Around ATLANTA
Your Connection to Atlanta
The best transit-airport connection at the busiest airport in the world.
OCTOBER 9, 2017 | MassTransitmag.com | Mass Transit | Expo Daily | 7
By Leah Harnack
hen you landed in Atlanta
you were landing at the
busiest airport in the world.
It’s held that ranking since
1998 according to its website
and currently averages
275,000 passengers each day.
It sees nearly 2,500 arrivals
and departures daily.
Another bit of notoriety is that
Atlanta was ranked as the best transit
to-airport connection in the
nation, according to a study by MileCards.
com earlier this year. Th e
ranking was based on price, speed,
convenience and frequency.
Th e transit-airport connection
ranked sixth best globally, behind Tokyo,
Delhi, Shanghai’s two airport’s
and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit
Authority General Manager and
Chief Executive Offi cer Keith Parker
said, “We won by a landslide in the
country because you can go from
Delta or Southwest baggage claim,
on either end of the spectrum, in less
than three minutes. Sixteen minutes
later, you’re downtown. For $2.50.”
Th ey compared how long the trip
to downtown takes at noon, a nonrush
hour period, and MARTA still
came out on top. From the airport to
the downtown Five Points Station, it
is about 23 minutes for driving.
MARTA runs trains from the airport
every 6 minutes and has a 97.5
percent on-time performance.
Th e airport station is one of
MARTA’s busiest stations and
they’re about to make a massive investment
in it. Th e rehab will make
it look more like the airport; it will
feel seamless walking from the airport
through the station. Parker
said, “We’re really going to push the
beautifi cation of the station to make
it more functional.”
Th e biggest users of the station
are the airport employees, many of
which are transit dependent.
The Plane Train
When you traveled between the
concourses and main terminal of
ATL, you rode the Plane Train, the
airport’s underground automated
people mover. It consists of 11 fourcar
trains operating on a 3-mile loop
track, operating approximately every
two minutes.
Th e APM has been in service
since 1980 and was designed by
Bombardier Transportation. Bombardier
supplied the initial fl eet of
17 vehicles and then in 2002 replaced
the vehicles with the Innovia APM
100 vehicles. Th e current fl eet of 49
vehicles serves 15 stations.
More than 95 million passengers
a year use the service that has an ontime
performance record of more
than 99.5 percent.
To shorten the wait times and add
capacity, the tunnel will be extended
about 600 feet, allowing trains to turn
back to go in the other direction.
Th e $307 million project, part of a
$6 billion airport expansion plan, is
expected to shave 13 seconds off the
time between trains, bringing it to 95
seconds when the project is complete.
With the addition of the area for
turning the trains around, it will
allow 11 more cars to be added to
increase overall capacity.
SkyTrain
Connecting customers to the Rental
Car Center is the APM, SkyTrain.
In fi ve minutes, passengers are connected
to the Rental Car Center,
Georgia International Convention
Center, hotels and offi ce buildings.
Th e train operates six two-car trains,
which can carry 100 passengers and
their baggage.
Th e 1.5-mile SkyTrain opened in
2009 and utilizes Mitsubishi Crystal
Mover vehicles. Twelve cars run as
six, two-car trains.
Th e SkyTrain runs 24 hours a
day and arrives every three minutes
during peak hours and about every
10 minutes at night.
Hartsfield-
Jackson Atlanta
International
Airport (ATL)
is owned/
operated by the
city of Atlanta/
Department of
Aviation.
W
ATL
ATL
ATL’s underground
automated
people mover
was designed
and supplied
by Bombardier
Transportation.
