N830MH

Hi all,

ATL plane train construction will completed in May 2024. They have 700 foot long tunnel and turnaround back to concourse T.

https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-air...FBSo&fs=e&s=cl

DLASflyer

More cool pictures and facts about the Plane Train. There are whole fake stations used just for testing.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/hartsfield-jackson-atlanta-international-airport-plane-train/

N830MH

That's awesome! Thanks for sharing this! I knows ATL airport very well. I have been there for many times. I love ride on the plane train.

exwannabe

Interesting project, I can see how the train turnaround time at baggage claim is the limiting factor on how often they can run trains. And that made it limiting factor on overall capacity.

BTW, the other end, being designed decades later, saw this coming and already has a turnaround post the F station if needed.

I had a laugh about the fact that a tunnel project had to dig through an abandoned US Interstate highway. Sounds like something out of a dystopian sci-fi movie :-)

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emma dog

I don’t understand why they couldn’t alter the side at the baggage claim. I’ve never had the tram do anything other than go straight and exit from the left… I’d think alternating arrival side (dock then cross over vs cross over then dock). It seems like that would have accomplished the same thing as this expensive project.

flyerCO

I thought this project was being done with future growth in mind. Ie a new concourse.

exwannabe

There never was another side at baggage claim. Only one track.

A picture would be easier, but the way the tracks are layed out is that the 2 sides merge together between T and baggage claim. There is no other side to use.

Your proposal requires digging new tunnel from the T to BC. Not sure where you plan to dig that from as it is under ATL. You will need to start from someplace outside the terminal. And once you do that, might as well do it right as it does provide a bit better solution.

N830MH

No, no new concourse. Only for ground transportation and baggage claim.

flyerCO

I know no new concourse now. However I thought at one point some tunneling work was to be done knowing at some point ATL will need a another concourse.

emma dog

Are you sure? There’s doors on that side (south).

emma dog

The new concourse will be beyond F. This construction is “beyond” T.

N830MH

Oh! You mean concourse G or H? Right now, there is no new concourse yet.

emma dog

Any new concourse construction will be out past the current concourse F. The plane train extension isn’t on that side of the airport.

Justin026

You can see the above ground part of this project by looking west (away from the ATL terminal) from the airport SkyTrain station, which goes to the rental car center. There is a small cement mill and heavy equipment on site, and new enclosures are being built in the former west parking lot. All of this is several hundred feet west of the west end of the Plane Train and will not be used by passengers,

https://www.aviationpros.com/airport...ed-plane-train

In answer to a comment below, it is not unusual for the Plane Train to switch tracks when arriving at Baggage Claim, unboarding to the right. Mostly at night, but for several weeks day and night last winter. There is a “universal crosssover” already in the tracks between T and Baggage Claim allowing all possible switching combinations, in both directions.

flyerCO

Understand. I just thought remembering hearing that some of the upgrade would allow future extension to be done cheaper. Could be that I heard wrong, or plans changed when CC19 hit.