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I'm not one of those people obsessed with shaming american infrastructure by using trains; I don't really care about trains. Instead I'll be the first to shame

I'm not one of those people obsessed with shaming american infrastructure by using trains; I don't really care about trains. Instead I'll be the first to shame American airports. Many Asian airports truly put us to shame. Notably Changi, Incheon, Hong Kong, etc. Those airports are so delightful that pre-covid when I was flying I would deliberately choose tickets with a long layover just to relax in them.

throwawayboise 5y ago
Which major US airports do not have train or public transit to the city center? Chicago does for both Midway and O'Hare, I'm pretty sure NYC does, not sure about others (not much of a traveler).
- swampthinker 5y ago
  JFK and EWR don't have direct connections to public transit, but instead offer a mediocre people mover to a nearby train station. LGA only has a bus.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- ssorallen 5y ago
  LaGuardia in NYC requires transferring to a bus for the final connection from the subway to the airport. It’s infuriatingly difficult to get right even after doing the route many times. I’d often call a Lyft/Uber at 10x the price of the subway+bus because the public transit route is that annoying to deal with.
  - bradleyjg 5y ago
    It’s a little better than it used to be with at least dedicated buses to Woodside and Jackson Heights instead of having to take some random local Queens bus. Still bad though, and Cuomo’s AirTrain route is beyond stupid. JFK’s story isn’t great, Jamaica and the LIRR aren’t designed for tourists, but it’s much better than LGA.
    - cmrdporcupine 5y ago
      When I had to go to NYC for work a lot I always flew into Newark and did the train from there. That was nice, worked out nicely, including the flight from Toronto island airport, very smooth. Was a bit shocked the first time I flew LaGuardia at what a pain that was.
    - bobthepanda 5y ago
      They're not designed for tourists, and Penn Station has all the ambience of a shoebox, but at least the connection from AirTrain to LIRR is seamless; find out which platform has the first train departing from Penn (always something around) and then take 1 elevator. You'll have to stand near the door with your lugggage though. The real issue is that tourists just go "oh I should use the subway", partially because the LIRR doesn't obviously say it's going to Manhattan in the Jamaica terminal, partially because people are way more familiar with the subway, and partially because the fare is much lower (~$7 lower during peak hours). That connection is bad.
- csomar 5y ago
  Washington DC. Though that was the least of my worries on that airport.
- myself248 5y ago
  DTW doesn't, and we've been lambasting that for decades.
- notafraudster 5y ago
  LAX does not have a train to city center (they aim to get one done by the Olympics). It does have busses to Culver City / Santa Monica, although the busses stop fairly far from the terminal and you need to transfer to a second bus to get to the terminal. You can somewhat mitigate this with the "flyaway" bus. So, for instance, if I was in Koreatown I'd get the subway east to downtown and get the flyaway bus to LAX. If I were in Gramercy Park, I'd have to take 3 busses. When I lived in Culver City, I could get the Culver City 6 to almost to LAX and then had to walk or use a shuttle to get to the terminal. If I was in Brentwood, I'd have to get a bus to somewhere near Culver City, take the 6, then walk or use a shuttle to get to the terminal. I'm not really sure what you'd call "city center" for a city like LA, but no matter where you are, there is absolutely positively not convenient transit to get you from there to LAX.
- ghaff 5y ago
  Most cities have some sort of public or quasi-public (e.g. privately-operated buses) transportation. But these can involve multiple mode changes, can be awkward with any amount of luggage, and can take a long time. I'm guessing there is some "don't need to take a taxi/Uber" option in most cities but there are definitely airports like Las Vegas and Dulles where it's not very practical. (And of course it depends on where you're going within the metro area which isn't always the financial district or whatever the official "downtown" is.)
- deathanatos 5y ago
  BOS has the "Silver Line", which is this weird part of the T that isn't subway, but actually a bus that is powered by electricity for … part of the ride? I usually take that to get to the red line. The blue line has a stop called "Airport" … that isn't at the airport, you have to take a bus from there. SFO's connection to Caltrain is this ridiculous jumping of hoops through BART. (There's a more direct connection, but still through BART, but is never running when I've needed it…) (BART also isn't at the airport, but rather, nearby, there's a tram to get there. So tram → BART → Caltrain…) The point of an airport is that it's a major transportation hub, connecting the city to distant points. But it's a transit hub, and it should have that positioning on the local transit lines: a direct transition from that long-haul aircraft to city-level backbone transit. Instead, in most places, the airport's position on the transit system is best described as an afterthought. I should be taking the taxi/Lyft/Uber to get to the nearest public transit station. Not "it's not worth it, we'll just taxi/Lyft/Uber all the way there."
  - ghaff 5y ago
    For going to downtown San Francisco, I find the airtrain to BART works pretty well. But maybe I remember what it was like before the BART connection so BART seems like a pretty good option. I don't know for sure but I suspect the history with the Boston Airport Blue Line stop is that before a lot of the skybridge and other work done around the time of the Big Dig is that I'm not sure you even theoretically could walk between arbitrary terminals. So there wasn't a good central location to put it. Therefore, it made siting the T stop somewhere convenient for the planners given that Airport isn't a terminating stop as it is at a lot of airports a good option. The Silver Line has worked fine the few times I've taken it even if it is a bit odd. But I live way west of the city so I'm not usually going from downtown to the airport.
  - Miiko 5y ago
    Regarding SFO, "The SFO BART Station is located on the Departures/Ticketing Level of the International Terminal (Boarding Area G side)." - it is located at the airport (you need to take AirTrain from other terminals, though). Not sure why connection to Caltrain matters, as BART itself has about 7 times more daily raiders and connects to more places.
- Gibbon1 5y ago
  It's not common in the US because in the early 70 airlines got congress to prohibit cost sharing mass transit projects between muni's and airports. That's why it's always a spur line instead of a normal stop when it exists. Because the project has to be funded as a separate thing. So if you wonder why for instance the light rail in Santa Clara county passes 100 feet from the airport. But the nearest stop is a mile and a half away, that's why. I only know this because congress very recently repealed that law.
- dzhiurgis 5y ago
  Honolulu airport shuttle cost something like $50 which seemed like a straight scam so we walked to "public bus" with reasonable fee where driver refused us from boarding because of large suitcase. Ended up asking a random stranger if they wanna pool and split the taxi fee - he initially freaked out a bit, but then 5 seconds later agreed to it. Had a nice conversation and they ended up paying for it...

throwawayboise 5y ago

Which major US airports do not have train or public transit to the city center? Chicago does for both Midway and O'Hare, I'm pretty sure NYC does, not sure about others (not much of a traveler).

swampthinker 5y ago
JFK and EWR don't have direct connections to public transit, but instead offer a mediocre people mover to a nearby train station. LGA only has a bus.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
ssorallen 5y ago
LaGuardia in NYC requires transferring to a bus for the final connection from the subway to the airport. It’s infuriatingly difficult to get right even after doing the route many times. I’d often call a Lyft/Uber at 10x the price of the subway+bus because the public transit route is that annoying to deal with.
- bradleyjg 5y ago
  It’s a little better than it used to be with at least dedicated buses to Woodside and Jackson Heights instead of having to take some random local Queens bus. Still bad though, and Cuomo’s AirTrain route is beyond stupid. JFK’s story isn’t great, Jamaica and the LIRR aren’t designed for tourists, but it’s much better than LGA.
  - cmrdporcupine 5y ago
    When I had to go to NYC for work a lot I always flew into Newark and did the train from there. That was nice, worked out nicely, including the flight from Toronto island airport, very smooth. Was a bit shocked the first time I flew LaGuardia at what a pain that was.
  - bobthepanda 5y ago
    They're not designed for tourists, and Penn Station has all the ambience of a shoebox, but at least the connection from AirTrain to LIRR is seamless; find out which platform has the first train departing from Penn (always something around) and then take 1 elevator. You'll have to stand near the door with your lugggage though. The real issue is that tourists just go "oh I should use the subway", partially because the LIRR doesn't obviously say it's going to Manhattan in the Jamaica terminal, partially because people are way more familiar with the subway, and partially because the fare is much lower (~$7 lower during peak hours). That connection is bad.
csomar 5y ago
Washington DC. Though that was the least of my worries on that airport.
myself248 5y ago
DTW doesn't, and we've been lambasting that for decades.
notafraudster 5y ago
LAX does not have a train to city center (they aim to get one done by the Olympics). It does have busses to Culver City / Santa Monica, although the busses stop fairly far from the terminal and you need to transfer to a second bus to get to the terminal. You can somewhat mitigate this with the "flyaway" bus. So, for instance, if I was in Koreatown I'd get the subway east to downtown and get the flyaway bus to LAX. If I were in Gramercy Park, I'd have to take 3 busses. When I lived in Culver City, I could get the Culver City 6 to almost to LAX and then had to walk or use a shuttle to get to the terminal. If I was in Brentwood, I'd have to get a bus to somewhere near Culver City, take the 6, then walk or use a shuttle to get to the terminal. I'm not really sure what you'd call "city center" for a city like LA, but no matter where you are, there is absolutely positively not convenient transit to get you from there to LAX.
ghaff 5y ago
Most cities have some sort of public or quasi-public (e.g. privately-operated buses) transportation. But these can involve multiple mode changes, can be awkward with any amount of luggage, and can take a long time. I'm guessing there is some "don't need to take a taxi/Uber" option in most cities but there are definitely airports like Las Vegas and Dulles where it's not very practical. (And of course it depends on where you're going within the metro area which isn't always the financial district or whatever the official "downtown" is.)
deathanatos 5y ago
BOS has the "Silver Line", which is this weird part of the T that isn't subway, but actually a bus that is powered by electricity for … part of the ride? I usually take that to get to the red line. The blue line has a stop called "Airport" … that isn't at the airport, you have to take a bus from there. SFO's connection to Caltrain is this ridiculous jumping of hoops through BART. (There's a more direct connection, but still through BART, but is never running when I've needed it…) (BART also isn't at the airport, but rather, nearby, there's a tram to get there. So tram → BART → Caltrain…) The point of an airport is that it's a major transportation hub, connecting the city to distant points. But it's a transit hub, and it should have that positioning on the local transit lines: a direct transition from that long-haul aircraft to city-level backbone transit. Instead, in most places, the airport's position on the transit system is best described as an afterthought. I should be taking the taxi/Lyft/Uber to get to the nearest public transit station. Not "it's not worth it, we'll just taxi/Lyft/Uber all the way there."
- ghaff 5y ago
  For going to downtown San Francisco, I find the airtrain to BART works pretty well. But maybe I remember what it was like before the BART connection so BART seems like a pretty good option. I don't know for sure but I suspect the history with the Boston Airport Blue Line stop is that before a lot of the skybridge and other work done around the time of the Big Dig is that I'm not sure you even theoretically could walk between arbitrary terminals. So there wasn't a good central location to put it. Therefore, it made siting the T stop somewhere convenient for the planners given that Airport isn't a terminating stop as it is at a lot of airports a good option. The Silver Line has worked fine the few times I've taken it even if it is a bit odd. But I live way west of the city so I'm not usually going from downtown to the airport.
- Miiko 5y ago
  Regarding SFO, "The SFO BART Station is located on the Departures/Ticketing Level of the International Terminal (Boarding Area G side)." - it is located at the airport (you need to take AirTrain from other terminals, though). Not sure why connection to Caltrain matters, as BART itself has about 7 times more daily raiders and connects to more places.
Gibbon1 5y ago
It's not common in the US because in the early 70 airlines got congress to prohibit cost sharing mass transit projects between muni's and airports. That's why it's always a spur line instead of a normal stop when it exists. Because the project has to be funded as a separate thing. So if you wonder why for instance the light rail in Santa Clara county passes 100 feet from the airport. But the nearest stop is a mile and a half away, that's why. I only know this because congress very recently repealed that law.
dzhiurgis 5y ago
Honolulu airport shuttle cost something like $50 which seemed like a straight scam so we walked to "public bus" with reasonable fee where driver refused us from boarding because of large suitcase. Ended up asking a random stranger if they wanna pool and split the taxi fee - he initially freaked out a bit, but then 5 seconds later agreed to it. Had a nice conversation and they ended up paying for it...