I was booking tickets today for a flight in March, and was once again reminded how difficult it is to use public transit to get to the airport. A few questions come to mind:
Why does the "airport shuttle" not run when the airport is operating? I assume the first flights leave at 6 a.m., and the last appear to arrive at 11 p.m. And yet, the first TTA bus arrives to the airport at 6:39 a.m. (missing all the early departures out of RDU) and the last bus leaves at 10:09 p.m. (missing several of the late arrivals). And, of course, there's no Sunday service, adding to the difficulty of using the airport shuttle for any practical purposes. Who is the shuttle supposed to serve? Airport employees who work mid-day shifts? Airport tourists?
As a result of poor transit service, the real cost of flying jumps considerably, as one either pays $6/day (or more) to park, takes an expensive taxi in one or both directions, or opts for some even more expensive/difficult option. I know that the transit tax is supposed to improve bus service to the airport, but in the meantime I'm surprised that such poor service has been tolerated for so many years.
Or, perhaps, there are private, inexpensive options for getting to the airport that I'm not aware of. If there are, please share!
Comments
If you have no one to take
If you have no one to take you, I can. If there was a properly scheduled bus...there would no need to build a rail...!cw Weakness is provocative.
"One of the most noble things you can do is kill the enemy."-Maj. Douglas Zembiec
It's tricky
and takes a lot of strategy. And was made much worse for Carrboro folks with the service changes a year or so back. The east bound buses don't come to Franklin anymore. The transfers are impossible.
TT does let you park and ride for free at the RTC, which helps for those with a car.
Private solutions could work too
After this post, I did find a list of private shuttle services that offer airport transit, but there were no websites or other info. Perhaps RDU/TTA could license/permit some fixed-route vans to offer airport transit before/after bus operating hours. While it might be hard to meet the $2/ride price point, someone could probably run a shuttle every 30m or 1h for $5-10/person (instead of $20 and up for Super Shuttle). They could even use the same route at the TTA bus.Thanks, Chris, for the offer for a ride; I wouldn't want to make anyone else suffer getting up for a 6 a.m. flight. In this case, I was able to book an early evening flight, so I'll be able to take transit. And, of course, the light rail won't serve the airport, which is probably the sensible thing. (Light rail only works when you're connecting major employment/population centers that aren't far apart from one another, like the 10 miles that seperates UNC and Duke). I just think RDU/TTA need to find a public or private transit solution for airport travel. Adding bus lines takes time, but they would just need to set up a market for transit service (bid out specific routes to specific companies, who will then figure out the market rate they need to charge) to get a private solution in place quickly.