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Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Train in vain
Note: this is actually in response to Hammer's transit post below but it seemed a bit long to stick in comments.
I have actually taken LRT from the airport with a big backpack and it's not too bad since it is a pretty quick ride. Anyone who has ever done the standard Europe by rail trip in college will not give it a second thought. (Tho I guess it might be a different story if you are traveling with a bunch of suitcases rather than a backpack.) The only real hassle was that I did it on a weekend so buses only ran every 20 minutes so after I got off the train I waited about 19.5 minutes for the bus that would drop me at a stop half a block from my house. For those of us in the city rather than the suburbs it works pretty well. What sucks tho is how LRT connects with the airport. From baggage claim to the LRT was a far longer trip than from the bus stop to my house. From baggage claim you go down an escalator and walk quite a ways to a tram which then takes you to the "transit station" where you take another hike to get to an escalator to take you to the LRT stop. Not the worst trek in the world but after a long plane trip it does not exactly make you happy to be taking mass transit.
But even driving yourself to the airport is not a sure way to save time since the long term parking lot by the HHH Terminal now forces you to take LRT one stop to the main terminal and do that walk in reverse. The Mrs. works for the airlines and employee parking is in that ramp as well and the connection to light rail is horribly designed. To get to the LRT station from either the ramp or the HHH Terminal you have to actually walk thru the parking ramp--no sidewalk, you walk thru the parking area and avoid moving cars--then go outside for about 75 yards to get to an open-air LRT station to wait for a train to take you to the main terminal. Why the designers thought it was a good idea to make employees and passengers wait outside in a Minnesota winter to get from one terminal to the other is beyond me. Many employees are pissed that when they get home from a late night trip they have to walk thru a poorly lit, poorly marked, parking ramp just to get to the elevators that will take them to their cars. If I were a female employee who had to end each trip with a 10 minute late night hike to my car I'd be pissed too. Yeah, it doesn't sound like that long a walk but if any of you have had to do it at night you will admit it is a pretty desolate and intimidating venture. I actually couldn't even find the elevators the first time I did it. They have since put up a couple signs. Why the hell did they not simply put the station a few hundred yards closer so it could be a. inside, b. in a secure area by the well lit and monitored elevators, and c. a hell of a lot more convenient for employees and passengers alike? I'm sure those questions will be asked many times after the first reported assault in the ramp.
And as long as they were putting the main terminal station underground (it's a nice station by the way) why not place it so you could take an elevator straight into the terminal rather than make people go thru all the intermediate steps?
1 Comments:
I sowed some confusion with my post on the Cedar Ave busway. Maybe I can clear some of that up. I favor public transit, but am selfishly oppposed to the Cedar busway.
1 -- I'm concerned that the construction is going to mess up my commute for the next 5 years. I'm a little concerned that they'll actually widen Cedar Avenue. If they do that, the my home value is going to plummet, because the driveway will open onto a 6 lane divided highway.
2 -- I take Cedar north to 35E. The congestion on Cedar very rarely affects me, because I exit Cedar just as the congestion starts. So the busway is not a benefit.
3 -- The bus won't take me anywhere I want to go. The last time we took the children to Saint Paul, I checked the bus schedules. It was an hour to take the bus from Apple Valley to the Science Museum. I think there were 6 trips a day -- 3 a.m., 3 p.m. In case of minor child-related emergency we were pretty well stuck in Saint Paul.
