SPEAKER: JAY DE WITT, SPECIAL PROJECTS ADMINISTRATOR FOR THE AUTOMATED TRAIN AT SKY HARBOR

SUBJECT: LIGHT RAIL CONNECTION TO SKY HARBOR/AUTOMATED TRAIN

A balancing act that we have to accomplish at the airport. The number of runways we have to bring airplanes in and take off, the number of terminals we have, and lastly the landside traffic. All of these things have to be in really perfect balance to make the most of it and capitalize on the investment you have made. We have enough runways to get the plans in and out, terminals also doing alright; it is the landside where we have some issues. It is the traffic on Sky Harbor Boulevard that is a problem. You get to the airport in record time and then you get to Sky Harbor Blvd. Landside is where we need to make drastic improvements to make the most of what we’ve got in the way of terminals and airsides.

There is only so much capacity on Sky Harbor Boulevard at the present. With the new automated train, what we are doing is adding a solution to ease the traffic on Sky Harbor Blvd. There is only so much we can do with the existing roadway that cuts through the airport. We cannot take terminal or airside space. There is not much we can do with the existing roadways, besides going right over the top. You have to walk across an active lane of traffic to get to the shuttle pickups and then lift your bags up three steps. There is not a lot of room or capacity on these shuttles/buses. Takes about a minute to a minute and a half to load and you have to stand outside in the heat. It is uncomfortable and not a safe situation and not a very efficient situation. We take a look at Minneapolis/St Paul where they have an automated train people mover. Doors open, people have their bags on the ground, no issues there, people walk out, and the signage is good, not dealing with lines. All the people a much happier group. A great customer service solution for all and an efficient way to move people back and forth between the terminals and else where.

Our automated train will start at 44th and Washington. -- light rail is next to it. It takes you right down to the 153 which ADOT has turned over to us about six months ago. The 153 affectionately known as the freeway to no where. The train will go on some of the right of way of the 153. We will take some of the western most lanes for the train. Stage one will take us to terminal 4, which is our busiest, our largest economy lot/garage, and then to light rail. This will be delivered in 2013. Stage two will be from terminal 4 to terminal three, future west terminal and rental car areas. What about terminal two? We are not really sure what happens to terminal two at this point. It is not a long term plan. No immediate plan to get rid of terminal two. West terminal is in the distant future. Stage two comes on line in 2020. Reason for staging is that it is very expensive, so we are taking a very conservative approach based on what we expect to make in passenger facility charges. This whole project will be paid for with passenger facility charges. When people land and take off they pay $4.50 and that goes toward our capital improvement for the airport. That is the funding and phasing.

At the 44th Street station (at Washington and 44th St.) there will be some parking to the south of it. This will be a private pick up and drop off which will be an option to using Sky Harbor Blvd. On the other side is the commercial passenger pick up and drop off--hotel shuttles and buses and other commercial traffic. There will be a bridge leading to light rail-enclosed bridge with a moving walkway and it is about 500 feet. The train is an elevated guide way. While this is under construction, we will have an interim bus system in use.

Station two will be the east economy parking lot. You can park and get right on the automated train. This brings us to the switch. The trains are bi-directional but need a place to turn around. The taxiways are dropping.

Stopping at terminal 4 you will go down an escalator and enter on the third level of the terminal where the gates are. We are hoping to have places for baggage check in and print tickets and promote ticket check in at the stations. This way you can go straight to security and your gate. The guide way comes up over and straddles the pedestrian bridge that links the concourses. We are not taking up space that is currently being taken up by cars and vehicles.

There will be no charge to ride the train.

Automated Train Characteristics: Fully accessible for all, driverless, electric, high capacity, and rubber tires. We are looking at different train providers and they will also operate the trains.

44th Street and Washington will be a unique ground transportation station, in that it is not at the airport. We need to have that connection to light rail, but what we would also like to do is all those strictly uses at the terminal that don’t really need to be at the terminal. Employee traffic, so they don’t need to drive on Sky Harbor Blvd. to get to the terminal, ticketing, baggage. Focus on getting people to their gates at the terminal. Looking at an employee parking lot to the south of the station, in addition to the private and commercial pick up and drop off.

How do you get the bags from the 44th Street station to the gates? There will probably be a third party vendor who will come in and do this for us. There are still some details to work out.

Construction Schedule: Working at an airport is a very tricky business. We can’t shut down the airport and runways, so we have to work some odd hours. Which makes for a much longer period of time. 2012 is when the infrastructure will be in and everything will be completed, the train parts will be running up on top. But there will be just about less than a year in just testing the thing. Safety is very high on our list. If you are driving on the 202 you see a large excavation area which will be a maintenance and storage facility. We have just started construction on the pedestrian bridge that will link the light rail to the station. That is important because once the light rail is up and operational, our windows to build stuff is limited as we don’t want to interrupt the light rail. In the third quarter of 2009, we actually start the construction on the guide way. We start in a couple of places. We will have construction roadways so there won’t be use of Sky Harbor Blvd. 4th quarter 2009 we will start the east economy lot station and at the same the time the terminal 4 station. The last station to come on line will be the 44th St. station in the second quarter 2010. Everything wraps up in the third quarter of 2012 when construction is complete.

The design year for this project is about 2040, at which point we will probably need to expand the stations a bit. The guide way infrastructure itself will be able to handle as many trains as you can fit on it.

Sky Harbor will always be the central airport, but we have only so much envelope to work with, so we are looking to Gateway airport in the east to fill in.

We will have normal security at the stations, but it won’t be a secure air site system.