Transit to the airport is less helpful than you'd think. The main people who are going to want to use transit are the people who work there (being both lower income and not having to carry lots of luggage around), and the working hours of subways is generally inconvenient for airport workers.
cough respectfully disagree. In most major Asian cities the airport connection is super useful, going in and out of NYC felt like going to the 50s and it was better than most of the other cities when visiting the US.
The NEX in Tokyo is great, since Narita is way outside of Tokyo. As is the connection to Incheon directly from the center of Seoul.
Turns what would have been a painful ass commute into something relaxing.
In Seoul I could even check in the luggage for my flight before hopping on the train.
Yet in the rest of the world many people use the train to get to the airport. When I fly into Moscow DME, why would I want to sit in a traffic jam for 90 minutes when I could get the train in under half that time. Taxi from Amsterdam Schipol? That would be crazy. From Tokyo Narita? You're having a laugh. London Heathrow? Get the express to Paddington and a taxi from there. Or just take the tube the whole way.
When I told a cab driver in Tokyo I wanted to go to Narita he was extremely confused and had the hotel bell hop explain to me that, basically, I was nuts and should take the train.
You're lucky he didn't stick you on one of those awful hotel-affiliated coach buses to Narita, the drivers of which are forbidden from applying steady pressure to the accelerator.
Nothing wrong with taking the bus in certain cases. I used one last time from the Ginza area. It was either being compacted in peak hours Tokyo Metro, or walking to a nearby hotel and waiting for a bus in the lobby. The choice was clear and I don't regret it.
> JFK requires an airport train to take you to the train station
It's the same train that takes you from one terminal to the next. The alternative would be to force the LIRR or the A train to stop at literally every terminal on its way to Jamaica/Far Rockaway. That would be way worse.
It's not like transferring between them is any more inconvenient than having to transfer between two subway lines, so it seems like a distinction that not particularly meaningful.
> The main people who are going to want to use transit are the people who work there
I live in Manhattan and regularly take the LIRR to Jamaica, from where I catch the Airtrain to JFK. It's a predictable-duration trip. It costs $10 to Juno to Penn Station, $7.50 (off peak) to $10.25 (peak) for the train ticket, and $5 for the Airtrain. And I don't get sick reading on a train like I do in a car.
Transit to the airport is hugely helpful for travelers. A subway ride from LGA to a Manhattan hotel would be far cheaper and more efficient than taking a cab.
If cost is an issue, there's the NYC Airporter bus, which is a flat $15 to Midtown. Or you can take the Q70 bus to the Roosevelt Ave - Jackson Heights subway station (in Queens).
Airports are a particularly visible omission, for a certain class of people, but they aren't in the top 5 or so most valuable possible extensions to the subway system.
> Airports are a particularly visible omission, for a certain class of people, but they aren't in the top 5 or so most valuable possible extensions to the subway system.
Speaking of class, some transit systems suffer more than others from lacking a healthy mix of ridership affluence (MTA isn't one of them). Descending into a spiral of "only for the poor" is one of the failure modes of transit systems. If an airport line "injecting" its share of non-destitute riders is what keeps the while system from falling off that cliff it would be worth far more than just their tickets or the directly prevented road traffic.
High status destinations have indirect benefits for the whole system.
Airports aren't in the top five most beneficial routes for middle- and upper-class residents, either. There are all kinds of outer borough routes that would be of far greater benefit to the residents there.
This is sort of like the case of the couple who buys more house than they need because the in-laws visit once a year and they insist on having a room for them. It's silly to optimize for rare events. When you have to go to the airport, then it's particularly noticeable that there isn't a route to the airport. But going to the airport isn't on your everyday agenda. There are far more beneficial routes.
