Public transport linkages can revolutionise airports

Readers might be interested in an interesting piece that appeared in The Economist (tinyurl.com/yckh2txc) on India's airports and their functionality or the lack of it.

- Anjuli Bhargava

But I would like to emphasise one of the most overlooked aspects, a feature in which they lag behind almost all their global peers—seamless connectivity to and from the facility through public transport. The world over, metros, bus and several other forms of public mass transport are the only modes used by the ultra-rich, rich and the middle class: How often does one see passengers jumping into a taxi in Paris or Amsterdam to reach the city centre from the airport? The convenience of the bus, the subway, trams and the metro beats the comfort of the taxi by a mile.

The advantages, including the reduction in emission footprint, need no elaboration. At Delhi's T3, to cite one instance, finding a parking slot for a cab or a private vehicle at peak hours is almost impossible due to clogged lanes. If the airport didn't have metro connectivity, one can only imagine how much worse things would have been.

In Goa, getting an affordable taxi remains a challenge. This sounds absurd for a state whose mainstay is tourism but in India, absurdities lurk at every corner. Taxis to and fro from the two airports in the state—Dabolim in the South and MOPA in the North—cost double of what they do in most other Indian cities.