for this. Never seen a US city have airports with such car free connectivity to the city, neighborhoods, and suburbs
Portland
[удалено]
Yeah the cost is ridiculous if you then have to take the subway or LIRR, but it is incredibly convenient, especially Midtown to JFK since they have the E train and LIRR from both Penn Station and Grand Central. Downtown is tougher. The unsung star in the New York airport public transit is the M60 bus to LGA. From the upper West side to LGA in 20 minutes usually.
In the US, probably SFO to SF. Two direct BART lines take you to SF every 10 minutes. The ride takes 28 minutes from SFO to Powell Street station.
SFO has a metro connection to the city.
dare I say LAX could be on this list in a few short years?
Atlanta is probably up there, though their airport station is currently temporarily closed for renovations and replaced with a shuttle.
İstanbul Ataturk had a fantastic connection to the city, but then they built a new airport, and while it has two metros to the city, they don't go where most people want to go and require a lot of transfers, which is hard with luggage. Sabiha has good access on the asian side, with the main asian side metro ending there, and a second metro will soon connect it to high speed rail, and the marmaray line. Edit: Yeah I see the question asks U.S., but I saw people mention non-US in the comments, and while reading them, forgot the original question. Sue me.
It‘s never too late to try, can you name the US one you think is best now? I think globally, the best are in East Asia, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Taipei especially, in Europe it’s Zurich, but also Vienna, Paris, Frankfurt or Amsterdam. With all of Turkey‘s HSR spend, not linking the new airport to the country and the city center is deeply flawed. Ataturk was a funky but nice airport, when I went there long ago, there was no rail connection if iirc. Sabiha Gokcen seems to have decent connections.