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OCR for page 120
120 Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation
services to airports in Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen, but not in London,
Munich, or Madrid; concerns with longer distance systems are a major policy concern in Newark
and Baltimore, but not in San Francisco.
Although passengers traveling through a few U.S. airports have a strong orientation to nearby
downtown origins or destinations, at most U.S. airports, dispersed trip origins or destinations
are the norm and represent a significant challenge for successful rail operations.
In the United States, a small number of airports have a passenger market that is strongly linked
to the nearby downtown area. As shown in Table 5-1, these airports include New York City's
LaGuardia and JFK, and Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National. In Europe, several airports have
markets that are heavily oriented to the downtown area, including Paris (with 60% of the airline
passengers traveling through Charles de Gaulle Airport and 50% traveling through Orly Airport
going to Paris itself), Oslo (with 48% of airline passengers going to the downtown), and London
(with 35% of the passengers traveling through Heathrow Airport going to London).
As noted, the downtown area is typically well served by traditional transit services in the
United States. Most U.S. transit systems are configured to respond to the needs of cost-sensitive,
daily commuters and are thus radial systems oriented to the downtown area. However, most U.S.
airline passengers have trip ends in areas located outside the downtown area and outside the area
well served by transit. To travel to these areas, airline passengers often need to make one or more
transfers. This need can discourage the use of transit, especially for passengers who have several
pieces of baggage or who are traveling in a large family group.
An analysis of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport indicates that more than 65% of air-
line passengers come from beyond the regional transit service area. Thus, although the CTA
serves only 4% of all airline passengers, it is used by 12% of airline passengers with trip ends in
its prime market area, which includes the Loop. A similar distribution occurs in Boston, where
61% of the resident airline passengers came from the outer suburban area not served by the
regional rapid transit system.
Integration with National Systems: The GAO Study
In the United States, the issue of interconnection of airports with national ground trans-
portation systems has been raised in several forms. A major U.S. transportation advocacy
Table 5-1. Orientation to downtown.
Percentage of
origination trip ends
Airport in downtown
New York LaGuardia 46%
Reagan National 33%
New York JFK 32%
Chicago Midway 20%
Newark 14%
Baltimore/Washington 14%
Chicago O'Hare 14%
Philadelphia 14%
Washington Dulles 12%
Atlanta 7%
SOURCE: TCRP Report 62.
OCR for page 121
Integrated Baggage and Ticketing Strategies 121
group, "Reconnect America," has made the case that the national decline of the airline
hubspoke system has resulted in the severe reduction of air service to smaller airports and
that there is a void in terms of effective access to the remaining airports with growing air
services.
A recent congressionally mandated study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office
(GAO) focused on the connections to nationwide systems for several reasons:
"Increases in the number of passengers traveling to and from airports will place greater strains on our
nation's airport access roads and airport capacity, which can have a number of negative economic and
social effects. U.S. transportation policy has generally addressed these negative economic and social effects
from the standpoint of individual transportation modes and local government involvement. However,
European transportation policy is increasingly focusing on intermodal transportation as a possible means
to address congestion without sacrificing economic growth." (40)
The study notes that, although only one U.S. airport has a fixed guideway to an Amtrak sta-
tion, no U.S. airport reported to the GAO an intention to build a connection to an Amtrak
facility. Figure 5-9 shows Newark as the only example of such a national connection and
18 other airports with shuttle connections. The contrast in U.S. connectivity between major
airports and the national long-distance rail system and the European connectivity strategy is
noteworthy.
SOURCE: GAO (40).
Figure 5-9. The GAO study shows that Newark Airport has the only fixed guideway connection with
national rail service in the United States.
