Amtrak Milwaukee Airport Station

http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwau ... aily9.html

Construction began Monday on a new passenger rail station that will connect Amtrak's Hiawatha line with Milwaukee County's General Mitchell International Airport.

Harrisburg, PA airport is being expanded and a rail station on the Keystone line at the airport is planned. Unfortunately, there have been some delays caused by rangling among PennDOT, NS and Amtrak about the station design or some such problem. I can already take Amtrak/SEPTA to the Philly airport and Amtrak to BWI, it sure would be nice to have a third airport to be able to take the train to.

The Harrisburg International Airport website says that the rail station is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2005.

It sure would be nice if this multi-modal type arrangement between trains and airports is a real trend.

KeystoneRider wrote:I can already take Amtrak/SEPTA to the Philly airport and Amtrak to BWI

Exactly, plus Newark Liberty. From Continental's perspective, what's great about the new EWR station is the prospect of poaching passengers from US Airways' Philly gateway. 'ZFV' is the IATA code for Philadelphia 30th Street Station, and it's in Continental's booking engine. The codeshare arrangement means that Amtrak train 186 becomes Continental "flight" 9405 for booking purposes. It's pretty cool.

It sure would be nice if this multi-modal type arrangement between trains and airports is a real trend.

It sure feels that way from here. Here in the Central Time Zone, in addition to the Chicago airports there's also Lambert-St. Louis, with two light-rail stops, and DFW, with a commuter-rail/shuttle connection at the south end of the airport. A future phase of DART's light-rail network will put Dallas Love Field on line. Amtrak doesn't serve these airports directly, but the local systems do connect to it.

mattfels wrote:

KeystoneRider wrote:I can already take Amtrak/SEPTA to the Philly airport and Amtrak to BWI

Exactly, plus Newark Liberty. From Continental's perspective, what's great about the new EWR station is the prospect of poaching passengers from US Airways' Philly gateway. 'ZFV' is the IATA code for Philadelphia 30th Street Station, and it's in Continental's booking engine. The codeshare arrangement means that Amtrak train 186 becomes Continental "flight" 9405 for booking purposes. It's pretty cool.

It sure would be nice if this multi-modal type arrangement between trains and airports is a real trend.

It sure feels that way from here. Here in the Central Time Zone, in addition to the Chicago airports there's also Lambert-St. Louis, with two light-rail stops, and DFW, with a commuter-rail/shuttle connection at the south end of the airport. A future phase of DART's light-rail network will put Dallas Love Field on line. Amtrak doesn't serve these airports directly, but the local systems do connect to it.

Right, I forgot about Newark because I've never flown out of there. US Airways is going to get plenty squeezed by Southwest since they're now flying out of Philly. I can get RT to Philly International on Amtrak/SEPTA for under $30 so it's a no brainer vs. driving the 70 miles to the airport and paying for parking there.

And I've done the Midway airport and taken the train downtown and it was incredibly easy and cheap. I've also taken the lightrail from Portland, OR airport to downtown and it was extremely easy - and a very nice light-rail system also.

Right, I forgot about Newark because I've never flown out of there. US Airways is going to get plenty squeezed by Southwest since they're now flying out of Philly. I can get RT to Philly International on Amtrak/SEPTA for under $30 so it's a no brainer vs. driving the 70 miles to the airport and paying for parking there.

And I've done the Midway airport and taken the train downtown and it was incredibly easy and cheap. I've also taken the lightrail from Portland, OR airport to downtown and it was extremely easy - and a very nice light-rail system also.

Don't forget JFK. It's now easy to take LIRR into Penn Station, via Jamaica.

Figure 30-40 minutes from JFK to NYP via Skytrain/LIRR

Fare should be around $10, all in.

Faster and cheaper than cab.

Connections also available at Jamaica to Flatbush Ave., Hunterspoint Ave. (weekday a.m. peak hours only) and all Long Island destinations except for point on Port Washington line, which runs direct to NYP and skips Jamaica.

Only downside is need to go from Skytrain to street level and back up to LIRR platforms. That should be alleviated next year when new LIRR concourse and connecting skybridge are completed.

From NYP, you could also take the E train to Sutphin Boulevard/Archer Avenue (about 25 minutes) then transfer to Airtrain ($7, $2 subway fare + $5 Airtrain) .

Help me out here - who is going to use the Milwuakee Airport Station?

People boarding in Milwaukee - no, they will just take a cab
People boarding in Sturtevant - no, the airport is only another 30 minutes away, shy take the train and then the shuttle to the terminal?
People boarding ins Glenview - ummm, you ever heard of an airport called O'Hare? It has lots of flights and cheap fares....and isn't too far away
People boarding in Chicago - Same as Glenview.

What is really needed are a new station at Sturtevant to replace the current one that is decorated in "modern crack house", and a station at Hwy 50 in Kenosha.

Steven Herr wrote:People boarding ins Glenview - ummm, you ever heard of an airport called O'Hare? It has lots of flights and cheap fares....and isn't too far away
People boarding in Chicago - Same as Glenview.

The idea is to attract people that don't want to go to O'Hare. O'Hare is huge and busy, and getting from point A to point B at that airport can take a long time. Milwaukee, on the other hand, is a smaller, less crowded airport that is just as close, if not closer, to the people in northern Illinois. With frequent talk about a third Chicago airport, it would be such a waste to not make full use of existing airport infrastructure first.

A new station in Sturtevant is on its way, though I don't know the timeline. I think they'd be better off working on the METRA extension to Milwaukee than to add a sixth station to the Hiawatha line in Kenosha.

Steven Herr wrote:Help me out here - who is going to use the Milwuakee Airport Station?

For starters, the 6-10% of Midwest Airlines' frequent flier members who live in Illinois.

RMadisonWI wrote:The idea is to attract people that don't want to go to O'Hare.

Exactly. Another benefit is that establishing Mitchell Field as Chicago's "third" airport defers--perhaps indefinitely--the need to build an airport from scratch at Peotone, Illinois. Mitchell:Chicago::T. F. Green:Boston.

The 6-10% of YX's most frequesnt flier that live in Illinois will not be using the train. You'll be lucky to get a slice of those passengers.

Comparing MKE:Chicago to PVD:Boston is not valid. MKE is MUCH further from Chicago than PVD is from Boston.

And if there is a 3rd airport in the Chicago area, you can bet your Illinois lawmakers will make sure it is in Illinois.

There's also the Gary/Chicago "International" (ha!) airport. It's 35 minutes by rail from the airport to the loop.

http://www.nictd.com/service/dailywestbound.htm

If it were in any town around there other than Gary, Indiana, it might be considered a viable option. But the name "Gary, Indiana" has a way of killing things.

And if the Midwest High Speed Rail Initiative was implemented, and you had Northeast Corridor style service between Chicago and St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland and Indianapolis, then maybe you could alleviate some of the congestion at the current Chicago Airports. (I know, I know, not going to happen).

7 Train wrote:From NYP, you could also take the E train to Sutphin Boulevard/Archer Avenue (about 25 minutes) then transfer to Airtrain ($7, $2 subway fare + $5 Airtrain) .

Wait, so the airtrain goes straight from New York Penn station to JFK?

I haven't seen any construction being done on the harrisburg airport station when I passed by.

AirTrain runs from JFK Airport to Jamaica where you can change for the Long Island RR to Penn Station or the E train subway (which also stops there). LIRR is faster, but more expensive. It also has more comfortable seating, if you are fortunate enough to get a seat.

AirTrain also runs to the Howard Beach subway station where you can catch the A train, which also stops at NYP, but only after first going through downtown Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.

Gary isn't a "viable option"? Tell that to Southeast Airlines and Hooters Air, which both fly out of GYY. It was also briefly served by Guilford's Pan Am until Pan Am cut all its Midwest service.