Which is faster to Dulles C/D Gates: AeroTrain or People Movers?
 

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I fly out of IAD often and I swear that People Movers are faster than the AeroTrain, even to C Gates.

What's your opinion?

I say People Mover as they leave in 4 minutes or less and go right to D terminal. So even if walking to C it's faster than all those escalators down to AeroTrain, wait for it, and long walk to C from the stop.

The walk at the C end tips thd balance to the people mover for most gates. The lower C gates are faster by train.

High D gates - people mover
Low D, High C - usually people mover unless you walk very fast
Low C - train

@John: I'm willing to race anyone to C1, though winning would probably be to luck and long AeroTrain wait.

Does anyone know the headway times for AeroTrain? I swear it's longer than 4 minutes for People Mover.

I agree.

That's all you need to know. C1 - C9 train.

People movers.....plus you get to see airplanes :D

I'd go so far as to say well up into the mid-C gates; after all, the train spits you out near C17 IIRC.

People movers are faster - especially when you can't get down the escalator and watch the trains come and go and lose that time.

You lose a lot of minutes on those long ramps to the train, too.

I would take the people mover over train bet to anywhere in the airport, too.

:D:D:D

Let's seek the help of the readers of the Washington, D.C. forum. I'll move this there. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

I am a DC reader. C/D only serves United.

I've never had that particular problem--and it's no different than running up the steps/escalators to the departing people movers just to see one pull away, and have to wait for the next one.

Just about the only good thing I can say about the IAD trains is that they have like 8 escalators feeding the platform. If there's someone blocking one, choose a different one (or yell "move to the side, please," which I have had to do in ORD getting down to the tunnel between B & C).

AeroTrain runs every 2.5 minutes at busier times of the day, and every 4 minutes at slower times. Very late night to very early morning they sometimes single-track to do maintenance - and then it might be 8 minutes between trains.

People Movers between the Main Terminal and the D Concourse run about every 4 minutes during busier times, and as much as 7-8 minutes apart at slower times.

People Movers between the D and the A Concourses run as often as 4 minutes apart during busier times, stretching to 8 minutes at slower times. At the slowest times of the day, they don't run at all.

My wife is flying alone out of Dulles soon.. she's kind of a nervous flyer and rarely flies without me... she will be flying from IAD to CHS so regional jet, most likely from concourse D.. she has pre-check, but what's faster- the train or people movers?

thanks
FDW

Your question is pretty much unanswerable - too many unknown variables: actual gate, time of day, how slow/fast your wife walks, whether she has to wait for a people mover, whether she has to wait for a train, how many other people are on said people mover or train, how fast/slow they are at getting on and off ... the list goes on ... there's no more than a few minutes in it either way ...