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These days more airports have rail transit connections. Mostly rapid transit, but some light or commuter rail. I have noticed most riders are airport employees or frequent flying business travelers. Probably vacationers have too much baggage and, having splurged on a trip, don't mind doing so on getting to the airport. Another thing is that many transit agencies have higher fares at the airport stations. Perhaps they know that many who board there are from out of town, so they will get milked! Your thoughts?
I don’t know how to measure who exactly is using the airport rail station, but your assessment sounds about right. But just for the fun of it, I looked up how Link light rail SeaTac station yearly boardings compared to the number of passengers in the airport and got the following;
SeaTac Airport (2022): 45,964,321
SeaTac Station (2022): 1,668,901
So that’s a ratio of 3.63%
* SEA generates more than 151,400 jobs (87,300 direct jobs), so there is like 10 times as many boardings as there are people employed by the airport, so it’s definitely not just employees riding the light rail.
I wonder which city has the best ratio? Hubs will probably be lower down the list since many of the people are only using the airport for a connecting flight.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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The problem with the light rail to Seatac is that it's very limited in reach. Unless one lives along the north/south route between Northgate in Seattle and Angle Lake just south of the airport, it requires driving or a bus to the nearest station along that route. The biggest percentage of travelers through Seatac are from the eastside, where light rail is still years away except for Bellevue and Redmond, possibly opening next year. If you have ever tried to park at the airport, or even at one of the off-site parking companies with shuttles, it's pretty obvious that most people drive.
I don’t know how to measure who exactly is using the airport rail station, but your assessment sounds about right. But just for the fun of it, I looked up how Link light rail SeaTac station yearly boardings compared to the number of passengers in the airport and got the following;
SeaTac Airport (2022): 45,964,321
SeaTac Station (2022): 1,668,901
So that’s a ratio of 3.63%
* SEA generates more than 151,400 jobs (87,300 direct jobs), so there is like 10 times as many boardings as there are people employed by the airport, so it’s definitely not just employees riding the light rail.
I wonder which city has the best ratio? Hubs will probably be lower down the list since many of the people are only using the airport for a connecting flight.
Oh wait I just realized that I didn’t account for unique trips for the employees for the whole year, if I multiply 87,300 by 260 work days and then by another 2 for trip back home, that’s 45,396,000, so that’s still like 3% of the work force.
[M]any transit agencies have higher fares at the airport stations. Perhaps they know that many who board there are from out of town, so they will get milked! Your thoughts?
Here's one of mine. Are the higher fares aimed at keeping the riffraff out of airports as well (or instead)?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Boothwynman
Here's one of mine. Are the higher fares aimed at keeping the riffraff out of airports as well (or instead)?
That wouldn't help in Seattle, where there has not been any fare enforcement. Even people with the Orca card don't bother tapping it, they just get on and ride free. Currently only 55% of riders pay. Supposedly, next week they are going to start enforcing it. . .we'll see if that happens.
Problem is time. It takes 35-45 mins for the journey plus wait time plus walking time to/from station when going downtown. I almost always Uber after landing at SeaTac.
In Phoenix I use the airtrain to get to a light rail station, and then Waymo from there.
These days more airports have rail transit connections. Mostly rapid transit, but some light or commuter rail. I have noticed most riders are airport employees or frequent flying business travelers. Probably vacationers have too much baggage and, having splurged on a trip, don't mind doing so on getting to the airport. Another thing is that many transit agencies have higher fares at the airport stations. Perhaps they know that many who board there are from out of town, so they will get milked! Your thoughts?
Philadelphia is one of the cities where airport service is provided by regional rail trains. (The same company that built Philly's newest Regional Rail car fleet also built the cars that run on Denver's A-Line regional rail line to Denver International Airport.)
And the Regional Rail fares to PHL are priced to soak the visitors. Regional Rail fares increase with distance traveled from Center City; there are four fare zones plus the Center City zone. The airport stations would otherwise lie in the first fare zone — it's at the southern tip of the city proper — but Airport Line riders pay Zone 4 fares to get to the airport from Center City.
Whenever I've ridden it, it seems to carry a mix of airline personnel and single individuals or twosomes carrying a carry-on bag, a single suitcase or a suitcase and a carry-on. I'm also speculating that most of these actual travelers live in this area and are either starting or ending their trip elsewhere. I strongly suspect that the out-of-towners either are being picked up by friends or relatives or will catch a cab or an Uber into the city. But maybe some of them do take the train, which runs at 30-minute headways throughout the service day. The trip from the airport takes 15 minutes to reach 30th Street Station, 20 to reach Suburban, and 25 to reach Jefferson Station.
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemlock140
The problem with the light rail to Seatac is that it's very limited in reach. Unless one lives along the north/south route between Northgate in Seattle and Angle Lake just south of the airport, it requires driving or a bus to the nearest station along that route. The biggest percentage of travelers through Seatac are from the eastside, where light rail is still years away except for Bellevue and Redmond, possibly opening next year. If you have ever tried to park at the airport, or even at one of the off-site parking companies with shuttles, it's pretty obvious that most people drive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemlock140
That wouldn't help in Seattle, where there has not been any fare enforcement. Even people with the Orca card don't bother tapping it, they just get on and ride free. Currently only 55% of riders pay. Supposedly, next week they are going to start enforcing it. . .we'll see if that happens.
SeaTac is at one end of long haul flights: to Europe, to Asia, to USA's East Coast. This means that many flights leave/arrive early AM or late PM where public transportation may not be as attractive.
Tapping on/off LINK. We often forget to do so because we do a bus/LINK combination where we will always tap in on a bus as part of the trip. Tapping in on LINK from a bus is a way that Soundtransit can track our allowed travel time (2.5 hours/fare), but get no further fare from us.
Living in Redmond's Flats, gives us the multiple opportunities to do an Express (ST545, ST542) bus to a LINK station.
Not sure how the LINK at Redmond will affect us. Slated time get from Redmond to ID is 40minutes + 40 minutes from ID to SEATAC. Current time on 545x to ID is 40-50 minutes dependent on downtown traffic. A slight time savings is using 542x Redmond to Huskey Statium Link to SEATAC, however the 542x doesn't run often on weekends, evenings, and weekdays' non peak hours.
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