More small airports are being cut off from the air travel network. This is why
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https://www.npr.org/2023/09/04/1197337454/more-small-airports-are-being-cut-off-from-the-air-travel-network-this-is-why
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/04/1197337454/more-small-airports-are-being-cut-off-from-the-air-travel-network-this-is-why
I’ve had the idea for a few years now that Delta or a conglomeration of airlines should invest in passenger rail from these small regional airports to the big hubs.
Phoenix has Sky Harbor in the city proper, and then Mesa Gateway only about 20 miles east. If they could just hook the light rail between the two, you could eliminate the need to fly in and out of the small airport.
In Michigan there are DTW, and then small airports in Lansing, Flint, and Grand Rapids. If Delta built rail along or above the freeways that connect those cities to Romulus (where DTW is), they could probably get rid of their service to those airports entirely.
Yeah, I’d love it if the government would do it, but I just don’t see how that would happen since people have voted this country so far to the right that AOC seems like a radical.
The core principal here is open access, where the government owns and maintains the infrastructure, and anyone can make use of capacity on it provided they comply with regulations concerning safety and crew certification. They pay fees to the government agency responsible for the infrastructure to help cover its costs. This is how highways and air infrastructure works in the US, and state-owned rail infrastructure is required to be open access under EU law.
So far it seems to have been successful, state-owned rail operators have historically been the jack of all trades, but that doesn’t always help when people want to travel to odd destinations or at odd times. Open access improves that significant and has been instrumental in helping the EU begin to transition away from air travel.
In order to be worthwhile, rail needs to be faster and cheaper than a car. To do so, it would need to be fairly high speed as well. The capital expenditure for something like that would be enormous and the return on investment would take decades. Not to mention all the eminent domain issues. That type of project can only really be done via public dollars.