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City Links
Last updated 2019  Freeway to Los Angeles International, 2014 (WS) An airport limousine is quite chic, but in New York or elsewhere it may be stopped by traffic jams. In some exotic countries, an armored car with a bodyguard proved even better. A taxi is good, but at Buenos Aires EZE, where buses were hidden away, the fare could be 150 dollar, at Moscow Sheremetyevo at midnight you may be asked 200 dollars, and in Shanghai or Hong Kong the driver may demand tenfold the regular fare. In Ho Chi Minh 200,000 don might have been the fare, but that’s only $10. ‘Fly and rent a car’, that’s common practice, but not everywhere. And so the author must enjoy the travel through Europe by his own Mercedes, for renting a car in some countries is allowed only to people younger than 75. About arrival at the airport of Mogadishu, Somalia during the years of the civil war, journalist A. Perras had reported (in Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Jan13, 2007): “Without weapons you can’t live there and that’s the reason why after a few minutes four men are jumping aboard our Toyota… and everybody has a Kalashnikov, made in Korea… They were hired in order to protect us…” At Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, the airport highway might have been closed completely when the dictator’s son was trying his Ferrari. And when at Munich, Germany, a modern ‘Transrapid’ maglev train to the airport was combated by a negativist campaign, there was even a bicycle demonstration, whereupon ministry insiders joked: “Then we’ll build a cyclepath”.
The principal city link of an airport traditionally is the road. For important hubs it’s a steadily expanded system of motorways and parking lots. Where politics (and mysterious backgrounds?) are an obstacle to a rapid transit system, more motorways and shuttle bus-linked airport parking lots must be built. Orlando in Florida is a good example for integration of all these facilities, including the terminal-connecting ‘people-movers’, into a thoroughly shaped green airport landscape.
Helicopter services were not efficient: the one started by New York Airways in cooperation with Pan Am in 1964 was used only by 2% of the passengers. And the idea of V/STOL aircraft using short runways close to the city proved to be an illusion (or a nightmare). A nice, but rare way to connect the city is the boat, e.g. at Venice, or even a hi-speed, such as the catamarans from Hong Kong International to Shenzhen Airport by Shenzhen Xunlong and Shenzhen Pengxing, to Guangzhou by Panyu Nansha and to Macau by TurboJet or by CotaiJet of Cotai Strip, the casino enterprise. But then the disputed gigantic bridge was opened in 2018. At Male, the capital of the Maldives, the boat is the only way to go to the Ibrahim Nasir International Airport, built on Hulule Island, connected by boats also with some touristic islands (and only there the women are allowed to wear bikini). In 2017 the airport was renamed Velana International Airport. Fastest are the little white “Airport-Express” hi-speed boats. More far away islands are connected by Twin Otter seaplanes of Maldivian Airways. And also for the new Doha International Airport in Qatar an additional ferry pier was reported.
Airport Trains In respect of mass transit, most regions are lagging behind Europe and the Pacific Rim. Washington, the capital of the USA, had been criticized (not only by R.E.G. Davies) for its lack of a public transport system to its international airport. For New York a high-speed railway linking the airports would be urgent. But Elon Musk’s idea for a Chicago airport link is not to be commented here. In 1955 Brussels airport was linked to the city by a suburban railway. Other hubs followed and London Heathrow was praised for its several underground stations. Crowded suburban trains however are unsuitable for passengers with luggage and children. Vienna got the exclusive CAT, intended for an extension to Bratislava. The “Airport City Line” of Bangkok started as a modern suburban train. An early example of an exclusive airport link is Kuala Lumpur’s KLIA EKSPRES, one of the first feeder railways with airline ticketing and check-in facilities in the central railway station, separated from the suburban traffic. In Sri Lanka, diesel railcar sets from Hitachi were intended in the late 70s as a Colombo airport link. From Jordan, the project of building a fast rail link to Queen Alia airport of Amman was reported already in the 1980s. In 2007 Incheon International got a fast A’REX train connection with Gimpo Airport and in 2011 with Seoul. Beijing International T.2 and T.3 got the advanced Airport Express line, connected to the subway network. And Beijing Daxing International got the fast Daxing Airport Express. In Vietnam, Long Thanh International Airport, planned for replacing Tan Son Nhat as the main hub by 2020, was announced to get a high-speed rail connection. For the existing ‘Flytog’ from Oslo to its Gardemoen airport, Flytoget ordered in 2015 high-speed trains for 250 km/h of CAF’s ‘Oaris’ type. And many other airport rail links followed, impossible to list them all.
Network Connection Among the great hubs, Paris CDG has the advantage of being connected to the national TGV high-speed train network. Lufthansa operated from 1982 its own excellent Airport Express services Frankfurt – Dusseldorf, using ET403 first-class electric train sets, from 1990 also a conventional train Frankfurt – Stuttgart, its 103 111 engine appearing in the yellow livery of Lufthansa’s Airport Express. In 1993 these Airport Expresses were withdrawn in favor of DB’s direct high-speed trains connecting Frankfurt airport station. The high-speed line Stuttgart – Ulm is to connect also Stuttgart airport. Berlin-Brandenburg was conceived with a subterranean railway station. Even in Greece and in other countries, airports got direct connections to national train networks. From Rome FCO airport 1st class Ale 601 electric rail car sets were running to Florence and Naples, then confined to Roma Termini station. When the extension of Vienna’s CAT to Bratislava was prevented, the 1016 type engines were relocated to other services. In 2015 an extension of existing ‘railjet’ trains Munich – Vienna West to Vienna airport was announced, possibly for preventing politics from closing them down. In Sweden the proposed high-speed line Stockholm - Malmo was expected to connect also the Skavsta airport near Nykoping. Innovative technology was tried with a Hitachi-Alweg monorail line from Tokyo to its Haneda airport, introduced in 1964, not convincing however. When the conventional high-speed line Ueno – Tokyo was completed in 2015, the Cross-Tokyo link was proposed to be connected with Haneda airport. In China, Shanghai Hongqiao airport became connected to national high-speed trains starting at the new Hongqiao station. And Beijing Daxing International had to get in 2022 a high-speed rail link to Tianjin.
Futuristic A revolutionary magnetic levitation (maglev) airport express had been proposed by Japan Airlines. In 1975 its “HSST” project was presented. In the 90s Rio de Janeiro should have got a Japanese maglev link from Barra da Tijuca obviously to both airports, but it was not built. The idea of maglev technology had been developed in Germany under the trademark Transrapid. Shanghai was the first city to introduce it as an airport link. From 2003 the Maglev train glided silently at a speed of 430km/h (267mph, then reduced) to Pudong International Airport. After Shanghai, Munich was chosen to be the second airport with a magnetic levitation “Transrapid” for 350km/h, but some popular press started a hostile campaign, even stating that it makes “a hell’s noise” (in reality it is the only means of transport which makes almost no noise at all), a leftist wing within the municipality combated it and the conservative government of Bavaria stopped it, whereupon chancellor Angela Merkel was disappointed. That meant a disadvantage, for the airport cannot be connected to the national high-speed rail network, which has been combated by the same media. Subsequently the motorway was upgraded. The suburban S-Bahn was used only by 30% of the passengers, wherefore an ‘Expressbahn’ by ameliorating the S-Bahn has become an option and in Dec 2018 the airport got at least a direct train to Regensburg. Ameliorating the S-Bahn had been proposed already in 1997 as a realistic concept by railway and airport traffic managers, promoted in 2023 by German government’s secretary of state Michael Theurer. It was reported by the daily tz (March29, 2023), mentioning also the Bavarian minister president Markus Soeder’s concept of a new line Ingolstadt – Freising with an ICE station at Munich airport. The US Federal Railroad Administration started studies for a Pittsburg International Airport maglev connection. Surprising was in 2006 a study for a maglev airport link at Qatar. In 2016 Railway Gazette Intl reported trial running on the Changsha Nan – Huanghua Airport line in China and building the Incheon International Airport line in Korea, both with maglev technology for moderate speed. Other projects emerged elsewhere, maglev or not, as a step into future with railway as the fastest and most environmentally-friendly means of terrestrial transport.
Not only the plane, but also its city link is a means of cosmopolitan transport. When at New York JFK the bus driver circumvented the traffic jams, a beauty from Italy told her story of a friendship with a ski world champion. “I am 88 years old”, said another wonderful lady aboard a Salzburg airport bus, confessing that she believes in telepathy – and we chatted, not about Sigmund Freud, but about the other great psycho-analyst C.G. Jung. On the Athens airport bus the driver once had no change, he allowed it without ticket, “o.k.” – “Thanks”. Another day a Charlie Chaplin approached the waiting motorcars, asking for some money. A Brazilian girl, studying in Paris, told after the ride from Athens airport to Piraeus, how much she admires that city, life there is like in Rio de Janeiro, not cool like in Paris. Another trip by a sort of delivery-van from the airport of La Paz to the city has been still more “South American”, so crowded was the vehicle. Aboard the Vienna airport train, a lady told about her flights to the grand children in Singapore, she has been a citizen of Bratislava and her mother was born – where? – in Karlsbad, the birthplace of the author. Sitting in the Beijing Airport Express, a Chinese lady asked: “Did you come to Beijing for the first time?” – “No, I had come here 29 years ago by train via Russia.” And she: “I too, I had arrived from Warsaw, by the Chinese train Moscow – Beijing.” We’re the last having come from Europe by the Trans Siberian train…  Lufthansa Airport Express, ET 403, Frankfurt – Dusseldorf, Rhine valley 1991 (WS)
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