Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Ridership, true. Civic awareness and support for rail, that's a different story. I saw this play out in Atlanta when I lived there. Locals who would never otherwise set foot on Marta ride it to Hartsfield. In terms of incremental ridership, the airport extension of Marta has rotten fare recovery and always will -- Marta rail is a uniform fare system. But in terms of maintaining broad support for Marta rail in a metro area where broad support still cannot be taken for granted, it's "priceless" as the advertisements say.
I am beginning to come on board with this approach. Of all the "John/Jane Q Public" types who are aware of the light rail project but don't follow it as closely as I do, the main objections I have encountered can be placed into two categories: the John Locke Foundation / Agenda 21 types, who will never be persuaded to support rail, and the people who say they are open to it but seem genuinely puzzled or upset about the lack of an airport connection. The fact is, that this one of very few scenarios in which lots of these people could see themselves using the light rail.
My understanding: there is still no firm plan to get rail from one side of I-40 to the other. About a mile of right of way will have to be purchased on the west side of I-40. It's increasingly expensive real estate, with few routing options because of reservoirs. Also a long bridge will have to be built across I-40 at high cost. Those are the stumbling blocks to serving the airport, not what happens on the east side of I-40 where RDUAA owns almost all the land already. The trick is to get RDUAA to make a financial contribution to the west-of-40 costs. There's a substantial disconnect in politics, given that the local governments appoint the RDUAA board.[/quote]
RDUAA has a plan for a people mover to a new Rental Car facility off of Pleasant Grove Church Road TTA has shown how this could be extended along Page Road to the Triangle Metro Center complex. Maybe the idea is to squeeze something in under the existing Page Road bridge, without on the south/east side where there are no ramps.
Though the Commuter Rail goes straight from Raleigh to Durham but there is a "gap" in the light rail between Cary Parkway and Alston Avenue. Maybe this people mover idea could be implemented as light rail instead and have it go through the airport, something like this.
The city can begin track and signal upgrades necessary for Amtrak trains to pull into the station, which would transform a vacant Dillon Supply building into a terminal with a spacious waiting hall.
The city can begin track and signal upgrades necessary for Amtrak trains to pull into the station, which would transform a vacant Dillon Supply building into a terminal with a spacious waiting hall.
This is awesome! Now if we can just vote out all the idiot Wake County Commissioners that didn't seem to think letting the public vote on more public transit services this fall was a good idea.
Like Charlotte, the lack of a planned light rail station to the airport is baffling. DC Metrorail is currently extending its line just so that Dulles can be connected to the metro system, although Reagan National is already connected and Dulles is 30 miles from D.C.
I think there are financial motives at work that prevent the airport connection. RDU international airport makes a mint off of parking fees.
It is unfortunate because business travelers will find it very quaint when they visit the 'fast-growing city of Raleigh' only to find that they need to wait 30 minutes for a shuttle bus to the train station. I think in the long run RDU would be better served creating a 21st century image to the business clients that frequent this region coming from world class cities like New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London and so forth. Showing that this isn't a backwater to people who are accustomed to a certain amount of urbanity is important.
I think there are financial motives at work that prevent the airport connection. RDU international airport makes a mint off of parking fees.
It is unfortunate because business travelers will find it very quaint when they visit the 'fast-growing city of Raleigh' only to find that they need to wait 30 minutes for a shuttle bus to the train station. I think in the long run RDU would be better served creating a 21st century image to the business clients that frequent this region coming from world class cities like New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London and so forth. Showing that this isn't a backwater to people who are accustomed to a certain amount of urbanity is important.
Agreed. Every time someone brings up the "it isn't going to RDU" thing as a way to poo-poo the whole idea, I like to ask them, "If you were RDU, making $35mil a year from parking fees (which is about 40% of their revenue) would you agree to have the rail come in so most people could access the facility without paying you?" Honestly, most people wouldn't. It would be nice if the RDU folks could be all friendly and such and help us out with this, but who can blame a business for not wanting to loose a substancial portion of it's revenues?
I wonder how much revenue they would actually lose though. It seems like the sort of person to ride the light rail into the airport is the same person who currently takes the bus to the airport or has their buddy pick them up when their flight lands. I know that for my coworkers that regularly park at the airport they would never take the light rail there because they wouldn't want to lose the flexibility of having their car right there.
I think there are financial motives at work that prevent the airport connection. RDU international airport makes a mint off of parking fees.
It is unfortunate because business travelers will find it very quaint when they visit the 'fast-growing city of Raleigh' only to find that they need to wait 30 minutes for a shuttle bus to the train station. I think in the long run RDU would be better served creating a 21st century image to the business clients that frequent this region coming from world class cities like New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London and so forth. Showing that this isn't a backwater to people who are accustomed to a certain amount of urbanity is important.
LHR - 69.4 million passengers per year (mppy)
HKG - 53.3 mppy
JFK - 47.7 mppy
SFO - 41.0 mppy
NRT - 32.1 mppy
RDU - 9.2 mppy
It's worth noting that every single one of these places had a rail system in place in the city they serve before linking the airport with light rail. For example, BART in the bay area has been running since 1972, but the extension to SFO only opened in 2003.
RDU just doesn't have the traffic to support a light rail right now. In 20 years, maybe. And at that point, it can be studied as a spur. But given the costs of including RDU as a stop at this point, a focus on connecting daily commuters between the various towns of the Triangle is more important. Let service to RDU airport develop as it has in other towns.
It is unfortunate because business travelers will find it very quaint when they visit the 'fast-growing city of Raleigh' only to find that they need to wait 30 minutes for a shuttle bus to the train station.
I don't disagree. But I wonder how the business travelers will get around RTP without a car. They need access to their hotels, businesses that may be anywhere in the (rather spread out) area, and restaurants at which to eat. That's a tall order for a fledgling rail system.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
