Route: Automated People Mover from Airport to Downtown

[benlk]

Based on the LAX design: https://www.lawa.org/en/connectinglax/automated-people-mover

Why APM?

• platform screen doors
• premium travel solution with low costs of operation
• 24/7 automated service
• high frequencies, fast service, reliable service, dedicated guideways with visible stop locations: this drives ridership.

Route

Loop around the main loop of the terminal in the same direction as cars do:

• A: Arrivals/Departures
• B: Lane Aviation, Fairfield Inn, and the Walking Lot
• C: Employee Lot and Hilton
• D: Blue Lot and CONRAC
• E: Red Lot
• F: Stelzer bus stop
• G: Green Lot
• H: Employee/Uber Lot
• then reverse, head back in the same order with the same one-way turnaround loop around Arrivals/Departures B -> A -> B

Extensions

The goal is to have a useful alignment that serves real needs.

• from H, cross 670 to hit the hotel cluster,
• Ohio Dominican University (offer a basic station, make 'em cough up the money for any design changes or route improvements they want)

Options for getting into Downtown:

670 to rail under GCCC

- 5th Avenue and Nelson - Sunbury Road - Leonard Avenue - Joyce Avenue - St. Clair Avenue - Cleveland Avenue - ~4th/Summit~ these overpasses are not good places to drop pedestrians or have a bus stop - High - Nationwide Arena (running along Convention Center Drive, on north side of existing rail tracks, with pedestrian bridges) - Kemba Live! and Huntington Park - Lower.com Field (bit of a walk, but new pedestrian bridges will be popular with railfans) - High Bank Distillery and Columbus Water/Sewer/Power - Grandview Avenue - from here idk. Could follow rail ROW north to Marble Cliff, 5th.

670 to the High Street freeway cap

extend the cap to create a station, with stops at: - 5th Avenue and Nelson - Sunbury Road - Leonard Avenue - Joyce Avenue - St. Clair Avenue - Cleveland Avenue - 4th/Summit - High

Ohio Dominican, Leonard Avenue, Old Leonard Avenue, Fort Hayes

either 670 to High or railroad ROW to Convention Center. Stops at: - Brentnell Avenue - 5th & Leonard - Joyce Avenue at 670/tracks - Leonard Avenue and St. Clair Avenue - Cleveland Avenue inside Fort Hayes, probably from an overhead station running on a bridge from previous station to Convention Center - 4th/3rd south of 670 - Convention Center via a Goodale Street bridge - West on Goodale

5th Avenue, running overhead or as a cut-and-cover subway

- Ohio Dominican - west on 5th, stop at 5th and Nelson - 5th and Brentnell - 5th and Taylor - 5th and Joyce - 5th and St. Clair - 5th and Cleveland - 5th and 4th/Summit - 5th and High Street - 5th and Neil - Battelle - Market District Supermarket area at 5th and Aschinger/Edgehill - 5th and Northwest Blvd - 5th and Fairview or North Star Avenue, access to school and park - 5th and Cumbridge or Arlington Avenue - 5th and Riverside Drive/33 - 5th dead-ends at McKinley Avenue

Key constituencies:

• Airport flyers: 3.8m enplanements in 2022
• Airport employees
• Convention Center passengers
  • [ ] How many fly into CMH? Does FCCCA or CRAA have information?
  • [ ] do the hotels downtown offer shuttles to the airport?
• Airport hotels
  • [ ] do they publish passenger-sleeper numbers?

Secondary constituencies:

• Downtown commuter traffic, using the airport lots as a park-and-ride basically.
• Employers and local riders along the route

Funding

Construction funding:

• federal?
• state?
• GCCC/FCCFA?
  • key takeaway from https://www.meetusincolumbus.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2023-CFA-Full-Budget-Document.pdf is that FCCFA financed the $269m new hotel tower with $160m in bonds over 30 years, which are backed by Franklin County.
• CRAA
  • LAX had a $4b grant from the LA Board of Airport Commissioners. https://web.archive.org/web/20141228080115/https://ridley-thomas.lacounty.gov/index.php/lax-people-mover-train-funding-approved/
  • How much can CRAA afford? check Jan board meeting notes: $135.7M in revenue in CY 2022, of which 33% was parking. This peoplemover project would convert a revenue base into an expense, if parking usage drops significantly. But a counterargument is that convention center traffic are not using parking lots.

Ongoing funding sources:

• airport tax
• convention center hotel surcharge: "The FCCFA is empowered to issue tax and lease revenue bonds backed by the hotel tax receipts, and currently levies a 4 percent countywide hotel occupancy tax and an additional 0.9 percent citywide hotel occupancy tax. These tax rates have remained unchanged since they were established in 1988." https://columbusconventions.com/about/about-the-fccfa/
• maybe a TIF district within 1/4 mile — note that this area includes lots of major employers, who would object unless the loop serviced them.

Fares: Faregate system to board at non-airport stations, with:

• standard COTA fare and transfers accepted
• present an airplane ticket valid within 24h of the challenge (just for this peoplemover system)

Other links:

• RM Transit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybql0RXXtHc
• LAX: https://www.lawa.org/en/connectinglax/automated-people-mover

[benlk]

Summary of polling on Twitter: https://twitter.com/benlkeith/status/1642206779076427781

Take the 670 to rail under GCCC route.

[benlk]

• [x] publish, to fix this build error: https://github.com/benlk/columbus-regional-rail/actions/runs/4626015935
• [x] social media graphics
• [ ] add ridership section:
  • [x] how many enplanements? what is an enplamement?
  • [ ] how many riders on parallel bus lines?
  • [x] how many convention attendees?

[benlk]

• [ ] ~JET study links and screenshots~ https://urbanists.social/@benlk/110217489626966982
  • [ ] add their routes and options
• [ ] ~the Centennial peoplemover~
• [ ] MORPC corridor note

[benlk]

• [x] create separate map for JET study -> https://github.com/benlk/columbus-regional-rail/issues/25
• [x] create separate map for centennial peoplemover -> https://github.com/benlk/columbus-regional-rail/issues/26
• [x] incorporate feedback from Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Columbus/comments/15azsah/comment/jtog0s9/

[benlk]

okay but what if it was just an airport-area peoplemover and it connected to a 670 center-running route, like LAX does?

That feels like a separate project.