Quote:
Originally Posted by roletand
That's great news! T1 has exceeded it's useful life and I'm always glad to see investment that doubles down on the airport's current location. I didn't realize, until you posted about the admin building, that the commuter terminal needs to be demolished as part of the new T1 plans. I'll be sad to see it go but at least it's for a good reason.
Also, while it's good to see the airport authority continue to include a "Coordination with Community Transit", I can't help but think their design is an afterthought. If we want people to use public transit in San Diego it needs to be easy & accessible, among other things. The plans should have considered trolley & APM stops at both T1 & T2 close to the main exits of the terminals. If we're going to hit people in the face with prominent taxi stands and rideshares on arrival, the trolley & APM should be there too. I understand there are constraints in doing it this way that may have delayed T1, including coordination with SANDAG & MTS, but I would have liked to see all parties do better than this.
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So, there was a good deal of debate over the decision to have a single station rather than two. Several early mock-ups were made of a two station design with stops at both T1 and T2. There ended up being two big reasons for selecting a single station in-between.
First off, the airport doesn't select the type of connection. SANDAG does. As of yet they have not downselected from their three main options: an aboveground APM running along Harbor Dr (as illustrated here), an underground APM crossing directly under the airport, and an extension of the trolley. Two stations create major problems with each of the latter. Since the proposed SD Grand Central is directly opposite the terminals, reaching each of terminals with a single underground APM would require a right angle turn too tight to be technically feasible, or an extended tunnel that wouldn't be much faster than a aboveground APM (while being exponentially more expensive). On the other hand the trolley accelerates/decelerates much more slowly than an APM, to the point that it would travel so slowly between two near spaced stations that it would legitimately be faster to walk. After discussions SANDAG stated a preference for a one station design to keep their own options open.
Second, it's not really an unusual distance to walk from the transit station to your gate. SDIA is the smallest major international airport in the country, even after T1 is built both the terminals combined will only have a linear length of about ~1 mile. So worst case scenario you need to walk ~1/2 mile. That's about how far you'd walk on a bad day if you took transit to Oakland airport, or Portland, or Sea-Tac. Internationally speaking, either of Tokyo's airports could have you walking that far, or Seoul's Inchon. Stations are typically the most expensive part of any transit system, so it pays to consolidate, and less stations means faster end-to-end times without having to cut boarding times. Not to mention trying to design ROW terminal frontage is complex enough without having to shove a transit system within the narrow ROW.
You can, of course, disagree with the decision made but I hope this shows you it was more than an afterthought.