Loose Cannon

In my travels over the last several months I've been to or through various airports. Both ATL and LAX are huge airports that can learn from each other

ATL Plus side: MARTA (light rail) station inside the airport allows for quick and cheap ($1.75) transit to downtown Atlanta.

ATL Minus side: If you have checked luggage it seems to take forever for the bags to appear at baggage claim. I talked to some other pax about that and that seems to be very common. One other passenger was unable to take her scheduled shuttle to Chattanooga because her bags took so long.

LAX Plus side: Recently I flew into LAX for the first time in almost a decade. Southwest flight from SMF. My bags arrived at baggage claim before I did. Way to go LAX!

LAX Minus side: I had to take a short bus ride to the train station to catch the Green Line. It would be a lot better if the MTA would extend the Green Line to the airport.

Craig6z

-Regarding the excellent baggage service, that's due to Southwest.

-Quite a bit has been written (in the press and here on FT) about the moronic urban planning decision to build the terminus of the Green Line south of the airport. Extending it into the airport is impossible under the airport's current design. The now sitting Mayor has a plan to remodel the entire airport, and the train would meet the check-in area. However the plan will cost $9 billion. Not much chance of it happening (few people, politicians, local businesses support it). Plus there is a great chance the Mayor will not see another term.

Internaut

Both my experiences of LAX were poor. Long check in queue where the check in staff turned up when they could be bothered, waiting for ages for my luggage (possibly a problem with the agents handling my Air Pacific flight) and the terminal itself was not very attractive and had a Burger King with by far the rudest staff I've ever encounterd.

I found ATL to be a big, highly efficient and above all else courteous place.

stimpy

The reason LAX has no train is because the taxi drivers and Super Shuttle people lobbied hard against it and the wussy local politicians caved.

But LAX has one great benefit that beats out every other major airport in the U.S. Great weather! Being based at LAX means almost no weather delays.

redbeard911

I hear that LAX has a really hot station manager. (the female one, of course )

ATLpax

One problem I have with LAX is that travel between terminals is difficult if you need to switch airlines - Atlanta's concourse train makes that kind of travel seamless.

jsmeeker

Is the train issue erally realted to cabbies and SuperShuttle guys? It's not like people arrivign at LAX are all goign to the same spot. (i.e. Downtown). People are going all over the place. Lots of them far from train lines.


Anyway, the whole new pie in the sky redesign of LAX is interesting. The idea is to have busses, taxis, cars, limos, etc. come to some transportation center well away from the terminals themselves. You get dropped off there, then take a train to the terminal to check in and get to the actual gates. Supposedly, it's all for security.

suranyi

No, that isn't true. My father was an engineer who worked on the construction of the Green Line and he told me what had happened.

The original plans called for the Green Line to split into two branches near Aviation Blvd. One would go south, along the current alignment. The other would go north, and end near the terminals.

However, the design of the north branch was not approved by the FAA. The rail line had to cross the approach zone to the south runways, and the power lines would encroach into the air traffic safety area.

Unfortunately, no one had asked the FAA until the design of the line was complete. Further engineering work showed that only a tunnel or a sunken trench would put the line low enough to satisfy the FAA, and both possibilities were too expensive.

No, my dad was NOT directly involved in this massive fiasco. His job only came into play during actual contruction.

Ed

stimpy

The LA Times did a big expose on this detailing the money the cab drivers and Super Shuttle people contributed to certain public office campaigns and all the public complaints made by them. I can't recall all the details, but perhaps they lobbied to move the line north which would kill it as it did. But there is no reason for this line to run to the north when it is already south of LAX. It should have continued along the 105 and turned north near Sepulveda and run under the runway just as Sepulveda does. That plan existed at the time, but the lobbyists got it switched.

RustyC

I think the ATL model for airports grew out of dissatisfaction with the multi-terminal LAX (JFK, DFW, EWR, etc.) approach. I really dread having to do between-terminal connections at any of the older-style places, especially if it means having to go through security another time and possibly get tripped up by a line there. Seems like the more places something can go wrong, the more places they will. Multiple terminals also require more full-blown security checkpoints post-9/11, which I think is a big reason we won't see many more new ones built.

As was mentioned, one drawback to ATL-type designs is that people and bags have to travel farther to baggage claim. I once was on a late-arriving plane where the airline had to arrange a bus (an old Blue Bird) to take pax from the jetway to baggage claim because the train was down for maintenance. If you're on concourse D or E you don't want to have to walk all that way.

Phipps

I would not say that speed of baggage claim is a general benefit at LAX. Not sure what Southwest is doing different, but AA could learn quite a bit from them as they are consistently slow to get bags out.