stut

Hmm, public transport to/from the airport, let me see, for the UK at least:

LHR - let me count the ways: overpriced HEX, half-decent HEC, the bouncing Piccadilly Line, drinking tea on the big tables on the Woking RailAir, the bus to Feltham to get back to Clapham Junction... There needs to be more for those of us not headed to London, though.

LGW - such a shame it's an awful airport, the trains are great. The GEX is a rip-off, Southern are good, FCC desperately need their new trains to be delivered.

STN - oh, poor old STN, caught between the Stansted Express and the CrossCountry route to Brum. You can see the train effect on check-in queues, too - never check in just after an Express has arrived! Good only on paper.

LTN - so near and yet so far. It's great there's now a station at Luton Airport Parkway, but the bus, and daft drop-off arrangements at the terminal are terrible. I live in the same county, and it's a royal pain to get there by bus. Daft, really.

LCY - I have fond memories of hopping on the 69 from Canning Town, or using the frankly decrepit and menacing Silvertown station to reach the airport. Actually, most of the time, I used to cycle there, it's in such a good location. But the DLR is superb. Not only does it link you to both sides of the river, but it also lets you sit at the front and get a driver's eye view of the Docklands and the 'plunge to the centre of the earth' at Bank. Yay!

BHX - oh, I do miss the Maglev. I know it was unpractical and all, but there's something about a Maglev... (See also PVG). The rail service from Birmingham International is great though - whether I'm headed to Milton Keynes or Brum itself.

NCL - I never got the pyramid. I don't miss the shuttle bus from Bank Foot, either. I grew up on Tyneside with the Metro, and it's great to go back now and use it from the airport. Such a handy wee system - always has been.

GLA - it used to be great fun, when I was up in Paisley, to see the bewildered tourists, who had got on the wrong bus at the airport, been dragged through Ferguslie Park, and deposited unceremoniously underneath the multi-story car park, desperately looking for a way to the station, and out of this place... Gilmour Street looks much nicer now, though, and the bus service seems a lot better. Still kind of a halfway house, though - GARL is far too late in being completed.

Shareholder

In Canada...

YYZ has TTC bus #192 running every 15/20-minutes from/to Kipling subway (end of the east/west line) to T3 and T1. $2.75 cash or token. Will take it this morning for my flight(s) to Louisville, where I catch a #2 bus into the city.

YOW also has express bus to/from airport, believe it is #92. Tickets can be bought at the Info desk in the terminal, about $2.

YWG has a city bus run to/from it.

YVR now has an LRT link into the city.

rtalk25

Not exactly public transit, but in LAS, one can take a Strip shuttle which is waiting there, where its quite easy to pick up outside of baggage claim. It's $7/passenger one way, and not a bad way into the Strip.

rtalk25

I suppose the transit agency figures those that fly have money, so the prices are set higher to/from the airport stops than the normal stops which are taken by daily commuters, rather than a progressive fare system where the airport stop is less in cost than the next stop afterwards, and not too much greater than the last stop. Or, it could be for some other reason like the transit agency is passing over extra costs like security in that fare.

But, I wonder those that work at airports get hit in the pocketbook daily, if they take public transit to work.

SEPTA R1 Line to PHL isn't too much more expensive than other SEPTA lines, and in Baltimore, its quite inexpensive to take the light rail to BWI.

Perhaps that may be to BWI's benefit. BWI can excel atleast with domestic flights by low cost carriers, and it's on the Amtrak/MARC line, accessible to I-95, and Baltimore's light rail. So, Baltimore can get some of the MD traffic willing to drive north, Baltimore metro, some of DE and Central PA/York, have flights to LGA possible so NY isn't far, and on a small benefit, BWI is near the cruise lines that depart from Baltimore, so it makes it very suitable for JetBlue, AirTran and Southwest.

Baltimore's light rail from downtown Baltimore to BWI is very inexpensive, however the light rail cars aren't very clean always. I'm not a fan of that rail. I wouldn't carry a heavy bag or two.

PHL isn't directly on the Amtrak line, but is on a SEPTA line from 30th St. Station and Center City, which isn't too bad.

ACY isn't too far from the NJ Transit A.C. Line but I think a cab must be called at Absecon station to get from Absecon to ACY. The eventual goal/plan is to offer a direct stop at ACY. However the cab to ACY from Absecon probably isn't too expensive for the flier, it's the frequency of the line that's quite limited that's the issue, running about once every 90 minutes.

YVR Cockroach

SEA is in the same league as BOS now (other than the fact SEA is a lot farther away from d/t Seattle while BOS is practically adjacent to Boston). Rail service stops at Tukwila with a shuttle to SEA terminal and this bus shuttle will end when the final leg to SEA is completed by year end. You'll still have to take a shuttle to the BOS terminal into the far, far future.

ajax

Occasionally we will take the DLR to LCY and back just for the hell of it - mostly for this very reason. I've been known to knock little old ladies out of the way when the front seat is free!

rh314

+1.

Granted, I haven't been to LAS in a couple of years, but I'm still scarred by the enormously long taxi lines outside of baggage claim. I recall once landing in the mid-afternoon and wandering outside to see a Disney-style line (winding back and forth). The guy working the line told me it was probably 1 hour.

rh314

Unfortunately, for SFO the problem is that the other end of the public transportation link is usually terribly inconvenient (unless you live *in* SF)...

Gamecock

I live about 10 minutes from a Bahnhof where I can catch a train that will drop me of in the basement of FRA. The ticket costs me about 13Euro. ^^

salut0

Yes, but when your destination is close to Paddington, the Piccadilly Line's a waste of time. HConn isn't that much more than a tube ticket. I agree that the HEx is much more expensive. I tend to take HConn from LHR and HEx back: much easier when you're rushing to check in and don't want to miss the baggage cut-off time. Now if only they still had those Paddington check-in desks. I really miss those!

salut0

How did you get from Silvertown station to the airport itself? It looks like it's in the middle of nowhere from the photos I've found online.

D1andonlyDman

Actually, depending upon where your hotel is, public transport to McCarran (LAS) is quite doable. Not so easy as BOS or ATL, or ORD, but doable.

lupine

I'm not sure why you list DEN as "wouldn't do it" -- I take RTD Sky Ride to the airport and find it quite workable, though the price is certainly higher than a regular bus ride. It runs on time, the drivers load and unload the luggage, and the drop-offs are at very convenient points on both sides of the terminal. Driving my car to the airport and getting parking and then walking in actually takes about the same time, or substantially longer when the airport is busy and you're forced to use remote parking/shuttles because the close-in parking is all full -- and while not a problem during the recession, it was an acute problem in the prior couple of years.

During the great Christmas blizzard from a few years ago (the one with the one-two punch) RTD Sky-Ride was quite literally the only way I was able to get from the airport back home -- it took three hours as the driver very, very carefully made his way, but cabs couldn't go, Super Shuttle canceled operations, and regular passenger cars were hopeless. Several others on the bus actually had cars parked at the airport that they chose to abandon there until conditions improved.

My only complaint with Sky Ride is that from my area the schedule is hourly departures for a good part of the day, and a half-hourly schedule would give me more flexibility.

greggwiggins

Same here. I visit Denver for work two or three times a year, and since I rarely leave the downtown area on these trips the RTD is my preferred option.

u2fan

ORD is very good. The blue line costs $2.25 and takes you into the main terminal. Oftentimes it is faster than the traffic on the Kennedy.