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St. Louis gets no love from anyone, including people in Missouri. However Metrolink has very good service between downtown and Lambert St. Louis Airport. Using CityNerd's criteria:

Service from 8th and Pine starts at 4:13 a.m. everyday with trains every 20 minutes. The ride is a little long at 40 minutes, with the last train leaving downtown at 12:13 a.m. The trips from the airport downtown start at 4:56 a.m. and end at 12:56 a.m. The fare is $2.50.
I've used it several times, excellent system as you said!
 
Anytime you can not drive yourself anywhere in Houston is a Plus!

Austin has a Similar Airporter Bus that runs between the UT Campus, Downtown and the Airport for $1.50/ Seniors .75 cents.

However Cap Metro has stupidly decided not to extend the New Light Rail Lines being built to the Airport due to "Cost", stopping 3 miles short on Riverside Dr.
Ahhh... The People's State of Austin. I used to check with a couple of the downtown hotels. For a 20 I could usually cumshaw a hotel shuttle ride.
 
This video is not brand new but recent enough to be relevant (hopefully)...




Why is that?


Eight million pax* is significantly more traveled than most of the US airports I frequent. When I have a choice I prefer middle-sized US airports over the large international gateways that get most of the attention but seem poorly planned, severely understaffed, and perpetually behind the usage curve.

* (roughly, before the pandemic, etc.)

Agreed.
Mid-size airports are often hassle free (one reason I like Logan: large international hub with the size and feel of a mid-size airport).

Only issue is that mid-size airports are often in car-dependent areas of the country. And these places don’t exactly see a lot of tourists, so ridership is very low. It’s a shame, since places like Boston and NYC would kill for the rail transit integration that Cleveland and St. Louis have.

I didn’t expect to see Boston on Ray’s list. Counting the blue line as rail transit to Boston is a stretch since Airport station quite a ways by shuttle. Once the red-blue connector hits however, that will make it more viable for me at least. The silver line is great, so long as there’s no traffic, which is never…

Someone touted the idea of Boston building a brand new airport in the Gillette stadium area, accomplishing twofold: opening up a large piece of prime land for development in a housing-strapped city, and allowing for a brand new, fast rail connection to and from South Station - if you could get it down to a 20-25 minute ride with 15 minute frequency, it would be a no brainer. Given how fast Boston’s air traffic grows, it may be something to consider in the 50-100 year timeline.
 
My favorite of all is the SEPTA Regional Rail line to Philadelphia International.
It makes three different stops at the airport, minimizing the need to walk far or use a separate “people mover” for many. And it makes several convenient stops Center City, as well as great train and transit connections along the way.🙂

For a brief period, Amtrak even ran on it (Atlantic City trains)…
 
Someone touted the idea of Boston building a brand new airport in the Gillette stadium area, accomplishing twofold: opening up a large piece of prime land for development in a housing-strapped city, and allowing for a brand new, fast rail connection to and from South Station - if you could get it down to a 20-25 minute ride with 15 minute frequency, it would be a no brainer. Given how fast Boston’s air traffic grows, it may be something to consider in the 50-100 year timeline.
Interesting. It appears that use of MHT and ORH as satellite airports for the Boston metro area never really took off (no pun intended). Doesn't help that both have poor or nonexistent transit connections, MHT particularly being in NH which has been unalterably opposed to any kind of transportation that doesn't involve rubber tires on asphalt.
 
Don't forget that T.F. Green Airport has a stop on the Northeast Corridor. I used this connection (as quasi-intended) on a recent trip to Boston. I flew into T.F. Green Late at night (flight was cheaper than Boston), walked to the Commuter Rail Station using the Interlink (a series of moving walkways) spent the night in the Hyatt Place (got a very reasonable rate), who's parking lot would be the parking lot for the Commuter Rail if it wasn't for the hotel. The next day I was on the Commuter Rail into Boston where my wallet feeling good because the Flight + Hotel night at TF Green Airport was signifigantly cheaper than anything I could find in Boston, where I ironically spent another night at the Hyatt Boston Harbor, right next to Logan Airport (only place I could use a Hyatt Free Night Certificate, Boston hotel prices aint cheap) before catching a bus to Vermont to continue my little trip.
 
MHT particularly being in NH which has been unalterably opposed to any kind of transportation that doesn't involve rubber tires on asphalt.
In that case, they should have no trouble running express buses.

Concord Coach has hourly service between Concord and Boston, which runs right by the Manchester airport, but doesn't stop there.

Given the usual traffic in the Concord-Manchester area, buses would work fine if they were frequent enough and convenient.
 
In that case, they should have no trouble running express buses.

Concord Coach has hourly service between Concord and Boston, which runs right by the Manchester airport, but doesn't stop there.

Given the usual traffic in the Concord-Manchester area, buses would work fine if they were frequent enough and convenient.
Greyhound also serves MHT a few times a day with service to Boston.

The local transit authority has a bus from the city to the airport and an express bus to Nashua.
 
Don't forget that T.F. Green Airport has a stop on the Northeast Corridor. I used this connection (as quasi-intended) on a recent trip to Boston.
Note that at present Amtrak does not stop at TF Green, only MBTA commuter trains.

A big drawback to that service is that it doesn't run on weekends - trains only go as far as Providence.
One could take the RIPTA Route 1 bus from the airport downtown, but that doesn't run very often on weekends, about once an hour.
 
My favorite of all is the SEPTA Regional Rail line to Philadelphia International.
It makes three different stops at the airport, minimizing the need to walk far or use a separate “people mover” for many. And it makes several convenient stops Center City, as well as great train and transit connections along the way.🙂

For a brief period, Amtrak even ran on it (Atlantic City trains)…
My friend introduced me to this airport train a few years ago - I agree, it's super convenient and easy to use!
 
The Commuter Service to TF Green Airport is limited to the trains that Rhode Island funds to run south of Providence. The lack of weekend/holiday service renders it useless for many of us.

Then again for airport access we live in Boston in Eastie (East Boston), and we can walk onto the airport grounds, and catch the shuttle buses to the various terminals. When we rent a car I rent it right from Logan and the Rent A Car Center we can walk directly to.

Ken
 
Rail access either commuter or local rail cannot beat Atlanta airport. MARTA rail station is in the airport terminal. It provides less walking to all checkin spots for all domestic flights. The station is even closer to baggage claim with fewer steps to the MARTA station. Yes, some of the other airports may have some airlines closer but no airport IMO that has rail service can meet the overall access for all airlines.

Have not seen figures in years for Marta riders but at one time over 10% of riders for the whole rail system used ATL airport station. Then there is some airport patrons not counted that use College Park MARTA station remote parking lot connecting to airport by bus.
 
Rail access either commuter or local rail cannot beat Atlanta airport. MARTA rail station is in the airport terminal. It provides less walking to all checkin spots for all domestic flights. The station is even closer to baggage claim with fewer steps to the MARTA station. Yes, some of the other airports may have some airlines closer but no airport IMO that has rail service can meet the overall access for all airlines.

Have not seen figures in years for Marta riders but at one time over 10% of riders for the whole rail system used ATL airport station. Then there is some airport patrons not counted that use College Park MARTA station remote parking lot connecting to airport by bus.
I used Atlanta airport for the first time (outside of connecting flights) this past June. The transit to the airport was impressive. I arrived at 5am, and saw trains moving, so that got to be good.

Wait time however, was not. It took 90 minutes to get from bag drop to gate. Makes me appreciate so much more what we have up north. I guess that's what comes with the busiest airport in the world.
 
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