331–340 of 574 posts
An airport is very simple to build if you ignore regulations (laws keep getting worst too because they mostly only add them and rarely subtract them... Soon it will be like building a nuclear reactor).
a) the airport is far from any other humans b) the horde of humans your airport angers do not also ignore regulations OR your airport has its own sufficiently large private army
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I don't think you ever traveled international or your plane got delayed or cancelled. I don't want to carry 4 big bags in the train when I travel international I don't want to travel 30 miles if my plane get cancelled.
One option would be to have people check in, drop off their luggage, and even go through security in some convenient location in the city center and then take a high-speed train "inside security" to the gate. (Maybe you could even have trains to two different fields.)
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Arlanda feels like another good example of a "far out" (23 mi) airport that works pretty damn well. 18 minutes on the train.
Arlanda is my favorite major-city airport. I'm not as well-traveled as many, but I've been to dozens and it's my favorite. I've transited between Stockholm, Norrtalje, and the airport in bus, tax, and train, with each being the easiest experience I've had with that respective form of transit.
It really blew my mind when I first visited, I never thought getting to a major international airport could be that convenient. Swiss transit is so well designed.
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Why would an airline have any business in acquiring, getting approved/zoned, and constructing an bespoke airport close to a major metro that would presumably only benefit that airline? Airlines already operate at razor thin margins, specialize in only the transporting aspect, and would not be the best party to oversee the development of airfields and airports. Additionally, companies other than the major airlines use…
I think you misunderstand my comment. Airlines should not be building a "bespoke airport close to a major metro" that only benefits that airline. They should be building their hubs in the middle of nowhere and serve only connecting flights out of them, because it's the fact that the hubs are in the metros that cause problems. When half of the traffic through the airport isn't destined for the metro, then half the tra…
If they could sell their gate slots and use another hub at a reasonable profit, they would.
Of course, we're past when everyone wanted 747s and giant Airbuses so perhaps the hub and spoke system will slowly melt away into smaller more direct flights.
Mirabel was well planned, but was undone by events. Montréal in the 19060s was the undisputed centre of Canada for business, culture, population, sport, politics, and international relations. Canada expected to grow by millions of people, and we expected a large number of them to settle in Montréal. 35 miles was a modest buffer zone anticipating enormous suburban sprawl. The whole project was derailed in the 70s by t…
> Toronto became a major Jewish city I am confused by this part. Can you please explain? On the surface, it doesn't read well. Maybe my English isn't so good.
'major' is in terms of its relevance to the wider Jewish community, which is inevitably going to be affected by how many members live there.
None of the various sorts of people being stupid about Jews are involved :)
An airport is very simple to build if you ignore regulations (laws keep getting worst too because they mostly only add them and rarely subtract them... Soon it will be like building a nuclear reactor).
As an example, I’ve seen people complain about building codes and why they can’t they do what they want with their property. But they don’t consider that fire services, for example, need to be able to rely on those codes.
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> One of the interesting ideas [...] is to run high-speed rail to Moses Lake Airport in Central Washington and just expand there. While reading this article, I thought about something like that too. Build an airport quite a while away from the big city, and provide a high-speed, maybe even maglev train there. Make it free for customers. Also, make it very inconvenient for passengers and staff to approach the airport…
> make it very inconvenient for passengers and staff to approach the airport by other means Absolutely not! High-speed train have many advantages, but serving stations with large, long-term parking lots is not one of them. After all, you don't need to disincentivize the approach: you just need to make it clear that the airport is there to stay, and maybe to grow three-fold, and that noise complaints will never be rec…
But they are always receivable. Complainers will vote, will take control of local government, will lobby state and national government...
"Complaints aren't receivable" policies never last.
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If flying into NRT and on the way to Tokyo, ~$200ish for the taxi ride. Ooops.
Taxi is not the main way to leave airports in large part of the world.
[1] https://www.ptua.org.au/2015/10/29/busiest-airports-rail/
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I tend to travel pretty light but trains get inconvenient with any amount of luggage. I'm coming into NY by ship after a longish trip, continuing on home by train at the end of May. I came to the conclusion I should take advantage of a not too expensive luggage shipping service because dealing with the luggage was going to be just too big of a hassle.
That's a key if you want a "rail to plane" setup - if you do it right (read-nobody will do it) you check in for the train with your baggage and your flight at the same time, and give the bags over to a dedicated baggage car that handles everything for you.
[1] https://www.mtr.com.hk/en/customer/services/complom_checkin....
> And an airport can’t be too far from a city and remain useful, since travelers need to access the city, workers need to be within commuting distance, and so on. In Canada, Mirabel airport was built 35 miles from Montreal, surrounded by a 79,000 acre buffer zone to prevent any issues of incompatible land use. Mirabel was expected to replace Dorval (today Montreal-Trudeau) as Canada’s main eastern airport, but, in pa…