AirTrain is a fully

automated people mover A people mover or automated people mover (APM) is a type of small-scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks ...

San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is the primary international airport for the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. Owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the airport has a San Francisco mailing ...

(SFO) that opened on February 24, 2003. It operates 24 hours a day on two separate lines, covering a total of . The service charges no

fare A fare is the fee paid by a passenger for use of a public transport system: rail, bus, taxi, etc. In the case of air transport, the term airfare is often used. Fare structure is the system set up to determine how much is to be paid by various p ...

s; it is funded by a fee charged to rental car customers. The system is located outside of the sterile area of each terminal, meaning passengers must exit and re-enter through a security checkpoint when using AirTrain to travel between terminals.

Lines and stations

AirTrain operates on two lines—Red Line and Blue Line—both of which run every four minutes. The Red Line travels in a clockwise loop around the central terminal area, which takes about nine minutes to complete. The Blue Line travels in a counterclockwise loop, serving the same stations in reverse order, and also proceeding to West Field Road, the Rental Car Center, and long-term parking, which takes 25 minutes for a round trip. The AirTrain stations at the International Terminal are located one level above ticketing, at both ends of the main hall. Stations at Terminals 1, 2, and 3 are located on level 5 of the domestic parking garage and can be accessed from mezzanine-level skybridges located near security checkpoints B, D, and F. The Garage A and G stations are accessible from level 7 of each garage. The long-term parking station is connected by a skybridge to level 5 of the long-term parking garage.

Technical details

The AirTrain system was built by

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at a cost of

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430 million and is composed of 38 Innovia APM 100 cars coupled in trains of up to three cars. The APM 100 cars can also be found at airports in

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, Seattle-Tacoma,

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, and

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. They are operated automatically under Bombardier's Cityflo 650

Communications-based train control Communications-based train control (CBTC) is a railway signaling system that uses telecommunications between the train and track equipment for traffic management and infrastructure control. CBTC allows a train's position to be known more accura ...

signaling technology, making it one of the first radio-based train control systems to enter service. The entire AirTrain fleet is accessible and allows rented baggage carts on board. The Airport Development Plan from 2016 forecasted that ridership on the two lines would be over capacity in the future (42% and 87% over capacity on the Red and Blue Lines respectively) and recommended upgrades that would increase capacity. Specific upgrades included acquiring 30 additional AirTrain cars, upgrading existing stations to accommodate 4-car trains, and upgrading the maintenance facility to accommodate additional vehicles.

History

A $15 million

infill station An infill station (sometimes in-fill station) is a train station built on an existing passenger rail, rapid transit, or light rail line to address demand in a location between existing stations. Such stations take advantage of existing train ser ...

was constructed to serve the Grand

Hyatt Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational corporation, multinational hospitality company headquartered in the 150 North Riverside, Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchise ...

at SFO, a new airport hotel. The hotel opened on October 7, 2019. AirTrain did not originally provide access to SFO's long-term parking garage and lots; instead, passengers had to take a free airport shuttle bus between the airport terminals and the long-term parking areas. The original end of the track past the Rental Car Center station was only about away from the airport's long-term parking garage; an extension to the garage began service in May 2021, replacing the shuttle buses. The extension is estimated to eliminate previously driven by the shuttle buses each year. The Harvey Milk Terminal 1 station was closed from July 2021 to April 26, 2023, during reconstruction of the terminal.

References

External links

* {{authority control Airport people mover systems in the United States San Francisco International Airport

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Innovia people movers Public transportation in San Francisco Railway lines opened in 2003 Rapid transit in California 2003 establishments in California

Lines and stations

Technical details

History

See also

References

External links