The Atlantic City Line Thread

[lensovet]

No, 1M was prior to COVID. I don't even know what the covid numbers are.

The numbers won't be there tomorrow either because of where the airport is. How many people live within a reasonable distance of the airport such that taking public transit, even with perfect connections, would be viable? Foresight is good but the payback period can't be measured in centuries.

[Tom V]

The line is on the North side of the airport, to have it serve the terminal directly would be a long detour for a rail line that need to shorten its trip times. Also as mentioned who would use the train? The customer demographic for the airport is South Jersey suburbs.

It’s too far from Center City Philadelphia to attract business or tourists. ACY only has Spirit airlines, PHL has much larger Spirit airlines Operation. It also has other Low Cost carriers like Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest etc..


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[JohnFromJersey]

The appeal of Atlantic City International Airport is that it's isolated. It's not near any urban centers like PHL, EWR, JFK, etc. so going in and out is pretty easy. Newark Aiport is much closer to me, however, getting to Newark is a pain due to all the non-airport traffic to get there, plus the airport itself is far too congested to make getting in and out easy. I've used both airports before, and even including the drive to and from said airports, AC was always a faster trip overall.

I've never used PHL. If it's anything like EWR, I'd imagine a potential rail connection would expose more people to AC who would be willing to travel a bit further to an airport to spend less time waiting inside and outside it. However it doesn't sound like it's congested like the NYC area airports, so I guess an "overflow" airport like AC wouldn't be needed as much.

I'd imagine in a hypothetical scenario, if the entire Southern Division north of Winslow Junction was an active NJT route, you would probably have a lot of people from the Central/Southern Jersey population centers (Freehold, Lakewood, Toms River, etc.) take a train to the airport. However, that is not the case and probably never will be for the foreseeable future.

There have been talks to have some sort of industrial/research/office park (NextGen Technical Park and I think another one) near the airport that would attract people to use the airport, and perhaps even the railroad.

[chuchubob]

NJT 4101 on train 4664 July 1
http://chuchubob.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... id=6058510
http://chuchubob.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... id=6058511

[R36 Combine Coach]

I've never used PHL. If it's anything like EWR, I'd imagine a potential rail connection would expose more people to AC who would be willing to travel a bit further to an airport to spend less time waiting inside and outside it.

For a brief period in the early 90s, Amtrak ran direct service to PHL from AC.

[lensovet]

PHL already has rail service going right into the airport that doesn't even require taking another mode of transit like a shuttle bus or AirTrain.

[RandallW]

American Airlines offers bus services ("Landline") from inside airport security between ACY and PHL that allow passengers to go through security at ACY, avoiding the perceived mess that is security at PHL. Notably the is is the only service American Airlines offers from ACY.

[R36 Combine Coach]

ACY-PHL on the American Eagle (Landline Company) bus is $402 one way/$449 flexible. There are three round
trips: AM, midday and evening.

By comparison the train from AC terminal to PHL (via 30 Street connection) would be $17.50. The NJT TVMs do
offer joint through SEPTA tickets.

This seems overpriced for a "ground shuttle", even more than limo or shuttle service, but wonder how is the
ridership. It is apparently this is for South Jersey passengers using PHL for connecting flights, so this is basically
a feeder much like the "Essential Air" routes.

[Bracdude181]

I did see one video of this service and it looks like nearly all the seats were filled. I’ve yet to find any sort of official ridership count for it. I also believe $409 is WAY too much for what this is, especially considering it only goes to the airport, which then has you finding another way of going to AC. Why not go to AC directly?

On a different note, did anyone catch NJT 4101 on the ACL over the weekend?

[RandallW]

The bus is the *only* service AA provides to ACY, so if you tend to fly AA, it's how you would do it. I just checked, it is $287 to go CLT-[plane]->PHL-[bus]->ACY one way midweek in September, which suggests the $409 for just the bus service is because AA can't not sell a ticket for a service, but does not want to sell tickets for that service without onward travel through PHL on AA (i.e., it using pricing to discourage people from using that bus to connect to a Delta or United flight at PHL).

[lensovet]

Don't forget to subtract out the price for flying to PHL. Based on my math, the bus is about $70 one way.

More info here: https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/exp ... ndline.jsp

(I frankly thought the original post was a joke )

[ExCon90]

On a different note, did anyone catch NJT 4101 on the ACL over the weekend?

Chuchubob posted a couple above on July 1.

[lensovet]

Why not go to AC directly?

because doing it this way allows you to clear security at ACY and go directly to your transfer gate at PHL.

[Ken W2KB]

Why not go to AC directly?

because doing it this way allows you to clear security at ACY and go directly to your transfer gate at PHL.

There was, and may still be, a similar airline bus service between Allentown, PA and Newark, NJ airports.

[west point]

ACY airport Great airport close to NYCity for training.