"Airports of America Arise/ Free the Baggage Trolleys"

Saturday, October 16, 2004

Airports of America Arise/ Free the Baggage Trolleys
The New York (NY) Times


This is a complaint. It's time for the people who run America's airports to
give a little consideration to the poor overburdened traveler whose suitcase
is too heavy, its wheels warped inconveniently somewhere in midtrip.
Europe's airports offer trolleys at no cost. In Switzerland, the cart for
suitcases can even go on the escalator. In Hong Kong, there are two sets of
courtesy trolleys. A big one lets you lug your heavier bags to the ticket
counter. A smaller one helps you with your carry-on luggage. Both kinds are
free and plentiful -- a relief to the strong and the feeble alike. 

Not so in America. Take Newark's international airport. I arrived there this
week from Hong Kong along with several hundred other weary travelers. There
were no small trolleys for hand luggage, of course -- that sort of
convenience is not even on the airport management's radar. But after we got
our baggage, the three-wheeled gizmos for rolling bags out to the curb were
priced at $1 per wheel. A woman in uniform stood by to hand out trolleys and
take $3 from each passenger. Other travelers from my flight, many of whom
had not changed their money into dollars, struggled either with their
currency or, more often, their overloaded bags. The scene is not unique to
Newark. American airports generally make passengers from around the world
fork out $3 apiece to push around their own luggage. 

Most officials paid to worry about the nation's airports concentrate on
security -- a very legitimate priority. Next, they seem to worry about how
the passenger actually gets to the nearest airfield. In New York City, the
main concern has been getting a train from Lower Manhattan to Kennedy
Airport. This grand plan, which would have included a multibillion-dollar
tunnel under the East River, is now in well-deserved limbo. Despite
bipartisan support by everybody from President Bush to Senator Hillary
Clinton, the train-to-the-plane turned out to be one of the few things
Congress removed from the Santa's bag of tax loopholes passed by both houses
last week. 

Rather than get too alarmed, New Yorkers should realize that there is
already a manageable train-to-the-plane from Manhattan. It goes to Newark.
But that route, as anybody who has taken it knows, works better if you're
traveling around the world carrying only your kid's Spider-Man backpack.
Nobody seems to be thinking very hard about how the international traveler
often goes away for longer than a weekend. And longer travel times usually
mean heavier luggage. My own baggage, loaded with three weeks' worth of
books and trinkets from China, would have strained the governor of
California. 

Let's face it. There are cheaper and faster ways to make life easier for
airport travelers than building a $6 billion tunnel and train system. 

May I suggest that members of the Port Authority, in order to understand the
problem, pack a few bags full of those big, thick engineering reports they
do so well and so often. Then they should carry all that extra weight from
the streets of New York to the gate of a plane -- at Newark, Kennedy or
LaGuardia. When they do, they will realize what all the rest of us ordinary
travelers already know: it's time to think about individual baggage carts as
a customer necessity, like fresh water and restrooms, the way airports do in
Europe or China, or even in developing countries that have little else to
brag about. It's time to free the trolleys. Oh, and buy enough to go around.


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