HARTFORD, Conn. — A Connecticut legislator has introduced a bill that would require the state’s Department of Transportation to develop rail service to Bradley International Airport, the Hartford-area facility in Windsor Locks, Conn.
General Assembly Bill 5061, introduced by state Rep. Christopher Rosario (D-Bridgeport), would require service from Hartford Union Station to the airport with stops in Hartford, Bloomfield, and Windsor Locks. The purpose, the bill says, is to “enhance the accessibility and competitiveness” of the airport.
The Hartford Business Journal reports that Hartford-area rail advocate Casey Moran has pitched the concept, saying the lack of rail access puts the airport at a disadvantage compared to those in New York and Boston. Moran says the state already owns 13 of the 18.3 miles of right-of-way needed. He believes the project could double the number of passengers using Bradley airport, currently about 18,000 per day, and that establishing the rail service would cost a few hundred million dollars.
The airport is currently served by a dozen airlines, with nonstop service to more than 40 destinations, some seasonal.
Charles,
BWI has what I would consider terrific rail service. It has a stop directly on the NEC and many trains stop there. There are also MARC trains that stop there. There is dedicated shuttle bus service from the rail station to the terminals at the airport, and it is a short ride. Thus, you can land at BWI and get a train to DC, Baltimore, NYC, Phil, Boston, etc.
This is an example of let’s have a train to the airport because train service is highly successful to many airports in America around the world so let’s play monkey-see-monkey-do. Denver, SeaTac, Boston, Chicago O’Hare, even in America there is a good list of heavily used rail to airport. At Bradley, prepare for a flop.
Unless you have frequent trains from very early in the morning until very late in the evening, it doesn’t work, not at all. Also note that at these airports, the trains are part of a regional system across the metro area, not point-to-point airport to downtown.
My last trip by air involved three airports all of which have rail service: MKE Milwaukee General Mitchell, changed at BWI Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington, and PVD Rhode Island T. F. Green.
I don’t know anything about the rail service at BWI.
PVD is MBTA’s stop for stop for Cranston and Warwick (Rhode Island’s second and third cities) on the handful of weekday rush hour trains that continue past Providence to Wickford Junction. There is nowhere near enough frequency to coordinate air and rail travel. It’s a ways to the airport terminal, all enclosed. Enclosed for airline passengers headed to the rental car facility, which sits beside a train track.
MKA (as the train station is coded, as MKE is the downtown train station) is a stop of the Hiawatha, with a long shuttle ride to the airport terminal. Possibly a handful of airline passengers or employees are able to schedule the Hiawatha around flight schedule. In reality MKA is a much-needed and heavily used south suburban park-ride for the Hiawatha that happens to be located near an airport.