First look: New Plane Train cars are coming

The planned growth of the fleet from 59 to 73 cars is made possible by another major infrastructure upgrade at the airport: the Plane Train tunnel’s 600-foot expansion, which began construction in 2019.

That expansion will also be fully operational early next year, says Ana Maria Taroco, the airport’s assistant general manager for planning and development.

It allows more room for trains to “turn back” and includes a new power distribution room and train control room.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

The tunnel work has been happening 60 feet beneath the airport — and it hasn’t been easy.

Back in 2016, the expansion was expected to cost $307 million and be completed in 2019. But the complexity of the project, and later COVID-19, increased the time frame and the budget.

“This is a milestone that has been years in the making,” Taroco told reporters Wednesday.

It’s “not only a feat of engineering and construction, but also a strategic investment in the future of our airport infrastructure.”

In two years, the tunnel expansion and the new cars will increase capacity by 20%, airport leaders say, and mean a drop in average wait times to 90 seconds from the current 108.

When it opened in 1980, the Plane Train carried about 35 million passengers, said Kenneth Williams, the airport’s transportation systems director. Last year, Hartsfield-Jackson saw 108 million passengers and has plans to reach 125 million in the next five years.

The newest of the existing train cars dates to 2010, said Stephen Bartlett, the system’s general manager. He works for Alstom, the French rail manufacturer that operates the Plane Train.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

‘Business as usual’

The new cars do look fairly similar to the existing ones.

But there are tons of changes behind the scenes, said Justin Trbovich, the Alstom project manager who has overseen their manufacture.

There are new LED lights, a new air conditioning system and more handles for passengers. These cars can go faster, too.

They also have the ability to generate and pump energy back into the airport’s grid, he said, rather than being an energy consumer.

“We try to make it business as usual from the ridership standpoint, but from ... the operations, maintenance and long-term longevity of the cars, there’s a lot of enhancements there,” he said.

These cars will enable a far more connected system than the prior technology allowed; the new cars are able to send location data to the control room constantly, rather than just at the stations, Taroco said.

Jason Aguirre, Alstom’s customer director, added there’s not much room to change the interior layout of the largely seat-free cars, as they’re already maximizing the possible space.

“You want the most space possible to move the most passengers,” he said, especially as more and more people are traveling with carry-on luggage.

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

What’s next

The Plane Train system upgrades won’t stop here, airport officials say.

They’re replacing 40-year-old track switches between baggage claim and Concourse D, said Williams. And they’re already talking about the next upgrades needed, too.

That could be replacing the entire signaling system to allow the train cars to get even closer to each other and replacing the platform sliding doors that line up with the car doors, he said.

“This airport is always thinking about what’s the next big” system upgrade needed, confirmed Alstom’s Aguirre.

In fact, the contractor and the airport had a meeting to discuss some of those new project possibilities right after the news conference.