A Plan for Increased Regional Transportation Efficiency

Introduction: As the nation continues sliding into a deeper and deeper recession the need for new public works projects is finally being taken seriously.  In general the attention has been focused on rebuilding our country's crumbling infrastructure.  I suggest that attention also be given to a series of new transportation initiatives designed to reduce or eliminate much of the need for regional air transportation.  As a former regional air carrier pilot I am aware of the resistance this proposal will generate in the air carrier community including, carriers, labor groups, and airport groups. I submit that these parochial concerns are far outweighed by the societal benefits. 

The Problem:  Nearly all major air carriers utilize a system of regional air carriers to feed traffic into their hub airports.  These regional feed systems increase industry fuel consumption, carbon emissions and flight delays nationwide.  In fact, on a per passenger mile basis these are some of the highest cost routes nationwide.  

Why Carriers Like the System:  These systems provide several benefits to their associated main line carriers. They provide travelers with seamless transportation from origin to destination. They provide the opportunity to capture otherwise unavailable passengers and their revenue.  They provide increases in network size with little or no capital investment by the main line carrier as the regional feed is normally operated by an independent entity, and in some cases numerous independent entities.  They reduce overall labor costs by pitting labor groups against each other as main line labor seeks to retain their traditional employment patterns while the regional labor seeks to expand theirs. 

Why Carriers Do Not Like the System: The cost per available seat mile is normally significantly higher than main line costs even though labor, asset and terminal costs are lower on a per flight basis.

The Proposal:  Utilize the current regional air transportation terminal facilities and highway system rights of way to overlay an integrated regional rail based feeder system. 

What This Would Look Like:  The system would overlay a regional rail transportation system on the existing infrastructure of regional air terminals and highway transportation infrastructure replacing the current system.  This could be relatively quickly built using an elevated rail system similar to those used for public transit in cities such as Miami, FL and internally at many airports, for example Newark, NJ.  This infrastructure would relieve demands on the aging and capacity limited aviation infrastructure including, air space, airport and air terminal limitations.  

The air carriers would be permitted (required) to run their own rail cars over the system.  These cars would be new designs resembling regional aircraft in their size and operating characteristics.  They would be designed to run on concrete road beds utilizing rubber tires.  The passenger would check in at the regional terminal just as they do now including security screening.  Once aboard the car they would receive the same type of service they now receive on regional aircraft, except with much better on time performance.  The cars would be branded by the main line just as the regional aircraft are now.  The cars would travel between the secure areas of air terminals allowing the passenger to change modes without the need for re-screening as they are currently allowed to do when transferring from regional to main line aircraft.  As a bonus regional feed on time performance will improve dramatically as air space and airport congestion and weather delays are avoided.  Travel times would not be significantly increased as regional aircraft now spend disproportionate time between leaving the gate to take off and again from landing to arriving at the gate.  They also spend considerable time operating in speed restricted airspace.  On some routes there is more ground than air time and on many routes the average speed (gate to gate) is significantly less than aircraft capabilities.  Reasonably fast modern "rail" transportation systems can effectively compete.  All trips from the regional facility to the hub facility would be express with no intermediate stops.

Benefits to Air Carriers: Reduced cost, reduced congestion delays, reduced weather delays, reduced security risks, reduced number of stressed out passengers.  Reduced green house gas production reducing the expected future costs of exhaust impact mitigation.

Benefits to Passengers: Reduced cost, reduced congestion delays, reduced weather delays, reduced security risks, reduced stress. Greater lane segment competition and service frequency.

Benefits to Society: Reduced fossil fuel use and green house gas production.  Reduced cost, reduced congestion delays, reduced weather delays, reduced security risks, reduced number of stressed out passengers.  Reduced airport related noise and exhaust pollution. 

Economic Benefits:  A significant reduction in air transportation system costs especially the costs incurred expanding the system.  Air travel system maintenance and expansion is extraordinarily expensive.  Aviation infrastructure costs are widely underestimated.  These costs are often unseen by the public, such as the cost of air traffic control systems and the impact on capacity caused by the looming shortage of air traffic controllers, an issue not fully recognized even by the industry and denied by the FAA for political reasons, especially the agency's quarter century long battle to beat its work force into submission. 

National and Homeland Security Benefits: A significant reduction in fossil fuel demand will naturally reduce the nation's dependence on imported fossil fuel.  Homeland security is enhanced by the reduction in aircraft flights reducing the number of potential terrorist weapons.  Note that the DHS maintains that even the smallest of private aircraft pose a serious homeland security risk.

Example: The Bloomington Illinois (BMI) to Chicago lane segment (this includes both ORD and MDW)  provides a great example.  Bloomington, Illinois is currently serviced by four carriers including American Airlines which provides four round trips daily to O'Hare.  United Airlines also has a hub at O'Hare but does not provide service to BMI, presumably for cost and capacity reasons (ORD and MDW are both at or near capacity most all the time).  Under the new regional rail transportation scheme they would be encouraged to enter the market and capacity at ORD would be available for longer flights by larger aircraft.  Similarly, MDW is served by six main line carriers, but they do not offer service from BMI, again presumably for cost and capacity reasons. Again, the traveling public could expect at least some competition on the MDW - BMI route as the result of efficient and cost effective ground transportation.

Conclusion:  The development of a modern rail system linking the highly developed regional air terminal infrastructure with the crowded and inefficient hub airports would provide numerous economic and service benefits.  These include reductions in pollution and green house gases, reductions in delays, reductions in system capacity demands, and a positive impact on national and homeland security.  Government ownership of the infrastructure and carrier ownership of the rolling stock would mimic the highly successful regional air transportation paradigm resulting in cost effective and efficient transportation between regional and hub airports.