The inaugural passenger train serving a new Northeast Corridor station at Newark International Airport rolled to a stop on Sunday morning, Oct. 21, six weeks after an extension of the MAX light rail line opened to the international airport in Portland, Ore. Although the goal of both is to provide airline passengers and employees with quick and convenient transportation that bypasses frequently grid-locked highways, they meet that objective through fundamentally different means.

Newark passengers travel aboard an Amtrak or New Jersey Transit commuter train, and they must transfer to the recently-extended airport monorail to reach their gate. Before Sept. 11, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, had anticipated about 5,000 people would use the station daily, equal to 1.8 million the first year. Within two years the figure was to reach 2.4 million, and in 10 years it was to be three million. But only about 1,200 daily passengers have been using the new service, called AirTrain by the Port Authority, a situation that could be attributed to reduced air travel following the terrorist attacks.

The Portland passenger, on the other hand, is just 150 feet from the terminal building once exiting a Tri-Met light rail vehicle. The station entered revenue service on Sept. 10, and the next day was jammed with airline employees and customers turned away from their flights when the air traffic system was shut down. Still, in its first three weeks of operation, Airport MAX averaged 3,400 weekday boardings between Gateway Transit Center and the airport station.

It remains to be seen if the falloff in airline travel will continue and, if it does, how these and other rail/air connections will be affected. But either way, rail lines can provide more and better quality links to airports. These connections have become even more important since Sept. 11 because, at some airports, access by private car is still restricted and some close-in parking lots have been permanently closed.

Portland and Newark join 10 other U.S. cities that have some type of dedicated rail service operating into, or adjacent to, major airports. The concept was pioneered in Europe, where such links are now common, although authorities in most countries overseas opted for main line or commuter rail extensions that provide direct connections to a wide geographical area surrounding the airport. Some nations have routed their new high speed networks into key airports, such as in Paris, where TGVs stop at Charles DeGaulle International. Most governments also chose the more expensive option of building stations in or under terminal buildings to make the trains as convenient as possible. In addition, several European cities have recently extended their metro and light rail systems to close-in airports.

Of the U.S. cities to build rail/air connections, Chicago has perhaps the most effective. CTA "L" trains now serve both of the city's airports, the Blue line to O'Hare International and the Orange Line into Midway. Atlanta is the only other city that has built a subway extension into its airport terminal buildings, although San Francisco's BART has an 8.7-mile, $1.5 billion link under construction scheduled to open next September.

In Los Angeles, there is a combined Amtrak/Metrolink station at Burbank Airport, a regional field that helps take the burden off Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). There is frequent service throughout the day, including four Amtrak Pacific Surfliner roundtrips and 23 weekday commuter trains. Though a shuttle bus is available, many passengers walk the one-third mile to the terminal. A long-planned spur off the light rail Green Line to LAX remains stuck on the drawing board, despite widespread popular support. The latest delay involves the redesign of a massive airport expansion program triggered by post-Sept. 11 security concerns and the election of a new mayor who wants the development downsized.

In south Florida, the southern end of Tri-Rail is located at Miami International Airport, where shuttle buses meet each of the 14 weekday commuter trains for a five-minute run to the main terminal. Philadelphia International Airport's five terminals are served every 30 minutes by SEPTA's regional R1 line, placing passengers just a few steps from the ticket counters. Baltimore-Washington International Airport has two connections, light rail to downtown that stops adjacent to the airline terminals, and a joint MARC commuter rail/Amtrak station that requires a bus shuttle. Both terminals at St. Louis' Lambert Field can be conveniently reached by MetroLink light rail from downtown and southwestern Illinois, across the Mississippi River. Rounding out the picture are Cleveland Hopkins International, served by the RTA since 1968, Boston Logan, served by MBTA, and Washington's Reagan National, served by WMATA since 1977.

These appear to be only the beginning of rail transit tie-ins to the nation's airports. In addition to the BART extension, two significant projects are under construction. One is the 11.6-mile Hiawatha Corridor LRT line between downtown Minneapolis and suburban Bloomington. It includes a subterranean airport station scheduled to open in late 2003.