Check Your Airline Bags at the Train Station

Last month I had to travel to the NARP Board of Directors meeting in Austin, Texas from my home in Hollywood,  California.While I prefer to travel by train across our country, sometimes I have to fly.  This time, however, I was a able to use LAX’s unique (in America) intermodal connection from Union Station to the airport.

I took the Metro Rail from Hollywood to Union Station with my bags.  At Union Station “FlyAway” buses to and from the airport depart every half-hour, 24 hours-a-day.  The buses travel mostly on dedicated carpool lanes to the airport. This service started in March and it has been a success.

Just this past September, a new enhancement was added to the program. You can now check your bags at Union Station right onto the plane!  Even your boarding pass can be printed there. You go right from the bus at Union Station through to the airport and right to your gate, with no hassles at the airport ticket window or with the gate agent.
Seamless connections like this between different types of travel modes (cars to trains via park-and-rides, for example) are called “intermodal”.  Instead of fighting traffic on the I-405 to get to LAX, people can take Metro Rail or Bus, Metrolink commuter rail, or Amtrak. While these kinds of airport-train connections have been common in Europe for a long time, they are fairly rare in America.  In fact, only a few airports (see list) in America are connected to intercity rail or rail transit.

Clearly our policy makers need to start thinking “intermodal” and not just about parking cars!

—Dennis Lytton
NARP Board Member, Los Angeles, California.

Ed Note: A similar service is available in Las Vegas at the Convention Center and is proposed for Chicago.  NARP strongly support such intermodal convenience and would like to see this concept expanded to all air-rail facilities, such as BWI-Thurgood Marshall Airport, Newark-Liberty International Airport, Milwaukee-Mitchell Field, and Burbank-Bob Hope Airport.