California - Sacramento International: SMF - Which plan would you have chosen?

Sacramento International Airport (SMF) is getting a new Terminal B set to open on October 6th. Looking at the Master Plan, which terminal layout would you have chosen? For the airport, they chose "Refined Terminal Alternative E2" I personally would have chosen "Refined Terminal Alternative C" Tell me your thoughts!

Terminal Possiblilities from Master Plan: http://www.sacairports.org/int/planning/files/Draft%20Final%20Master%20Plan/Chapter%206%20Terminal%20Alts%20v4.pdf

IheartFlying, welcome to FlyerTalk. Please follow the discussion as the thread moves to the Travel->California Forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

My own personal belief is they went wrong when they chose the central check-in facility connected to a satellite terminal concourse with the "APM" - a Bombardier automated people mover with two transit lanes. I believe the people mover will create a natural bottleneck with the small "trains" and if they ever have a power interruption - standstill. Given there are no busses to transport passengers for tarmac loading, no backup - what will they do? Call Sacramento Regional Transit District for loaners? Keep an expensive fleet in backup mode? Ah, well, that's just my opinion.

I also believe passengers will for some time in the foreseeable future have to budget yet more time to go to (especially remote) parking, take the irregular shuttle busses if they choose lower-cost or remote , process in at the central terminal, process security, take the APM to the gates terminal / concourse, and finally go to their gate. The new Terminal B parking garage will take some time to build - they will use the existing terminal B for exercises (think law enforcement and the Feds) prior to demolishing it for the space, scheduled by May 2012, and the Terminal A parking is already quite crowded. (The initial idea was to rent it for movies - nobody "bit", unfortunately for them.) In some ways, the new SMF Terminal B looks like it will have something in common with the new MAD Terminal 4 and 4S - architecturally eye-opening, but challenges to passengers.

OTOH, the offerings for shopping and eating, which are not design-dependent, will be MUCH improved over the gosh-awful Gordon Biersch grab-an-awful-bite from an understaffed dumpy restaurant in the remains of the old Terminal B now serving too many people.

I agree for the most part, I believe that the APMs and most of the airport in general has a backup power supply, but you are right about the people movers in the first place. One big problem with the APMs is that aircraft cannot fit under it and that (for whatever reason) one had to go to the other side of the concourse, it would have to go completely around the concourse.