No train directly to LAX

[bikkuri bahn]

As expected of these things, a day late and a dollar short.  Light rail sucks anyway for airport service (imagine having only Setagaya Line type trains serving Narita or Haneda!), really need a RER/S-bahn type system for LA, but hey, its something (better than nothing...)

 

 

A decades-long effort to bring rail service directly to Los Angeles International Airport suffered a blow Thursday when transportation officials placed on the back burner a proposal for a light-rail tunnel under the terminal area, citing high costs and other risks.

Metro will now primarily focus on routes that would leave the north-south Crenshaw/LAX Line as much as 1.5 miles east of the airport and rely on a circulator train to take passengers to their terminals.

Barring a significant change, L.A. would soon have two light-rail routes that come near LAX but do not deliver passengers to their terminals, a problem that has puzzled and frustrated many civic leaders and transit users.

 

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-lax-rail-link-20140124,0,1688792.story

Edited January 24, 2014 by bikkuri bahn

[kvp]

A yurikamome like elevated metro is imho not a bad option. It can have the same capacity and move people to currently existing railway stations. It's something similar to the haneda monorail. Not the highest capacity and fastest solution, buch much cheaper than heavy rail and more rider friendly than most light rail.

[westfalen]

During my stopover in LA on the way to Dallas in 2012 I caught the free bus from LAX to the light rail and then rode it to downtown, not real user friendly as you then also have to later change trains at a station in the middle of the busiest freeway I have ever seen and then pass through, with all due respect to the good citizens who live there, some suburbs the likes of which you never see on tourist brochures. It's no wonder this mode of getting into town doesn't appear on the orientation video they show on the plane before you land. As a railfan I was fascinated but one of the world's largest cities and airports definately needs something better, though public transport is not something  a lot of people in LA seem to comprehend.

 

In 2000 while staying in Pasedena on an organised railfan tour a group of us decided to go downtown on a free day so we asked the desk clerk at the hotel how to get there and he gave us instructions for driving, after he got over the surprise when we told him we didn't have a car he said he could order a taxi for us when we wanted to go. It was only when we were walking down the street later on to visit a hobby shop that we noticed buses every few minutes that according to the destination signs were going downtown, so the next morning we got downtown with a pleasent enough bus ride that cost us $1.50 if I remember correctly.

 

One thing that made the light rail user friendly to me was that the ticket vending machines were the same as the ones we use here in Brisbane, except that the ones in LA actually seemed to work.

 

BTW I ended up riding the entire light rail system and the Angel's Flight.

[katoftw]

One thing that made the light rail user friendly to me was that the ticket vending machines were the same as the ones we use here in Brisbane, except that the ones in LA actually seemed to work.

Cubic have had the hand in the game for years.  Shame the systems dont work as good as their website says.

 

http://cts.cubic.com/en-gb/customers.aspx

Edited January 25, 2014 by katoftw

[westfalen]

The best rail served airport I have used in my travels is Frankfurt, Narita and Kansai have good service into downtown Tokyo and Osaka respectively but from the station at Frankfurt airport you can catch through local or long distance trains to practically anywhere in Germany and some adjoining countries.

[ToniBabelony]

The best rail served airport I have used in my travels is Frankfurt, Narita and Kansai have good service into downtown Tokyo and Osaka respectively but from the station at Frankfurt airport you can catch through local or long distance trains to practically anywhere in Germany and some adjoining countries.

 

Narita had some potential to become awesome very early on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narita_Shinkansen now Keisei covers the damage with the new Skyliner 160km/h service over the Skyaccess route. xD

[shiawase raichou]

The best rail served airport I have used in my travels is Frankfurt, Narita and Kansai have good service into downtown Tokyo and Osaka respectively but from the station at Frankfurt airport you can catch through local or long distance trains to practically anywhere in Germany and some adjoining countries.

 

Geneva and Amsterdam are the same: great examples of efficient planning. They sit atop major stations from which you can head across the country without schlepping into the centre of town.

 

London Heathrow sits near a main line, but has never integrated itself with the railways. It's a wearying ride into the city centre before you can find a long-distance train.

[westfalen]

I flew out of Heathrow in 2010. I had been staying at a hotel around the corner from Paddington Station so it was easy to get the Heathrow Express, which I really only did for the experience as it cost 18 pounds one way, about twice the cost of a reserved seat on Nankai's Rapit Ltd Exp from Kansai to Namba. I was a bit miffed though because after paying my money no one checked my ticket either before boarding, on the train or leaving the platform at the airport, and there were no public address announcements on the train during the whole journey.

 

One thing Japan has got right with there airport railways is that they don't charge exorbitant fares, unless you catch the NEX, Skyliner or Rapit you just pay the normal fares. Airtrain in Brisbane charges the princely sum of $12 for the privlege of going two stations.

Edited January 26, 2014 by westfalen

[Mudkip Orange]

I don't think PHL's airport train is half bad, but then again you have to fly into PHL to use it :(

 

RE: LAX I bet the taxi lobby has a hand in this now...