Airport Transit System
Encyclopedia
People mover
A people mover or automated people mover is a fully automated, grade-separated mass transit system.The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks, but is sometimes applied to considerably more complex automated...
system at O'Hare International Airport
O'Hare International Airport
Chicago O'Hare International Airport , also known as O'Hare Airport, O'Hare Field, Chicago Airport, Chicago International Airport, or simply O'Hare, is a major airport located in the northwestern-most corner of Chicago, Illinois, United States, northwest of the Chicago Loop...
in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, United States. The system began its operation on May 6, 1993, and can accommodate up to 2,400 passengers per hour.
Service
The ATS runs 24 hours a day and is free of charge to ride between its five stations located throughout the airport. Each station is fully handicapped accessible, and features elevatorElevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
access. The travel time from the beginning to the end of the line is approximately nine minutes. The entire system uses Platform screen doors
Platform screen doors
Platform screen doors and platform edge doors at train or subway stations screen the platform from the train. They are a relatively new addition to many metro systems around the world, with some platform doors retrofitted rather than installed with the metro system itself. They are widely used in...
, which means that all the stations are enclosed with doors along the boarding area. When the train arrives at a station, the doors of the train and the station align and open in sync with each other. This method prevents people from leaving the platform, falling on the tracks or tampering with restricted areas. Climate control is also ensured since the four terminal stations are directly connected to the airport.
Stations
The system begins at Terminal 1, which is located inside the airport's domestic terminal loop, and makes a counterclockwise loop to Terminal 2 and Terminal 3. Parking Garage A is accessible from any of the three domestic terminal stations, as is the O'HareO'Hare (CTA)
O'Hare is the 'L' station at the northwestern terminus of the CTA's Blue Line. It is a subway station with two island platforms serving three tracks, located at O'Hare International Airport, 17 miles northwest of the Chicago Loop. Trains are scheduled to depart from O'Hare roughly every 2-7...
'L'
Chicago 'L'
The L is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs. It is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority...
station of the CTA
Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago Transit Authority, also known as CTA, is the operator of mass transit within the City of Chicago, Illinois and some of its surrounding suburbs....
's Blue Line
Blue Line (Chicago Transit Authority)
The Blue Line consists of a long trunk line in the Chicago Transit Authority's rapid transit system which extends through Chicago's Loop from O'Hare International Airport at the far northwest end of the city, through downtown via the Milwaukee-Dearborn subway, and across the West Side to its...
. Parking Lots B and C are only accessible from Terminal 1 and 3 stations, respectively.
After leaving the domestic terminal loop, the ATS travels east to Terminal 5, the airport's international terminal, which is adjacent to Parking Lot D. Access to and from this terminal is only available by riding the ATS. North of Terminal 5, the ATS proceeds to its final station at the Remote Parking area, located within Parking Lot E, one of airport's three long-term parking lots. The station also features a Pace
Pace (transit)
Pace is the suburban bus division of the Regional Transportation Authority in the Chicago metropolitan area. It was created in 1983 by the RTA Act, which established the formula that provides funding to CTA, Metra and Pace. In 2010, Pace had 35.077 million riders. Pace's headquarters are in...
bus stop and a "Kiss 'n' Fly" drop-off area. Shuttle buses operate 24 hours a day to and from this station to connect passengers with Parking Lots F and G. A shuttle bus also connects this station with the O'Hare Metra station
O'Hare Transfer (Metra)
O'Hare Transfer is a commuter railroad station along Metra's North Central Service that serves Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. The station is away from Union Station, the southern terminus of the line...
on the North Central Service
North Central Service
The North Central Service is a commuter rail line provided and operated by Metra in Chicago, Illinois, and its surrounding suburbs. While Metra does not specifically refer to any of its lines by a particular color, the timetable accents for the North Central Service line are printed in light "Soo...
line to Chicago Union Station
Union Station (Chicago)
Union Station is a major train station that opened in 1925 in Chicago, replacing an earlier 1881 station. It is now the only intercity rail terminal in Chicago, as well as being the city's primary terminal for commuter trains. The station stands on the west side of the Chicago River between Adams...
inbound and Antioch outbound during the train's service hours.
Fleet
The ATS uses the FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
-based VAL technology, which features fully automated, rubber-tired
Rubber-tyred metro
A rubber-tyred metro is a form of rapid transit system that uses a mix of road and rail technology. The vehicles have wheels with rubber tyres which run on rolling pads inside guide bars for traction, as well as traditional railway steel wheels with deep flanges on steel tracks for guidance through...
people mover cars. The system is capable of traveling at speeds of up to 50 mph (22.4 m/s), and was the first to use the 256-type vehicle, named for its width of 2.56 m (8.4 ft). The airport originally obtained 13 256-type cars to be used in the system, and two additional cars later were purchased from Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
's JTA Skyway after the Jacksonville Transportation Authority
Jacksonville Transportation Authority
The Jacksonville Transportation Authority is the independent agency responsible for public transit in the city of Jacksonville, Florida, and roadway infrastructure that connects northeast Florida. However, they do not maintain any roadways.-History:...
decided to switch to a more cost-effective technology. Out of the system's 15 cars, only 12 of them are utilized at the moment, with three held in reserve. Currently, the ATS is one of two systems in the world to use the 256-type cars, with the other being the Muzha Line
Muzha Line (TRTS)
The Taipei Metro Wenshan Line is an elevated, medium-capacity line in Taipei, Taiwan. It was the first line on the Taipei Metro, consisting of 12 stations over 10.9 km...
of the Taipei Rapid Transit System
Taipei Rapid Transit System
The Taipei Metro, more commonly known as the MRT or formally as the Taipei Rapid Transit System, is a rapid transit system serving metropolitan Taipei in Taiwan. The system is built and operated by the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation and consists of 89 stations and of revenue track...
.
Future enhancements
To improve efficiency at O'Hare, a modernization plan has been implemented, which also includes changes to the ATS. The current system has not been upgraded since the system was launched in 1993, and changes will be made to reduce the long station wait times as well as the crowdedness of the trains. The new system enhancements will cost around US $United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
90 million, and will include 24 new people mover cars, plus an extension of the line past the current terminus at Parking Lot E to connect with a future remote parking garage near Economy Lot F.