Captain ZZ

With the continued expansion, you'd think Trenton/Ewing/Mercer County might look to connect with Amtrak/NJ Transit lines from major metro areas (New York/Philly). In fact they could simply have the 607 bus turn around at TTN as opposed to crossing over I-95 and then turning around. Just a thought. (As a sidenote I've seen people walking over non-sidewalks the 8/10th of a mile to the closest stop..and I'll be doing it next week.)

davywavy

It is surely on their minds. TTN applied for a SCASD grant of $500,00 to achieve just that:

http://www.airlineinfo.com/ostpdf88/386.pdf

Currently, the airport has spent in excess of $3.5 million in creating additional surface parking since Frontier Airlines started operations at TTN; this is in addition to the $1 million in terminal enhancements currently in progress to accommodate the increased number of passengers utilizing the terminal. Should Frontier wish to add flights, even this additional parking space will not be enough. The county had no way of predicting the prodigious success of the Frontier service which has triggered these needed improvements. As such the county has exhausted current budgets on essential improvements and this grant is critical in maintaining the continued growth and positive impact on the region’s transportation concerns.

Trenton-Mercer Airport proposes to run a shuttle bus that will provide a simple loop service between the airport terminal, the West Trenton Train Station and the main Trenton Transit Center. Travel distance is only about 6 miles from the two farthest points but providing this efficient link allows easy access to the airport and opens connections it to a multitude of ground service providers including SEPTA, Amtrak and NJ Transit."

Sadly, but quite predictably, the grant was denied. As in the submission, TTN says it - presently - has no access to other funding, so i guess it's over to New Jersey.

EricR111

I think a more limited shuttle just to the West Trenton SEPTA station might suffice for now.

I think that they would be to pay for it with a mix of the following:

a) a little help from the state,
b) a little help from F9,
c) a little from the parking income, which could run up to $8,000/day.
d) A nominal fee for the shuttle itself - maybe $1/ride?

Captain ZZ

That really would expand passenger traffic along with alleviating the tight parking situation. Hopefully they can revisit it down the line.

Captain ZZ

Definitely would be a step in the right direction. Though I'd add we've done a cab over to West Trenton...about $6 and tip. So there is that option. To go to Trenton Transit is more in the $30-40 range - public transit could definitely open up more travel opportunities for those from Central/Northern NJ/New York.

Jerseyguy

While the 607 stops closer to TTN, it does not serve the Trenton Transit Center directly while 608 serves both the West Trenton SEPTA Station and the Trenton Transit Center. However the 608 has stops that would make TTN out of the way.

Here's a map of the routes, the Blue is Bus 607 and the Red is Bus 608 the red dots are stops along the route

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerseyguy8527/11128480943/

jonu

I know this is an idea for the distant future, but I sure hope the powers that be are laying the groundwork for a new terminal on the southeast corner of the airport integrated with a new West Trenton train station, all of which would be done in conjunction with the redevelopment plans for the old GM site. I have caught glimpses of this in various Times articles, but these things happen only if there is a driving force making it happen. And I haven't seen any public evidence of such a foce.

EricR111

This probably will happen but probably only after 3+ years of legal battles with BRRAM and other luddites. Add in the fact that commercial aviation is a highly regulated and that the airport is a government entity, then even if they approved such a plan tomorrow, I bet it would be 5+ years until such a terminal opened.

In the meantime, F9 (or whomever else might come in) will have to work with the existing facilities, although they could do the following to get increased use of the terminal:

a) Assuming two hours between planes at each gate, and your first flights leave at ~6:30 AM/7:00 AM and your last flights at 6:30 PM/7:00 PM, the present two gate terminal could handle 14 flights/day, or 98/week. As of next May, they will be at 55/week.

b) To provide additional seating and maybe a third gate, move the Airport office and Sheriff's office to a modular building outside of the present terminal building footprint.

c) Convert the temporary parking at the east end of the airport to permanent parking - could add about 400-500 spaces. If you charge $6/day in this area, it is more than enough to cover the cost of a shuttle bus.

d) I believe Ronson has customs facilities; this could be used for future flights to say, Nassau or Toronto.

e) When all the above has been done and there is still demand, some flights could be upgraded to the A320, with 30 more seats per plane.

Next May, F9 will have 7590 seats weekly out of TTN (assuming they stay with all A319s). I think with the above steps, they could go to 14,000+ seats/week before they absolutely have to go to a new terminal.

Jerseyguy

As far as the remote parking goes, I think they have plenty of space to expand parking.

The East Side "Economy East Lot"



At a minimum parking could go all around the fencing in the spots with the boxes. This would probably add approximately 700-800 spots. The building, I believe is an old closed US Marine Reserve Station. If the goverment would allow Mercer County to lease the land and tear down the buildings thats atleast another 500-600 spots, total spots an additional 1200-1400 spots. If the goverments not so inclined we move to the west side.

The west side "Economy West Lot"


Big plot of land on the east side of Bear Tavern Rd, could hold atleast 500-600 cars easy. if they tore down that small line of trees another 200-300 cars. The big problem with this is the traffic patterns. Definately couldn't have an entrance off of Bear Tavern Road it would have to be via Sam Weinroth Rd (the Airport Access road) but they'd have to widen and reconfigure Sam Weinroth to allow for a turn lane and a large one at that because we don't want cars backing up onto Bear Tavern because Sam Weinroth is blocked with a line of turning cars. Might be able to do a exit onto Bear Tavern but with a right turn only towards I-95. Probably be preferable to be able to knock down the buildings to build a super lot at Economy East.

EricR111

Jerseyguy,

You seem to check in at the TTN terminal a lot. Have you stopped by today or yesterday (or will you stop by maybe tomorrow with 3-5" of snow expected)? These are days where I was wondering how such a small terminal would stand up with delayed flights, and I see that there are considerable delays.

Jerseyguy

As far as the length of the delays go, TTN has done ok. So far 2 major "events". One being a rather windy day causing delays for all of the airports (EWR/PHL/TTN) and the other being this storm recently. Yesterday it seemed there were small delays like 20-35 minutes in the morning (one exception 58 minute delay) and the bulk of the delays happened later on at night with an arrival delay of about 80 minutes on one flight and 167 on a flight from MDW, however the MDW delay seemed like it was more due to MDW then TTN (other flights were severely delayed at MDW and visability was down to like 4 miles). So all in all TTN has fared well in length of delays. Rather be in TTN then be at PHL (where 190 minute delays were not uncommon and a good number of flights were canceled) or EWR (EWR doing better primarily because North Jersey was less effected than Central and South Jersey).

For crowding issues, I haven't been at the terminals during any weather events so I can't say for sure, but based on the schedule and the delays I've seen, I don't think they've had more than 2 flights at a time at the airport. I'm sure it has been full but I don't think its been overcrowded. If I were to have a flight delay, I would probably check to see how crowded the gate area was before going thru security and if it was a bit crowded, I'd wait upstairs in the observation area near the resturant (pre-security) till closer to the revised time. I don't think that the delays are currently a big deal.

Once they add flights starting in February and thru summer, its going to be a different story, it might get a bit uncomfortable if there is a windy/rainy or foggy day causing delays.

markraby

I was in the old terminal once when a heavily delayed (mechanical) flight to Florida (can't remember which city) happened to be ready to go just as my on-time CMH flight was ready to go. It was chaotic. People could not go through security because there were passengers in the boarding area backed up all the way to the x-ray machine. There was even an announcement over the PA system that if you were in the security line, tap the passenger in front of you, ask which flight they're on, and if they're on the CMH flight, go ahead of them (the Florida flight was going to board first).

So there was a delay because they had to wait for some pax to board before other pax could go through security. And then my CMH flight was delayed because they could only handle boarding one aircraft at a time. Needless to say, it would be a lot more manageable in the new terminal. You could easily fit two flights' worth of passengers in there, and there are actually multiple gates now.

Incidentally, I was on the flight to CMH on Sunday. Even with the snow coming down, the inbound plane from MCO landed without incident, ahead of schedule. We also boarded with no problem, and pushed back five minutes early. Felt pretty awesome, knowing that other area airports were totally messed up. But that feeling was quashed a little bit when we had to wait 50 minutes for a deicing truck. Wasn't sure how that could be possible (it's not like there was a huge queue for deicing)... but the snow did kind of come out of nowhere; forecasts predicted nothing until much later in the afternoon. So even though issues with congestion may not be as bad, the drastically small ground crew counterbalances that a little bit. Still better than having the flight canceled, or subject to those 3-hour PHL delays!

Jerseyguy

Yeah TTN does have a few advantages in that department, I'm sure the deicing truck subcontractor from Ronson and probablf wasn't expecting having to deice aircraft until later in the day or evening.

TTN was not immune to major delays yesterday though as the problem was fog and low ceilings. The past two days have been a bit of a mess in the area with all airports PHL
/TTN/EWR all seeing major delays and cancelations.

rtalk25

Tailwinds helped make MDW-TTN under 1hr30mins on Monday's flight, so DirecTV was priced at $3.99. However, the TTN-MDW flight that preceded it must have had it rough, and there was delay before the return flight took off.