A while ago, I got annoyed by people acting like Calgary is the only city in the world without a rail link to its airport, so I did some research. This post is almost 2 years old now, so I don't know if any of the information has changed or not, but it still gives you an idea of how (un)common it is to have rail links to a city's airport in North America...
Quote:
Originally Posted by getbak
For some reason, people love to throw around this idea that Calgary is out of touch because we don't have a public rail link to the airport. Chahal even says it in the story: “It’s also the quickest and most efficient route into the airport and it will provide an opportunity, just like every other major metropolitan city in North America, for a direct connection to the airport.”
That idea simply isn't true. Here are the 15 busiest airports in North America (in 2015) and what they have for public rail connections at their airports (plus the year those stations opened).
On the list, a Metro/LRT/Commuter station is one that is directly part of the city's main transit system. A Connection is a short "people mover" type service that carries passengers from the airport to a nearby transfer station, where they can board the city's main transit system. (This list is based on information from Wikipedia, so it might have some errors, feel free to correct anything)
- Atlanta (ATL) - Yes (1988 Metro)
- Chicago (ORD) - Yes (1984 Metro)
- Los Angeles (LAX) - No (Connection under construction for 2021 opening)
- Dallas (DFW) - Yes (2000 Commuter / 2014 LRT)
- New York (JFK) - Yes (2003 Connection)
- Denver (DEN) - Yes (2016 Commuter)
- San Francisco (SFO) - Yes (2003 Metro)
- Las Vegas (LAS) - No
- Charlotte (CLT) - No
- Miami (MIA) - Yes (2012 Metro / 2015 Commuter)
- Toronto (YYZ) - Yes (2015 Commuter)
- Phoenix (PHX) - Yes (2013 Connection)
- Houston (IAH) - No
- Seattle (SEA) - Yes (2009 LRT)
- Orlando (MCO) - No
Only the two busiest airports on the list have airport stations that were built before the year 2000. 5 of the airports listed don't have any stations (one is under construction). 5 of them have stations that are less than 10 years old.
Each of these airports handle well more than double the number of passengers as YYC and all serve cities with significantly larger populations than Calgary. Orlando airport handled 38.7 million passengers in 2015. Calgary is 36th in North America with 15.5 million passenger in 2015 (just behind Montreal, which also doesn't have rail service to the airport, despite a much larger population and significantly older and more developed metro system). |