LAX Slated for a 2.25 Mile Automated People Mover
Erica Berardi November 23, 2015
LAX is slated to get a $5 billion rail system that will connect terminals, parking structures, rental car business and the city’s Metro by 2023.
The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners (LABAC) said in a press release last week it plans to build a free rail-transportation system to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) through the estimated $5-billion Landside Access Modernization Program (LAMP).
LAMP is budgeted to build a free Automated People Mover (APM) rail line that will connect the central terminal area with a new consolidated rent-a-car facility (CONRAC), airport parking facilities and a station that connects to the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) regional transit system.
LABAC said the plan will relieve terminal and surrounding areas of traffic congestion.
The APM will be an elevated 2.25-mile-long guide way with six stations, pedestrian bridges to airport terminals, parking garages and fixed facilities.
The CONRAC will consolidate rental car agencies to one location adjacent to Interstate 405 San Diego Freeway.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), the city department that owns and operates LAX, should complete the project no later than 2023, while controlling costs, minimizing construction impacts on current LAX operations, and increasing opportunities for small and local businesses.
“We are one step closer to bringing rail to LAX and making it easier to get in and out of the airport — all while easing traffic in the surrounding neighborhoods,” said Mayor Garcetti said in the press release. “This $5-billion project adds to the continuous effort to transform LAX into the world-class airport Los Angeles deserves, and this strategy to deliver the automated train and rental car center will help us finish these projects on time and on budget.”
LAX is the United States’ second busiest airport and the fifth busiest airport in the world. The airport served 70.7 million passengers in 2014 and operates 692 daily nonstop flights to 85 cities in the U.S. and 928 weekly nonstop flights to 67 cities in 34 countries on 59 commercial air carriers. A 2011 study showed LAX generated 294,400 L.A.-area jobs with labor income of $13.6 billion and an economic output of $39.7 billion.
See the staff briefing here.
[Photo: Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners]
About time!
It will be great to have a better connection to the LA transit system.
Need an airside (post-Security) inter-terminal transit system as well. It's an absolute mess if one has to change terminals at LAX at the moment.
Could this airport just be a little cleaner? What an embarrassment to California.
I'm sure that current infrastructure limits the placement of stations, but running the track down the middle of the airport seems like a poor choice. The track should parallel the road with stations at each terminal (or between terminals). That eliminates those massive pedestrian bridges. If you're spending an obscene amount already, why not do the job correctly?