Commuting from Tempe to Sky-Harbor, Light-rail and Sky-train

[Valley Native]

Reviving this to point out that anybody who has driven around Sky Harbor Circle or 24th Street lately has likely noticed the construction of SkyTrain's final segment. It is slated to connect T3 with the rental car center, and scheduled to be running next year (2022). I should also point out that not a penny of taxpayer money is paying for this. Funding is coming from airline and rental car passenger fees.

https://www.skyharbor.com/about/deve...SkyTrainstage2

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

Reviving this to point out that anybody who has driven around Sky Harbor Circle or 24th Street lately has likely noticed the construction of SkyTrain's final segment. It is slated to connect T3 with the rental car center, and scheduled to be running next year (2022). I should also point out that not a penny of taxpayer money is paying for this. Funding is coming from airline and rental car passenger fees.

https://www.skyharbor.com/about/deve...SkyTrainstage2

I can only hope that air travel has started to return to pre-pandemic levels around the same time this new airport infrastructure opens. There are predictions that travel for face-to-face business meetings will be permanently diminished. Like all "new normal" predictions these prognostications are based on hazy crystal balls and a whole lot of confirmation bias in which pundits predict what they want to see happen. Regardless of business travel trends, I expect there will be lots of pent-up demand for people who have deferred trips to see friends, family, and places they want to experience.

[JGMotorsport64]

Originally Posted by exit2lef

I can only hope that air travel has started to return to pre-pandemic levels around the same time this new airport infrastructure opens. There are predictions that travel for face-to-face business meetings will be permanently diminished. Like all "new normal" predictions these prognostications are based on hazy crystal balls and a whole lot of confirmation bias in which pundits predict what they want to see happen. Regardless of business travel trends, I expect there will be lots of pent-up demand for people who have deferred trips to see friends, family, and places they want to experience.

The business world will be permanently changed. Travel is proving to be unnecessary and expensive. In my industry we’ve successfully moved almost completely away from face to face exchanges and it seems to be working fairly well. Recreational travel will return.

[FlurryCat]

So is the plan to eliminate the buses to the rental car center? I'm fine with that. In fact, I love the whole idea of the SkyTrain. No crossing the noisy, exhaust-choked street to wait in a line for the bus. Stay inside the terminal. Free up the roadway. But you're gonna need a lot more trains. Those rental car buses move an enormous number of people.

And this is still a tourist town. I can see lines at the elevators in T-4 from baggage claim up to level 3 and from Level 3 down to the check-in desks, since escalators aren't suitable for older people and those with a ton of luggage. It's also gonna slow down the system - it can take 10 minutes to load a rental car shuttle, even with the driver and a helper slinging bags. Can't imagine how much fun it will be trying to squeeze onto the train with a big group wrestling their golf clubs and steamer trunks.

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by FlurryCat

So is the plan to eliminate the buses to the rental car center? I'm fine with that. In fact, I love the whole idea of the SkyTrain. No crossing the noisy, exhaust-choked street to wait in a line for the bus. Stay inside the terminal. Free up the roadway. But you're gonna need a lot more trains. Those rental car buses move an enormous number of people.

And this is still a tourist town. I can see lines at the elevators in T-4 from baggage claim up to level 3 and from Level 3 down to the check-in desks, since escalators aren't suitable for older people and those with a ton of luggage. It's also gonna slow down the system - it can take 10 minutes to load a rental car shuttle, even with the driver and a helper slinging bags. Can't imagine how much fun it will be trying to squeeze onto the train with a big group wrestling their golf clubs and steamer trunks.

Yes, the plan is to eliminate the rental car shuttle buses once the final phase of the SkyTrain is operating. The city did some modeling and found that without a better solution, those shuttle buses would eventually be caught in perpetual traffic jams if trends of growing passengers counts continued. Admittedly, the pandemic disrupted those trends, but that is probably more of a pause than a permanent stop.

I think they can run enough trains for the passenger load. The trains are automated and, unlike light rail, they don't interact with car traffic at all. As a result, it will be possible to run trains at high frequencies without worrying about them getting bunched up behind one another. In terms of loading and unloading, the main advantage is that the SkyTrain has no steps. The station platforms are level with the train cars, so luggage can be simply wheeled on and off.

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64

The business world will be permanently changed. Travel is proving to be unnecessary and expensive. In my industry we’ve successfully moved almost completely away from face to face exchanges and it seems to be working fairly well. Recreational travel will return.

Larger companies have been pushing the idea of reducing business travel for quite a while now ... mostly for cost savings. Now that technology has (supposedly) improved to where teleconferencing to other sites throughout the nation & world is more feasible, business in general will likely move in that direction. From my own experience, the technology still needs some serious improvement to erase many of the glitches. I can't begin to count how often a video conference would completely freeze or shut down at my company. There are also employees who use their own laptops or phones for business, and the audio quality is horrible. These things need to be ironed out before removing face to face interaction becomes universal.

Back to the SkyTrain: I'm glad it was built because once we return to "normal", travel will likely increase, whether it's for business, tourism, or whatever else. The fact that it's not being funded with tax money is also appealing. It's also a good alternate form of commuting, and not just for Sky Harbor employees. I'm thinking some workers at the finance centers on Sky Harbor Circle could benefit by using the SkyTrain for their commutes if they choose to drive less.

[JGMotorsport64]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

Larger companies have been pushing the idea of reducing business travel for quite a while now ... mostly for cost savings. Now that technology has (supposedly) improved to where teleconferencing to other sites throughout the nation & world is more feasible, business in general will likely move in that direction. From my own experience, the technology still needs some serious improvement to erase many of the glitches. I can't begin to count how often a video conference would completely freeze or shut down at my company. There are also employees who use their own laptops or phones for business, and the audio quality is horrible. These things need to be ironed out before removing face to face interaction becomes universal.

Back to the SkyTrain: I'm glad it was built because once we return to "normal", travel will likely increase, whether it's for business, tourism, or whatever else. The fact that it's not being funded with tax money is also appealing. It's also a good alternate form of commuting, and not just for Sky Harbor employees. I'm thinking some workers at the finance centers on Sky Harbor Circle could benefit by using the SkyTrain for their commutes if they choose to drive less.

Idk I spend hours at a time on Zoom calls and it works really well. All you actually need is a good internet connection (10+ mbps), a cheap conference mic, and a decent webcam (for $20 these come integrated with a mic) and you’re relatively trouble free. I talked to a guy in Japan recently. I was amazed how well it worked.

My only beef is the slight delay, but the Cisco service, although expensive, clears that up.

[Valley Native]

Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64

Idk I spend hours at a time on Zoom calls and it works really well. All you actually need is a good internet connection (10+ mbps), a cheap conference mic, and a decent webcam (for $20 these come integrated with a mic) and you’re relatively trouble free. I talked to a guy in Japan recently. I was amazed how well it worked.

My only beef is the slight delay, but the Cisco service, although expensive, clears that up.

We use Zoom for our conference meetings while we're working from home, and it works OK most of the time, but there are still issues with delays, freezing, and being bumped completely out of the system. I can definitely see the need to move away from business travel on a corporate expense level, but the technology still needs improvement if we're going to go in a virtual direction. There's nothing more annoying than losing communication, or being unable to understand the person on the other end due to poor audio quality.