drewguy

It would not need a people mover. The idea of midfield customs is that you can go I-->D while staying in concourse C/D, and you don't have to take the people mover back to the international arrivals building and then get on the aerotrain back to C/D for your connecting flight. So the current system, and presumably the new version in any new C/D, would achieve the same thing without the need for people movers (this doesn't address anyone arriving on non UA flights who are connecting, but that's probably mostly limited to *A pax arriving in terminal B, who then need to get to C/D for a UA connection).

zig666

I think I read it as the current midfield and I didn't know if that can be reached without mover from C/D today (as it must have been prior to 2011 last time I used it).
Indepedent of location, focus of my question was to see if a no people mover Option was part of the existing plans.

UA_Flyer

you are still a young man comparing to me when 2045 hits.

This thread is almost ten years old, C/D was built before I was in college almost 40 years ago, and both my kids have since graduated from college…. may be we will see men on Mars before new C/D concourses are built. By that time the underground train will be obsolete and conventional jet planes may be a thing in the past

paytonc

Yes, the original scope of work for the Tier 2 (C/D replacement) concourse (i.e., the 2002 EIS, page 1-9) included not only a new midfield FIS facility to clear connecting pax, but also a separate train system to the International Arrivals Building. Of course, that's the sort of expensive extra scope that United might love to value-engineer out.

Also, who knows if it gets built, but MWAA does say that "In the future, this walkway will be extended to connect Concourse B with a future permanent Concourse C."

EWR764

I wonder if the stub end of the AeroTrain to the B gates would be part of such a plan.

emcampbe

I had thought they were supposed to get rid of those mobile lounges when the train opened. Obviously, doesn't help that the C station is like a mile (I know, I know...probably not actually that long) from the actual terminal C gates.

drewguy

That "stub end" is intended to go to the new D concourse. Though it might be possible to use the same bore/track for an APM to the international arrivals building. Thought it's a long haul from the C end of the concourse to the D end - meaning either plan international arrivals for that end or also build the planned loop that would connect the APM from the C end to the D end for international arrivals.

EWR764

MUC and some other airports manage international pax by way of different platforms/doors/trains to physcially separate flows of passengers using the same tracks. Something like that would be much more practical and cost-effective than new bores for distinct train lines.

lincolnjkc

IIRC (from reading a NTSB report/docket data about an accident involving said APM) closer to home Miami has (does?) done the same thing where some cars are isolated for non-customs-cleared passengers while others are for domestic passengers only.

zig666

thats what I referring to earlier. but I haven't seen details at all on how to work around international arrivals.

lincolnjkc

The models I'm conceptualizing (not sure I can attribute it to a specific airport but it's in my brain) generally the way it works is that you have a "Spanish solution" platform design (e.g. both sides of the train can be used to enter/exit) and say, e.g. the first car loads from the left platform and has people who haven't cleared customs, while the back car loads from the right platform and has passengers who don't need to clear customs -- at the other end the left platform passengers exit and clear customs and right platform passengers do whatever they want to do

exerda

Where is the current midfield FIS facility? Is it under the "temporary" C/D or closer to where they plan to put the new midfield concourse (like the C train station and the new RJ gates they're proposing)?

EWR764

The FIS is under C, connected to most of the gates on the east side of the concourse. A new midfield concourse would probably incorporate an all-new FIS to replace this facility (which is not at all special or noteworthy, like the rest of the concourse).

Also worth noting, these new gates will not be RJ-specific. Large RJs will probably use them from time to time, but they will be what we consider mainline gates with WB swing capability. They are replacing the RJ gates on low-A.

zdcatc12

MCO currently does this, though probably only until the new terminal opens.

CLT

Here is the Aerotrain full build-out rendering:


You can see the IAB APM system running down the center of each concourse. Obviously, the human race will likely have colonized Mars by the time any new South Terminal or E/F/G/H Gates open.

I've often wondered if they dug a tunnel for the IAB system and then mothballed it, but my IAD sources tell me it hasn't been done. I now view a second APM dedicated just to arriving Washington-bound INTL pax likely as too expensive and not feasible going forward...the existing A/B Concourse would require major reconfiguration. That said, I wonder if they had planned to convert the current pedestrian tunnel from the Main Terminal to A as an APM tunnel.

I view the method that Miami and Orlando use (and Seattle did too up until earlier this year) as the far more likely option. The A/B Concourse would still require reconfiguration, but it wouldn't be as expensive as a whole new APM system/tunnel.