Intermodality applied
Like many others, I flew this Labor Day weekend. Unlike most, though, I took the bus to the airport. METRO’s 102 Bush Express (schedule (pdf file))stops two blocks from my loft, and the cost is unbeatable: I paid $2.50 round trip, less than half what I’d pay for gas, let alone the $6 a day to park in the economy lot. It worked – I got to the airport on time, and I got home safely Sunday night. But I got a good idea why more people don’t do it. For one thing, the “express” isn’t. As far as Beltway 8, it’s a fast ride direct from Downtown streets to the HOV lane. It took us only 27 minutes from Downtown to Greenspoint, 3/4 of the way to the airport. But then the bus starts winding through blocks and blocks of apartment complexes and a random section of the Beltway 8 frontage roads before making another detour into the airport cargo area. Time from Greenspoint to the airport: 33 minutes. And while the “airport” bus serves the immigration office (northbound only) and a gas station at the corner of Greens and Aldine Westfield (both directions, conveniently enough) it does not serve terminals A,B,D, or E. And the stop at Terminal C is about the ugliest place at the airport, a bare-bones shelter with a short bench on a concrete traffic island stained with old chewing gum. 
I was the only air traveler on my 6:00 pm Friday northbound run. The bus was fairly full, but at least half of the travelers got off at Greenspoint and most of the rest at other local stops. A few airport employees did ride all the way with me, and more got on the bus at the apartments.
If I end up in a conversation with someone about rail transit, odds are good that they will tell me we need trains to the airports. METRO responded to this demand, as have many other transit authorities, by including both airports in the 2025 METRORail plan. The paradox is that, by the numbers, trains to airports don’t make much sense. Many business flyers can put airport taxis on their expense accounts; leisure travelers are coming from home with many bags and it’s much more convenient to take a car. Even the best airport rail connections (Washington National, Atlanta, Chicago) serve only 10-15% of travelers, and many more people travel to Uptown, the Medical Center, or Downtown daily than travel to the airport. But perception matters, too, and the public’s perception is that airport service is important.
So here’s my question: why wait for a train in 2025? METRO could, at relatively low cost, implement a true airport express service. It might loop through Downtown, taking in the convention center, Houston Center, and the highrise district, and connecting to METRORail at the Downtown Transit Center, Then it would take the Hardy Toll Road straight to the airport, serving all terminals. The result would be a nice 30 minute ride to the airport, right now. (1)
Austin has an airport bus like this; they use dedicated busses with a big purple plane painted on the side. Marketing – not just the painted busses but a spiffy name, signs in the airport, a prominent link on the web site, ads in visitors’ guides, and a notation on the systems maps at METRORail trains and stations – would not only attract more riders, but demonstrate to the public that METRO is trying to meet their needs.
I’d love to take the train to the airport. But that’s not going to happen for a while. What’s keeping us from doing now what we can do now with the facilities we have?
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(1) There’s another option being considered, too. The Houston Airport System in taking part in the Intermodal Transit Center study to explore the possibility of opening a remote terminal at the Center. This would be a place just north of Downtown, served by light rail, commuter rail, and BRT and with a long-term parking garage, where passengers could check in an deposit their luggage, then take an express bus to the airport. At this point, it’s only an idea; the airport people like it as a way to reduce curb congestion at the airport, and it would be a great option for transit riders. In any case, it’s not a short-term option: the Center as a whole in unlikely to open before 2011, when LRT, BRT, and commuter rail would open.