Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago in the middle of the one week a year I refuse to travel — Thanksgiving Day week. With environmental and economic reasons to reduce unneeded car trips, how easy is it to take a train to and from the airport? The answer is mixed and it doesn’t look to get any better any time soon. We also talk about the deteriorating state of the rental car fleet — which is making public transit look more attractive. A listener sends in a comment on airport power station etiquette, and we talk about a collection of airline food menus from the past. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Here are the show notes from TravelCommons podcast #59:
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- Intro music — Warmth by Makkina
- Recorded in the TravelCommon studios outside Chicago, IL
- No travel this week — leaving the airports to the “less experienced” travelers
- Bridge Music — Arlos Auto Parts and Salvation by Swivel Neck Jones
Following Up
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- Received an e-mail from United the morning after a LAX-ORD flight that was delayed 3 hours. The e-mail gave a nice apology and 5,000 miles for my troubles.
- A listener talks about his travails in finding working power outlets in airports and on airplanes
- Northwestern University Library launched web access to its collection of past airline menus. Talked about a 1969 United Airlines menu and a 1962 menu from East Africa Airways.
- Bridge Music — Smiling Perspective by General Fuzz
Trains to Planes
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- What’s the best way from Newark Airport to Manhattan? It depends how much time and money you have, and it’s an inverse relationship.
- With lots of time, you can save money by taking the monorail over the marshes to a train station served by Amtrak and NJ Transit trains
- It’s a pretty handy set up, but as with many – too many – plane-train connections, not intuitively obvious, not very user-friendly, at least for first time users
- The “gold standard” of airport rail links remains the Heathrow Express — expensive, but convenient
- Subway systems in Washington DC, Chicago and Atlanta inexpensively deliver you directly to the terminal
- Public pressure to locate new airports far away from population centers doesn’t bode well for easy public transit links. Denver’s new airport may get a rail link by 2015.
- Wikipedia has what looks like a good listing of global airport rail links.
- Bridge Music — Goa Life by Ambient Teknology
Renting a Rambling Wreck
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- I’ve received more 20,000+ mile cars from Hertz this year than ever before, and this is with some level of status in Hertz’s Gold Club.
- A Wall Street Journal article said that rental car companies are letting their fleets age an additional 2,000 miles
- Another WSJ article says that the drop in rental car customer satisfaction reported in the latest JD Powers survey is linked to the aging fleet.
- I switched to Avis until they tried to stick me with the repair cost of a previously damaged tail light
- It’s driving me to use cabs, limos, and public transit more often, even when more expensive and less convenient
Closing
- Closing music — iTunes link to Pictures of You by Evangeline
- Bridge music from Magnatune
- Feedback at comments@travelcommons.com, the comment board on podcastalley.com, or right here in the comments section below
- Direct link to the show