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| Re: Air Train question (580577) | |||
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Re: Air Train question |
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Posted by GP38/R42 Chris on Tue Mar 4 14:33:16 2008, in response to Re: Air Train question, posted by Terrapin Station on Tue Mar 4 14:00:22 2008. Nope. Yoi still think circulators are loops. They aren't! Circulators circulate people throughout the airport property, including the parking lots! Thus the HB branch is part of the circulator! The only station on AirTrain that isn't on airport property is the Jamaica station, and the only section of ROW off airport property is the section from north of Fed Circle to Jamaica! That is the only part of AirTrain that isn't part of the circulator.Doesn't matter. There are two branches to Airtrain, and a free circulator. It's a paid branch to Jamaica from Federal Circle and a paid branch to HB from Federal Circle. After that connection point, the whole thing is free. Since the HB paid branch runs through the long term lot, it would have been silly to continue using a bus to serve that lot, so they allow access to the PAID Howard Beach branch from that lot. They waive the HB fee for those people that paid for parking there already, as well as anyone that came in their car. The Q10 people was always allowed to circulate the airport (even though the MTA or PA didn't operated that route), so they still can, the only difference is they also let them off to use the convenient AirTrain instead of having the bus circle the whole airport inefficiently. the bus can drop them off (and at Terminal 4) and get out of there. Much more efficient for the passengers, as well as the rest of the route. The kiss and ride people luck out, but that was already discussed. Haha, regular riders! What regular riders (non-employees) would take a long ride on the (A) just to pay $5 for a short ride through a parking lot one stop? Probably very very few. Right, that's why they use the different cards that are available to AirTrain users. Making a free service a paid service is not an improvement. Says who? You? "Free" does not mean better. The AirTrain is much more likely to attract new people than the inconvenient bus it replaced. Just because it was free before, does not mean it has to be free now, especially after adding a much improved way to get to the terminals from there. Furthermore, it was only a 10 year "reprieve" that it was free. It used to be $2 (in uninflated 1970's and 80's dollars) to shuttle by bus between Howard Beach station and the terminals. Somehow you keep conveniently forgetting that. The MTA was not providing a premium service. The premium service was on the rails. The bus to the terminals was not premium. It was just part of the package. Yes, the premium service was on the rails, but the bus WAS part of the package as you said. However, for all those that didn't buy the package, they had to pay the $2 fee/fare to ride the shuttle bus. There was no other way to get to the terminals. They weren't walking. And you know this becuse? How does the (A) running onto the property change ANY part of your argument? You still have the problem of people taking the subway to Jamaica having to pay for AirTrain. You still have AirTRain going all the way to the long term lot. So they didn't have to build a couple hundred feet of structure and a station. That justifies not charging a fare to A transferees when the fare doesn't even cover the construction costs in the first place? I have a BIG problem with you saying "If they had extended the A train to the circulator and had the A terminate there somewhere along the free circulator, then we would not be having this conversation" because it runs counter to all of your arguments. The subway does not bring you to the free circulator as it is now. If the MTA did extend to the free circulator, then we wouldn't be having this conversation. The HB branch is not the free circulator, it was built to bring people from Howard Beach station to the circulator, something the MTA did not do. The Long Term Parking lot could have gotten along just find with a much smaller extension of the circulator, or continued to use buses to bring the people to the circulator, but since they were building a branch to HB anyway, it made sense to pcik up the Long Term parking lot people, as well as connect the Q10 to the station they were building. The HB branch is NOT a free circulator. As I already said, and you keep ignoring, it is an opinion based on fact. The ONE AND ONLY fact you have backing up your opinion on all this is that "the PA can do whatever they want". That's just great. No, your "fact" is an OPINION. Your stance is based on an opinion that "they can't charge for that branch". The reasons you state are only factually because that's what YOU believe. That doesn't make it fact. The ONE AND ONLY fact you have backing up your opinion on all this is that "the PA can do whatever they want". That's just great. I have NEVER said that ONCE in this entire thread, or any other thread about AirTrain. Ever. Yes there is. To provide people with a free alternative to get around the airport. There doesn't need to be a free alternative. There wasn't while the JFK Express was around, and there isn't now. The only time there was was when there was no other way. THEN there was a free alternative. And there still is. It's called the Q10, a bus that connects to the same alternating A train as the HB station. No it didn't. The paid service was a TTTP package. If you didn't use the rail portion, that was your loss. The free PA shuttle bus did not replace TTTTP. Nothing has replaced TTTTP. Read what you said again. "If you didn't use the [premium] rail portion THAT WAS YOUR LOSS". There WAS NO other option but to take the $2 bus back then. A bus that you wish would go away. It's NO different than now when the only option (at that particular station) is the AirTrain. During the reign of all the changes at Howard beach from a $2 bus to a "reprieve" for some years to Airtrain, only one thing remained constant....the Q10 served it too as a cheaper option...and at one time, even that required a double fare if you came via the A train. Not at $5 a person. At $0 per person however it would have a greater potential. It doesn't seem to be having much problems from what I read. At $0 the subway would have a lot more potential too. Hell, let's make the whole LIRR free. I am sure a lot more people would use it. It's not advertised nearly as much. It's not announced on the trains. People are told a million time to go to HB for the airtrain. The people who are most likely to not like the $5 far are those that weren't expecting it, and those are people who aren't regular riders and would have no idea about the Q10. Who cares if it's not advertised as much. The Q10 was always available. It's not up to the PA to announce it on their AirTrain ads. There is no secret about it if someone picks up a bus map. Anyone planning on taking the bus to the airport will look at a map. And I don't believe your OPINION about the fact that "all these people aren't expecting the $5" is highly exagerated. Anyone pulling up the AirTrain website will also say what the fee is. Most people looking into AirTrain will probably investigate into it, by looking up their website or calling to see how long it would take so they can plan their trip accordingly. Which is why the free shuttle buses from HB should remain. The Q10, according to you, is not a viable free alternative. It's not viable to me, as I wouldn't waste my valuable time on it. Most people wouldn't waste valuable time on a bus. That is why a rail connection has much more potential to attract riders. There wasn't a free connection at HB when the $2 (in uninflated dollars) bus was running either. There doesn't "need" to be a free connection there. That's another opinion. |
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