CarmenOM

The tram at Concourse C will close for repairs at 11 PM on Monday, April 4; it will reopen at 5 AM on Monday, April 11.

mot29

Same railroad that repaired the tram at DTW for a week?

sethb

It was closed when I was there last week, but that was temporary. I guess it broke and they want to fix it.

jrkmsp

They're either in the process of or about to totally replace all the electronic control components on both trams, because the old ones are no longer supported by the manufacturer. So expect more maintenance periods.

DLERT

There is still the moving walkways on the C concourse.
Sometimes these are down for maintenance and they have nowhere the speed of the Tram.
The C to G connector has moving walkways as well as most of the length of the G concourse.
If only - If only I could use a Segway scooter - Hoverboards are out as they are a rolling fire hazard !

Now where is my Porsche - oh wait I don't need that I have a Delta Private Jet - my certificate was dated April 1st !

sethb

If I just miss the tram at the beginning of C, I get to the middle (using the walkways if there aren't too many delays) just as the next tram is leaving it (towards C1, so way faster than waiting for the tram).

DLERT

That is correct - if you JUST miss the Tram and your gate is after C8 to C12
using the moving walkways will be the better choice.
If your gate is C1 to C7 you would not be using the Tram.
If your gate is after C19 or on the A or B Concourse wait for the next tram.

Note - the Tram operates with a single track so one set of cars (2) is
switched near Gate C11 to go to the end while another set of cars is
switched to go thru the other way.
Pretty slick system !

Now all that is dependent on the Tram working.

3furballs

When did it become 40 min? I've booked a 35 min through MSP (oddly going to BZN) and had no problem making it even while hugely pregnant, made my last trip at 32 weeks.

sethb

When I just missed a tram at the far end, I walked and the next tram beat me to the middle by only a little. So I suspect that if you just miss a tram at C1 it's faster to walk, period.

kcshyla

I have a flight to LHR next Thursday night. My party of 4 will be coming in from MCI with a 46 min layover. I have been assured by my travel agent that it is plenty of time (and that changing it at this point would be several hundred dollars each). I don't know why I didn't realize this earlier, but I'm kicking myself now that I didn't pay closer attention. In looking at those flights for today, the MCI flight comes in to D3 and the LHR goes out of G4. I know they are not likely to be the same next week.

Should I be worried?

MSPeconomist

The LHR flight leaves late in the evening, IIRC around 10 pm most of the year, so you won't have the typical problems with congestion along the main "mall" connecting D and G. It's really not so long of a walk. The problem would be the time needed to deplane if you're seated in the rear of the inbound aircraft plus if there are kids, elderly, or people with limited mobility in the group to slow you down. [Look for the electric golf carts, but you can't 100% count on finding one right away.] There's also an obvious problem if the inbound flight is even slightly delayed, either in landing or attaching the jetway and opening the door.

Remember that officially you must be on board an international flight by T-30 or risk being offloaded, which would mean spending the night around MSP.

I would fire the travel agent. He/she should have never booked these tickets without warning you and advising you of the possible consequences.

It's also on you to ask for details of all connections, not just when you depart at the origin, land at the destination, and the price, when buying plane tickets.

BTW, gate assignments can and do change, although most longhaul DL international flights use G1-G6 at MSP.

jrkmsp

The only thing I'll add to the previous commenter is that if your flight gets delayed early in the day (highly unlikely, really), you should ask for a re-route. ATL and DTW both have LHR flights you could make if you left MCI for either of those cities about 5:30p.

With your late departure from MCI and the late departure from MSP (I think only SLC-LHR and SEA-LHR depart later on Delta), if your flight gets delayed ex-MCI, you're better off going home and asking to be put on the earliest flight out the next day.

That said, Delta runs an efficient and generally on-time operation. While it's tighter than I would choose, I give you at least an 80% chance of making your flight without even having to resort to running through the airport.

Good luck!

angra

I've got DCA-MSP-CDG-DUB in August. Schedule roulette has changed my 0:55 connection in MSP to 0:40. This is right at the MCT for D-I on DL I can live with some disruption, but would prefer to avoid mass chaos in France, if I can (I've had terrible luck with CS in CDG). Is this a super high risk scenario, or are the MCT overly cautious here for this time of year?

jrkmsp

Without times, its hard to say for sure, but there are two flights a day MSP-CDG. Also, if your flight is delayed early on, you can probably reroute DCA-JFK-DUB.

angra

Sorry, it's the 17:19 departure (with a 16:39 arrival from DCA).

Looks like there are a couple of fallback options.

Though, if as stated earlier in thread, I must be on board an international flight by T-30, that seems awfully optimistic.