Comments

1. Why doesn’t a city the size of San Antonio have a single European flight? It is larger than Austin, after all.

2. Since SFO is in San Mateo County, San Francisco has only part of the jurisdiction. Also, Ned Ludd’s followers would be proud of those opposing driverless cars.

3. The Moynihan Train Hall note now explains why Atlanta Airport has no chairs in the departure halls. Try to find a place to sit while one removes all stuff from pockets, cell phones in carry on, etc. Just enforce the law and put back the chairs. Heathrow doesn’t seem to have a problem as there are chairs in the check in areas!

4. I did not witness the alleged chaos, but regardless of the lack of seats, the Moynihan Train Hall is an amazing improvement from the old Penn Station—it’s like a more modern Grand Central, both beautiful architecturally.

   Most folks are not waiting around for long, unless something has gone horribly wrong, or they are uninformed. And for those that insist, there is a new Amtrak lounge (with seats!), but you’ll need to pay for it.

   I refuse to take those 1 hour ‘shuttle’ flights to destinations like BOS or DC, because factoring in the time for ride shares to/from the airports, security, boarding, and frequent delays, ironically the Acela is usually faster overall. I wish we had an American Shinkansen that could go faster than the current 100 mph (at best).

   At least they are supposed to finally upgrade to the newer cars and interior cabins on the Acela. That’ll be nice.

5. @L3 -Austin has far more business traffic, many company headquarters and satellite campuses. Austin is the state capital and has UT Austin plus major events and festivals. San Antonio is a second-tier tourist destination. Austin is wealthier.

6. Some airports like to get rid of well-placed comfortable chairs airside in large part because they want you on your feet and spending money at the airport.

   At train stations in various places they took out chairs and benches and reduced seating space and changed the kind of seats in order to dissuaded the homeless from hanging out. Europe has been doing this for a while, especially in Scandinavia where they pretty much thought the homeless are only non-locals — but it’s really not the case, as there are locals who are homeless too.

7. The old Penn Station was the pits in so many ways, and it also lacked in “free” seating except in the ticketed waiting area. What we have now is a huge improvement even as the lack of seats is still its own nuisance.

8. Anyone I ever knew who frequently travels NYC-DC has been a flyer. Think lawyers and other professionals based in NYC but interacting with govt agencies.

9. I know a number of people who travel NYC to DC often by Amtrak. For those living in Manhattan and with work in DC proper, it’s much more comfortable and spacious, typically faster (even non Acela) when you consider how long it takes to get to some of the area airports and boarding delays. It’s typically cheaper (again, non Acela).

   I have travelled back and forth from Metropark to DC a few times. Very comfortable.

10. @Gary: Tourist traffic is a strength, now that business meetings are online. And it is not like Austin has serious international traffic. International travellers from Austin go via Houston or Dallas.

11. @L3 it’s totally relative, and Austin is a bigger tourist destination from the biggest markets than San Antonio. Austin has 2 BA flights (previously Virgin, and before them Norwegian, served London), a Lufthansa flight and a KLM flight. Lufthansa and KLM are non-daily but KLM is increasing from 3x to 5x weekly. Austin has no flights to Asia, and is losing its Hawaii flight [a pandemic add from when Hawaiian had no place to send widebodies with Asia shut down during the pandemic, an A330 was a lot of aircraft for a marginal route].

12. Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) is 68 miles outside Chicago.
    @L3 Airlines have pretty good data on how many people fly from a specific airports to points in Europe through connections. They look at this and decide that, say, SAT doesn’t have the traffic to justify a nonstop (given limited resources and need for returns). It doesn’t surprise me AUS gets them and SAT doesn’t. No reflection on the cities; it’s just numbers. AUS is just 10% larger in metro population than my home airport, but we have no nonstops to Europe. It’s a fair deal given traffic numbers.

13. @GUWonder I knew a guy who worked for an architectural firm whose speciality was designing things difficult to escape from, as his firm had a prison/jail branch. I’ve wondered if some forms have a person whose speciality is modifying designs of new public spaces to make then less attractive to the homeless. Actually, in some way I wish they did, because they do that anyway, but maybe a specialist could also factor in making the space good for the intended users.