on MARTA, airport transit, and some food
an atlanta-themed newsletter to reflect the fact that i went there last weekend for school
the MARTA connection to atlanta airport is one of the greatest city-to-airport connections in the country. i love it. among the Great Society metros (San Francisco, D.C., Cleveland, Atlanta) i would say its up there with cleveland with better airport connections.
on cleveland hopkins international
it’s strange how the smaller, less known systems of that era are the ones with better airport connections. you could pretty reasonably argue that the Cleveland RTA’s most useful purpose is to drag people from the airport into the city then back again. say what you will about the system as a whole, the airport connection is damned good for its size.
per my good friend and RTA expert and also unfortunately an ohioan thomas edward fellrath iii “rta's airport connection is clean, doesn't take all that long, has a nice station, and was the first ever in the united states“ which is a good explanation
on hartsfield jackson atlanta international
atlanta is a stranger case. on the surface, it appears like a legitimate metro system just like its larger counterparts in Washington and San Francisco and not a dinky buddbahn (new term that i invented) like Cleveland (no, cleveland is not actually budd stock but it’s got that Look which is enough for me). its city-to-airport time is around 20 minutes, and the system is quite reliable to not incur delays too often. cleveland, on the other hand, is much less. consistent. with their scheduling and the very important do-the-train-go-factor.
regardless, there is always that Look to these 70s metros. DC has its weirdly unique waffle brutalism, and BART is generally hit-or-miss on the architecture. balboa park and rockridge are, architecturally, much nicer than south hayward or north berkeley. just sayin’
on san francisco international
the BART connection to the airport is consistently awkward and it seems the system itself can’t even figure out how to deal with it.
it’s such a strange anomaly of transit planning. they have tried 1. a shuttle between SFO and millbrae the “purple line“ then 2. thru running on both lines to millbrae just one going via the airport and now are on 3. having the yellow line terminate at SFO and the red at Millbrae UNTIL it gets to 9 pm when suddenly the red line disappears nd the yellow line is the only line left. there’s probably a good rationale for this a la operator/equipment shortage or whatever, it would just be really nice to have actual northbound service after a certain point at night because there is service to millbrae but not the City and Town, which are, in my opinion as a millbrae rider, SIGNIFICANTLY more important. but once more, that’s an uninformed take
on washington dulles international
WMATA has to deal with the uncomfortable reality of having two airports within its service boundaries: dulles and national, which I will not be referring to as Reagan airport but rather as the McAirport. this is an inside joke. you will not get it. but there is someone out there who will.
the silver line is incomprehensibly long. i understand that dulles is physically far from the city. but a 1 hr 15 min ride from rosslyn to dulles is unacceptable and i cannot stand the ride. i have been on it four times. each time is terrible. i hate it.
i am a silver line hater. there is nothing aroudn that fact. there should be express trains from rosslyn to dulles. which is, infrastructure-ly, completely impossible i believe.
on oakland airport and the McAirport
these are solid connections. no notes. they’re quick and convenient (OAK requires a bit of gadgetbahn tomfoolery but it’s fine i suppose)
food review
its a bit too awkward to end a post on actual content. so i will say that the penne that i got on my westjet flight today was decent. not earthshatteringly good but like. good enough to be eaten and for the eater to think, “yeah. that was alright.“
bought some gum today too
yay the mcairport rahhh
lmaoo nice ending on the post haha
you have a lot of actual content thumbsup