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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 usua

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.

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.