Here's a commentary I wrote:
The Driverless Alternative to an Airport Trolley Extension
Alex Wong
Voice of San Diego
January 14, 2022
https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topi...ley-extension/
"As a transit enthusiast who often flies from Oklahoma City to visit family in San Diego, I believe a trolley extension is ill-suited to serve San Diego International Airport, whose passenger load will surge from 25 million in 2019 to 40 million by 2043.
San Diego needs a more frequent, high-capacity airport rail link..."
Additional Points:
1. Imagine this: You spent about $1.6 billion to build the airport trolley at for 15 minute frequencies. Demand skyrockets. You want to increase frequencies to 7.5 minutes. That requires double tracking, which takes years of construction, disruption to existing trolley lines and roads, and finding new drivers, possibly during a driver shortage.
2. Now imagine this: You spent $1.3 billion to build a automated people mover (APM) from the airport to Middletown trolley station. You initially run the APM every 5 minutes. Demand skyrockets. You want to increase frequencies to 2 minutes. Easy. Just get a couple more trains. No new drivers, no double-tracking, no additional grade separation, etc. Because APMs are built from the start to run trains up to every 2 minutes and are driverless.
3. "Why do you hate the airport trolley? So if your APM idea doesn't win, you'd rather have no rail to the airport than a trolley to the airport?" I didn't say that. An airport trolley is better than no train to the airport. But better than nothing isn't the best, and I want the best, I want an APM.
4. "But an APM will need a brand new depot!" Sure, but not wanting to build a new depot for an APM is not an excuse for serving the airport with poor 15 minute headways.
5. "But the Airport Trolley will have a brand recognition that an APM won't have!" Airport travelers don't care whether the train is red or green, has steel wheels or rubber tires, or is called a trolley or a people mover. What they want is plenty of room to store luggage and short waiting times that the APM provides.
6. "APMs are all gadgetbahns, like the Oakland Airport People Mover!" That's just cherry-picking the worst APM technology available, the cable liner. Most other airports use a far better technology like the Mitsubishi Crystal Mover or Bombardier Innovia.