Despite real progress in the last couple of decades in upgrading terminals and the airfield, getting to, through and around Los Angeles International Airport can still be a first class pain.
The epicenter of the problem is the closed-in, U-shaped configuration of LAX itself, a set-up that has flummoxed flyers for years.
Now comes word of some hope of untangling the ground transport mess. The Los Angeles City Council recently approved a $US4.9-billion plan to construct an Automated People Mover (APM) system, set to be up and running in 2023.
Read: New concourse aims to reduce gate wait at LAX.
LA Basin flyers have been clamoring for answers to the airport’s ground transport woes for years, even as the rest of the airport moved ahead with terminal and improvements.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says travelers “have been asking for reliable, convenient transportation to and from the terminals.”
AMP is the linchpin for an airport’s ground transport set-up that planners see encompassing a consolidated car rental facility and connection to LA Metro’s regional transport system.
Plans call for LA Metro to pick up and drop off flyers outside the terminal loop. Officials say that should cut congestion as well as emissions.
Bombardier Transportation will build the AMP. It’s got the experience and knowhow. It’s been involved in similar projects in Dubai, London Heathrow and Munich, among others.
Trains will arrive every couple of minutes. Doors will be wide to ease the burden of lugging luggage around.
Los Angeles World Airports, which runs LAX, says the system will be able to handle some 10,000 passengers per hour. That adds up to 87.7-million riders each year.
LAX has racked up tremendous growth over the past few years. The planet’s fifth-busiest airport—second-busiest in the U.S.—fields 737 daily nonstop to 100 domestic cities a formidable 1,386 nonstops to 88 cities in 73 foreign countries.
