Light Rail from Minneapolis Airport
We used the Light Rail from Minneapolis St Paul Airport. It was quick, when we found it! #USA #Minneapolis #AirRail #Airport #MSP #Interchange
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Transporting Cities helps operators & their staff to improve Passenger Experience.
We help operators increase their passengers by undertaking discreet assessments to provide a snapshot of service delivery. We provide our insight to staff in workshops to help them respond to changing consumer requirements and developments in mobility services.
Transporting Cities was founded by Liam Henderson to highlight global best practice and help public transport keep its place at the heart of mobility.
We arrive, we experience, we capture, we explain.
Our passenger experience audits record real time passenger experience, taking the role of a first-time user. We feed back our findings through workshops to help staff understand how passengers think.
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Our culture change workstream.
There are great staff already in transport – we help them develop their skills to influence how their company can respond to new mobility services. We provide tools for staff to build their knowledge which helps operators remain relevant.
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Liam
- Nov 8, 2018
- 1 min
AirRail Review: Gatwick Airport Station
We used train to London Gatwick Airport, here’s the interchange as whizz speed. #PassengerExperience #London #AirRail #Airport #GatwickAirport #Station
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Liam
- Oct 26, 2017
- 2 min
Landing in Lisbon
Arriving in Lisbon for a conference last month, I followed the usual arrivals channel checking for signs to the metro. I was staying in the suburb of Belem so Google had told me to take the metro to change for a mainline train at Cais do Sodré. From Plane to Metro After walking from the plane, through a rather chaotic passport control experience, I exited from the arrivals door to see a sea of signs and advertisements. I spotted the Metro logo and directions off above an exit
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Liam
- Aug 31, 2017
- 4 min
Brisbane Airtrain
Continuing my tour of Australia’s east coast, I flew up to Brisbane. Brisbane’s Domestic and International airports are served by the airtrain which is a stub from the main rail network for the city. I used the service in the off-peak when trains leave every 30 mins. Domestic Airport Landing at the Domestic Airport, it was ironic that one of the first signs I saw when I entered the common airside area was an advert for Sydney’s Airport Link. There’s no mention of the local ra
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Liam
- Aug 1, 2017
- 5 min
Sydney’s Airport Link
A Quick Intro to ensure this article makes sense: Like many Australian airports, International flights arrive into a different airport (terminal) than domestic flights. This means that international visitors proceed through a segregated arrivals process into one large terminal. Domestic passengers exit their plane straight into the common airside area mixed with departing passengers, this has an impact on what information a passenger is given in the segregated or mixed enviro
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Liam
- Mar 28, 2017
- 2 min
Running to San Francisco Airport
Author: Matt Schutz My last post for Transporting Cities I had flown into Oakland Airport and taken the BART into San Francisco. This time, I was leaving SF via San Francisco’s main airport so I was going to make a proper comparison. As I left my hotel I got a notification that my connecting flight had been cancelled so the race was then on to get to the airport ASAP to get on another flight to Europe. Navigating the BART is definitely fun when you’re running to catch a fligh
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Liam
- Jan 10, 2017
- 3 min
BART from Oakland Airport
Author: Matt Schutz Flying on Norwegian to a conference, I arrived into San Francisco via Oakland Airport. Having flown into the main San Francisco (SFO) airport before and taken the BART which works fairly well, I was curious what the connection would be like at the other end of the line. All in all I was impressed by the new link to the BART system and getting downtown. A new BART shuttle link has been built to connect the airport with the nearby Coliseum station so the ai
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Liam
- Dec 13, 2016
- 3 min
Helsinki’s Airport Train
Last month I was in Helsinki for the GARA AirRail conference – of which you can read my conference review here. Never having been to Helsinki before, I took the new Airport Ring Rail Line into the city centre for the weekend. I’ll spare you the details on the sauna and baths and just mention the train in this article. Finding the Airport Station Landing at Helsinki Airport I saw some ticket machines in the baggage hall but I didn’t see any departure information about the airp
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Liam
- Nov 18, 2016
- 5 min
Global AirRail 2016 Conference Review
The annual Global AirRail conference took place in Helsinki last week (9-11 November). I went to see how Passenger Experience was being provided for in new and existing links. What we heard about Passenger Experience in Helsinki The conference was hosted by Helsinki Airport, which is actually in the adjoining city of Vantaa. With the double aim of linking the two parts of Vantaa and providing a rail link to Helsinki Airport, the Ring Rail Line was opened in 2015. With airport
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Liam
- May 20, 2016
- 2 min
Hong Kong Airport Express
Arriving into Hong Kong Airport the obvious route into the city centre was to use the Airport Express rail service. Operated as part of the MTR railway network, it is a limited stop service terminating at the geographically ambiguously-named Hong Kong station, in the central area. Getting onto the Airport Express After a long flight I was very tired and obviously wasn’t tuned into the Hong Kong transport system: the first difficulty I faced was buying a ticket: all the public
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Liam
- Jan 24, 2016
- 1 min
Progress on Sao Paulo’s Airport Rail Link
Getting to Brazil’s busiest airport by public transport isn’t exactly smooth, having to take a shuttle bus to the metro or risking a the city’s notorious traffic on a coach. This will all change in 2017 when Line 13 (Jade) of the suburban CPTM system (Portuguese) is built to the airport via a 12 km link from the mainline at Engenheiro Goulart station allowing passengers to travel to Brás station in the city centre – project page available here (Portuguese). CPTM network map a
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Liam
- Dec 1, 2015
- 14 min
UK AirRail 2015
This year’s UK AirRail 2015 conference took place in London, giving the attendees an overview of current airport policy environment and recent developments at a selection of national airports. Many of these enhancements were presented in the context, and response to, a lack of a national aviation and surface access strategy and the move towards regional and local devolution. This review begins with the keynote speech by Lousie Ellman MP, Chair of Transport Select Committee, b
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Liam
- Nov 18, 2015
- 4 min
Malpensa Express
Travelling to the Airport The AirRail Italia 2015 conference was held at Milan Maplensa Airport last week. As I arrived into Milan by train, I had to reach the airport via the Malpensa Express airport service. My introduction to the service was a bit confused though, as the first sign I saw when walking from the Thello train was for a bus service to Malpensa. There was no mention of the Malpensa Express. If arriving from a long distance train at Milan Centrale station, the fi
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Liam
- Nov 16, 2015
- 8 min
AirRail Italia 2015
AirRail Italia 2015 took place in Milan this year and provided an opportunity to learn about policy and developments in the Italian context. In the following section we report on the presentations made by various airport operators, as well as the infrastructure managers for both the regional and national rail networks. It is important to recognise at the outset that, unlike the majority of the UK, rail infrastructure in Italy is managed by one of two bodies: the national comp
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Liam
- Oct 16, 2015
- 2 min
Weekend in Washington
I recently visited Washington DC for the first time. I had planned to write a quick piece about the Metro service; however, due to my visit occurring over the Labor Day weekend, it became very difficult to objectively assess the service as, well, the service offered was fairly dire. Planned Disruption Labor Day weekend is quite a major holiday and I flew into Dulles Airport expecting a quick shuttle bus connection to Wiehle-Reston East station where I would change for the Sil
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Liam
- May 26, 2015
- 4 min
Global AirRail – Toronto 2015
I attended the Global AirRail conference in Toronto last week hoping to get some insight into how the airrail operators approach a balance between business constraints and passenger experience. The starting point for the conference was an introduction to the new UP Express to Pearson Airport (read my review): whether or not it raises the city’s reputation, the impressive passenger growth at the airport means that a rail link is becoming essential: with many different types of
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Liam
- May 21, 2015
- 3 min
UP Express to Toronto Pearson Airport
Arriving at Toronto Pearson Airport, you can’t miss the anticipation of the new airport rail service, UP Express. There is a lot of signage at the airport promoting the predictable journey time and high frequency. Though the service doesn’t open until the 6th June, I joined the Global AirRail Alliance for a preview of the passenger experience that awaits. Source: Union Pearson Express Offering a 15 minute headway from 05:30 to 01:00 the service will take 25 minutes, calling a
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Liam
- Apr 27, 2015
- 3 min
Rail from Southend Airport
The last leg home: When checking in at Bern Airport, I was extremely impressed that SkyWork Airlines had a promotion offering passengers a free rail ticket from Southend Airport to London Liverpool Street, all I had to to was collect it on arrival in London. With the promise of a free rail ticket, I relaxed on the flight home knowing that I’d get the train back into London. I have wanted to try Southend Airport for a few years, in part because of the focus put upon the short
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Liam
- Apr 26, 2015
- 4 min
Navigating to the Swiss Capital Airport
As my other post described, taking the train to Switzerland can be a rewarding, if challenging, journey. Obviously, once you get yourself to the Swiss Alps for a meeting, you have to get back again. Taking the train across France would have been fine but with my sense of transport adventure, I decided to explore my alternatives. A quick, last minute search on Kayak narrowed this down to one choice: a flight back from Geneva was likely to cost over £300 so I opted to book a fl
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Liam
- Mar 20, 2015
- 2 min
UK Budget 2015 – Rail Highlights
The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the 2015 budget on 18th March detailing spending announcements and financial priorities. Within the main Budget Report, there are a number of rail and passenger transport commitments which are worth highlighting: Electrification of the Hull to Selby line is to proceed in CP6 (by 2024) – subject to an acceptable contribution from Hull Trains. Electrifying the line will allow for electric stock to run from Hull, through Leeds and Manche
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