INTERMODAL ASIA
Vancouver’s SkyTrain handles more than 100,000 passengers daily.
Inaugurated last year, Canada Line’s SkyTrain service has effectively halved
journey times between YVR and downtown Vancouver’s Waterfront Station to 25 minutes. And boarding numbers to date have exceeded all expectations, with in excess of 105,000 passengers per day using the service in March and an incredible 228,000 daily during the 17 days of Winter Olympics. Canada Line’s YVR airport station is centrally located between the
gateway’s international and domestic terminals. YVR’s CEO, Larry Berg, enthuses: “We’re pleased to be the first major
airport in Canada to provide our customers and the more than 26,000 people who work at YVR with convenient rapid transit service to the airport.”
Ground transport hubs Asia-Pacific airports also appear to have led the way in terms of building new infrastructure to accommodate the ever-increasing number of ground transportation options being offered to passengers. Beijing Capital’s impressive Ground Transportation Centre (GTC) forms part
of the airport’s new Terminal 3 development, the Foster+Partners/NACO/ ARUP designed facilities covering a total of 1.3 million square metres of floor space between them. Located between the existing eastern runway and the future third runway,
the GTC is served by shuttle buses and the Airport Express Line of the Beijing subway, which runs 28 kilometres from the gateway to city, with stops at Sanyuanqiao and Dongzhimen. While Incheon International Airport’s dedicated 250,000sqm Ground
Transportation Centre – designed by Terry Farrell & Partners in collaboration with Samoo Architects and DMJM – boasts six-floors and an underground car park with 5,000 spaces. Indeed, Arc
hitectural R or ec d magazine was so impressed by the
building that it claims that its central Great Hall is “a truss-roofed, daylit space that recalls the grand rail terminals of the Victorian age.” Adding: “Atop the Great Hall is a 130-foot-long, steel-framed airfoil – a birdlike crest for the beastlike building.” In addition to road access and the planned new maglev link, Incheon is
served by water, courtesy of ferry services from the Yuldo and Wolmido suburbs of Incheon City. Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) is arguably the most multi-modal
gateway on the planet, and the January 2010 opening of its new SkyPier cross-boundary ferry terminal further enhanced its reputation.
78 AIRPORT WORLD/OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2010
HKIA’s location on Lantau Island some 35 kilometres from central Hong
Kong and growing links with Mainland China, ensured that providing a variety of different ways of getting to the airport was a priority for planners long before its 1998 opening. As a result, it boasts a host of road, rail and water connections that
include the dedicated Airport Express train. The service provides guaranteed 24 minute journey times between HKIA and Hong Kong’s central business district and the opportunity to check-in for flights at Central and Kowloon stations. In light of the stiff competition faced from local bus, coach and taxi
services to downtown Hong Kong, operator MTR went out of its way to create a unique identity for the rail service through branding that would clearly distinguish it from other public transport providers and appeal to both locals and international travellers. Citigate Lloyd Northover (CLN) designed its dual-language logo,
train livery, tickets, signage and staff uniforms to “reflect the dynamism of Hong Kong and the fact that it is an extension of the airport experience.” Seat-back TV screens show programmes in English and Chinese. The airport is also served by a number of public buses, taxis, hotel
shuttle buses and cross-boundary coaches and ferries to Mainland China. Boats operate from HKIA’s brand new SkyPier cross-boundary ferry
terminal, which can be accessed direct from the airport by Automated People Mover (APM) system. High-speed ferries make an average of 90 daily trips from HKIA’s
SkyPier transporting around 6,000 passengers between the airport and eight ports in the PRD and Macau. Despite the frequency of departures, ferry services cannot lay claim to
being the most popular surface transportation option for HKIA’s passengers – that honour goes to franchise buses, which in 2009 handled 34.5% of all visitors to the gateway. The Airport Express and MTR accounted for 17.8% of all passengers
followed by taxis (17.5%), private cars (16.3%), tour coaches (10.1%), limousines (1.8%) and others (2%). The range and variety of innovative, highly ambitious and passenger
friendly projects taking place across Asia-Pacific must surely make the region the most intermodally switched-on place on earth right now. Those that know the region well, would expect nothing else.
AW
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