Taking Airport Transit Service for Granted
December 1, 2008
As I stepped off of a Red Line rapid train at Cleveland Hopkins Airport last Friday, I commented to my traveling companion about how easy it can be for Clevelanders to take the airport rapid for granted. For two years I lived in University Circle, a neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland with a direct Red Line link to the airport; on a number of occasions I was able to stumble out of bed in the morning and arrive inside the airport terminal in well under an hour, door to door. The trip, by car, would have been a little over 16 miles each way. With the rapid there was no bribing friends to wake up at 6am to drop me off, there was no worrying about whether or not the cab driver would decide to show up, and at a cost of 2 bucks per trip (and even less for me at the time, as I had a student-issued transit pass) even a poor college kid could afford the trip; it was perhaps a nearly perfect way to get to and from the airport.
Last January I moved to Dallas, TX. I lived almost exactly 2.5 miles from Love Field Airport, where I traveled in and out of frequently during my few months down south. Getting to and from the airport couldn't have been a different experience. My options were either to bum a ride from a friend (which I always felt somewhat bad about, knowing I could never return the favor), walk half a mile and wait for an infrequently scheduled bus (which, in my neighborhood, wasn't always the best idea, especially with a laptop in my backpack and an iPod in my pocket), or catch a cab, which I never found pleasant. In addition to having to deal with some of the rudest individuals on the planet, I had to shell out 12 bucks (including tip) to travel the 2.5 miles down the street to the airport; doing that a few times per month certainly added up quickly.
So I felt a little disappointed this morning to see the Plain Dealer's front page piece about how badly Cleveland's airport rapid service is being neglected these days.
Cleveland was the first city in America to provide rapid-transit service to its airport when the station opened in 1968; according to the PD, about 4000 daily passengers used the airport station during its first few months. This year, an average 330 of people use the service every day. With around 80 daily departures and 80 daily arrivals at the airport station, that averages out to a little more than 2 passengers per train. To make matters worse, about half of those riders are airport employees, not travelers. At the end of the day, less than one-half of one percent of all travelers arrive at the Cleveland airport via the rapid; or, from another perspective, for every one traveler that takes the rapid to the airport, 212 arrive by some other means.
Of the 100+ international airports in the United States, Cleveland is one of only about ten cities with a direct link between its airport terminal and rail transit system. Some airports (like JFK and Miami) require a connection to a people mover; others (like Oakland, Boston, and Los Angeles) require a shuttle bus transfer from the nearest rail station to the terminal; and a few have no reasonable transit connection at all.
I don't have statistics on airport transit usage in other cities, but anecdotal evidence would suggest that airport transit service is incredibly popular in many cities. Frankly, I am somewhat surprised at the incredibly poor ridership on Cleveland's airport rapid. Granted, the Red Line was built in the 1950s on the cheap, utilizing an existing freight rail right of way and sharing several miles of existing light-rail track on the east side of the city; nevertheless, Red Line stations are served by dozens of RTA bus lines. As long as you live within a few miles of the actual line, chances are good that a bus can take you from your home to one of the stations. Plus, I always imagined the Red Line would be more highly utilized by east-side travelers who found it less of a hassle to get a ride to the University Circle station that all the way out to the airport.
Cleveland's airport rapid service is an incredibly valuable asset; I fear that if locals continue to take it for granted, RTA may eventually be forced to slash service, and like the streetcars that used to travel up and down Cleveland's streets, one day we may be talking about the airport rapid merely as a piece of historical trivia.
Last January I moved to Dallas, TX. I lived almost exactly 2.5 miles from Love Field Airport, where I traveled in and out of frequently during my few months down south. Getting to and from the airport couldn't have been a different experience. My options were either to bum a ride from a friend (which I always felt somewhat bad about, knowing I could never return the favor), walk half a mile and wait for an infrequently scheduled bus (which, in my neighborhood, wasn't always the best idea, especially with a laptop in my backpack and an iPod in my pocket), or catch a cab, which I never found pleasant. In addition to having to deal with some of the rudest individuals on the planet, I had to shell out 12 bucks (including tip) to travel the 2.5 miles down the street to the airport; doing that a few times per month certainly added up quickly.
So I felt a little disappointed this morning to see the Plain Dealer's front page piece about how badly Cleveland's airport rapid service is being neglected these days.
Cleveland was the first city in America to provide rapid-transit service to its airport when the station opened in 1968; according to the PD, about 4000 daily passengers used the airport station during its first few months. This year, an average 330 of people use the service every day. With around 80 daily departures and 80 daily arrivals at the airport station, that averages out to a little more than 2 passengers per train. To make matters worse, about half of those riders are airport employees, not travelers. At the end of the day, less than one-half of one percent of all travelers arrive at the Cleveland airport via the rapid; or, from another perspective, for every one traveler that takes the rapid to the airport, 212 arrive by some other means.
Of the 100+ international airports in the United States, Cleveland is one of only about ten cities with a direct link between its airport terminal and rail transit system. Some airports (like JFK and Miami) require a connection to a people mover; others (like Oakland, Boston, and Los Angeles) require a shuttle bus transfer from the nearest rail station to the terminal; and a few have no reasonable transit connection at all.
I don't have statistics on airport transit usage in other cities, but anecdotal evidence would suggest that airport transit service is incredibly popular in many cities. Frankly, I am somewhat surprised at the incredibly poor ridership on Cleveland's airport rapid. Granted, the Red Line was built in the 1950s on the cheap, utilizing an existing freight rail right of way and sharing several miles of existing light-rail track on the east side of the city; nevertheless, Red Line stations are served by dozens of RTA bus lines. As long as you live within a few miles of the actual line, chances are good that a bus can take you from your home to one of the stations. Plus, I always imagined the Red Line would be more highly utilized by east-side travelers who found it less of a hassle to get a ride to the University Circle station that all the way out to the airport.
Cleveland's airport rapid service is an incredibly valuable asset; I fear that if locals continue to take it for granted, RTA may eventually be forced to slash service, and like the streetcars that used to travel up and down Cleveland's streets, one day we may be talking about the airport rapid merely as a piece of historical trivia.
I don't have statistics on airport transit usage in other cities, but anecdotal evidence would suggest that airport transit service is incredibly popular in many cities. Frankly, I am somewhat surprised at the incredibly poor ridership on Cleveland's airport rapid.
I think that this is, in part, another example of the good news/bad news nature of Cleveland's anemic economy. Compared to airports in a lot of other places, Hopkins just isn't that tough to drive to and park in, if you can tolerate the cost. A lot of people who travel for business can easily tolerate the cost because the company's paying, so they're going to tend to drive and park.
Plus the airport is relatively centrally located, rather than being way out in the outer suburbs, which is the case in many cities.
...the Red Line was built in the 1950s on the cheap, utilizing an existing freight rail right of way and sharing several miles of existing light-rail track on the east side of the city;
Interesting historical note: the Van Sweringens bought the entire Nickel Plate Railroad so that they could use its right of way in Cleveland for their proposed rapid transit line, which eventually became the Shaker Rapid. They also planned the extension to East Cleveland (i.e. today's red line) but their empire collapsed before they actually built it. So, what the Van Sweringens did wasn't exactly "on the cheap", but what the city did later with the same materials basically was.
nevertheless, Red Line stations are served by dozens of RTA bus lines. As long as you live within a few miles of the actual line, chances are good that a bus can take you from your home to one of the stations.
People who live in the suburbs and mostly drive cars really really dislike the idea of riding city buses, or at least that's been my experience. You have to balance that against any utility you might see.
Plus, I always imagined the Red Line would be more highly utilized by east-side travelers who found it less of a hassle to get a ride to the University Circle station that all the way out to the airport.
Interestingly enough, I work with a guy (who lives in Geauga County, no less) who does exactly this when he travels for non-work reasons. Actually, what he does is drive to Case and park there, because his wife works there and he can apparently park for free. But it's the same basic idea.
But who do you get a ride from if your whole family is going somewhere?
The last time I flew into Cleveland (sad but true, for Game 5 of the 97 series) I took the rail into downtown and also my hotel. Even then it was sparsely used, but being from New York, I was happy to have it. Perhaps I was just used to mass transit and it seemed like a good idea, which it was.
The Indians lost Game 5 by the way. But if I recall, Sandy Alomar had a double and a HR.
B. P. Beckley, thanks for your comments. I can't really disagree with you much on this question. Also, thanks for the Van Sweringen factoids. Do you know if there are any good books or other sources of history on the building of the various rail lines in Cleveland?
Chris Swartout, I lived in Washington DC for two summers, and it was always difficult to adjust to a transit system that seemed relatively slower and less effective. Living in Dallas, on the other hand, gave me a new-found respect for what Cleveland does have.
I see from B.P.'s comment that the sparse ridership is probably a result of other problems Cleveland may have. It's really unfortunate since I'd die to have a situation like Cleveland does. I'm from Chicago and while the 'L' is far from perfect you can get to and from O'Hare in about 30-40 minutes which could be worse, especially since by car it's taken me up to two hours. I'd LOVE to have a set up like yours. I guess this nullifies an argument I used to think was a good one: a good inter-city transit will attract people to the city. Or maybe it's just one of those things that can't be used to get the ball running.
Rob:
I know of no book on the history of the railroads in Cleveland, and I would definitely buy it if I ever found it.
There's a good book on the Terminal Tower/Union Station complex and the massive reworking of the Cleveland railroad infrastructure that went along with it, "Cleveland's Towering Treasure" by James A. Toman & Daniel J. Cook. (Toman has written and/or participated in writing a number of other books on Cleveland and transit topics.) There's a good book on the Van Sweringens called "Invisible Giants" by Herbert H. Harwood, Jr.
Daniel:
Well, let me put my civic booster hat back on. The existence of an urban amenity like the Rapid may in fact be helping us attract people here, but that positive effect tends to be swamped in our own perceptions by the more visible declines. As manufacturing continues to decline, the urban amenities that we manage to retain may become the main asset that we have to work with.
You have to realize also that some of the Rapid rail ridership problems are a result of the fact that the rail system simply doesn't go that many places. It does go to the airport, and to University Circle (an important university/hospital/museum area) and it covers the upscale suburb of Shaker Heights pretty well, but there is exactly one station downtown, and most of the other stations basically function the way suburban stations do in the Chicago system. The suburbs now extend WAY beyond the reach of the rail system, even though Cleveland isn't all that big compared to Chicago.
Right, like I said or rather meant if I was unclear. The line is convenient for getting and from the airport but there are other factors to take into account when figuring out the reason for the low ridership.
Mr Beckley:
There's Horse Trails to Regional Rails, about the history of public transit in Cleveland, if you are interested. It seems to me too that I've seen something else at the gift shop at the downtown library. Predictably, they've got a good selection of books about Cleveland history.
Oh, yeah, Horse Trails to Regional Rails is a good one too. I usually don't recommend that to people because it's so transit oriented, but Mr. Pitingolo could very well be interested, couldn't he?
Mrs. Beckley bought me that book as a gift quite a while before I moved to Cleveland.
The hobby shop on the west side of Lakewood has a decent selection of Cleveland transit oriented books. Wings, that's the name. On Detroit, where all the antique stores are, at the end of the street that is a continuation of McKinley but is called something else.