From: hrose@eff.org (Helen Trillian Rose)
Subject: Re: Mass Transit and airports (was: Re: O'HARE)
Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation
	<54326@hydra.gatech.EDU> <122225@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>
	<1992Apr12.183458.2070@leland.Stanford.EDU> <54412@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 16:59:11 GMT

 Glenn> == Glenn R. Stone <gs26@prism.gatech.EDU> 

 Glenn> In the referenced article rna@leland.Stanford.EDU (Robert
 Glenn> Ashcroft) writes:

>In article <122225@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> ed@wente.llnl.gov (Ed Suranyi) writes:

>If BART were extended into Oakland Airport [...] I can imagine
>business fliers moving en masse from SFO to Oakland Airport.  Perhaps
>this is why this obvious extension hasn't happened already?

 Glenn> [about Boston:]
>Hah!  Has to be the world's least convenient system.  You end up MILES from
>the terminals, [....]

> ... The trip [on a mythical South Station rail] would take
>less than 5 minutes from the center of the financial district to the airport,
>would eliminate probably 50% of the trips through the harbor tunnel and
>utterly destroy the taxi business in Boston, which is why it will never happen
>and why they are building a new car tunnel to the airport instead.

 Glenn> You'd be surprised at the number of suits who won't take mass
 Glenn> transit, but insist on their very own limo/taxi/rental
 Glenn> car/whatnot.... even if it would save them an order of magnitude
 Glenn> in ground transport costs.  Fr'example, the downtown hotels here
 Glenn> in Atlanta cost $1 to get to by rail, $13 by cab or limo, and
 Glenn> rental cars go for $26 or so.  Yet the parking decks downtown
 Glenn> are still well occupied, the taxis get business, and most of the
 Glenn> folk I see when I go to the airport on MARTA are obviously
 Glenn> discount coach fares.  Very few suits among'em.

Alot of "suits" tend to take the Water Shuttle from the waterfront at
Boston (near the financial district) directly to Logan airport. From the
dock, they transfer to a cushy bus (no plastic seats on this ride!) for
a comfortable trip to the airport. Total cost: $7.

I think in the past year, I've seen one Limo at Boston-Logan. (That's in
probably 30 trips to the airport). Taxi's on the other hand, have an
actual use. Lets face it, lots of people just have *too* much luggage to
take on the bus and then onto the T. 

During the holiday season, Massport (Mass Port authority) runs large
campaigns urging people to take the T as opposed to a Taxi or being
dropped off. It usually pays off .... Christmas travelling tends not to
be much worse (*too much*, that is) than every-day. 

 Glenn> Boston I really don't understand, though.  Everbody I've ever
 Glenn> spoken to concerning Boston says that you park in the 'burbs and
 Glenn> take the T into town.  Is it just the suit mentality in action
 Glenn> again, running all those cars out of the airport?

Not everyone out in the 'burbs *can* park and take the T into town. My
Aunt lives in the South suburbs, and they don't have commuter rail
service on Sundays and the Saturday service is scant, so say the least.

All in all, I'd say transportation to Boston-Logan airport is above
average. Excellent, even. $.85 is still hard to beat ... funny,
considering how much people around here complained when they were
talking about raising fares from $.75 to $.85. 1/2 :-)

--Helen
--
Helen Trillian Rose             	email eff@eff.org for EFF info
Electronic Frontier Foundation   	irc operators: operlist@eff.org
Systems and Networks Administration	Flames to: 
<hrose@eff.org, hrose@cs.bu.edu>	women-not-to-be-messed-with@eff.org