As travelers return to O’Hare International Airport, one key piece of the experience is still missing: The once-popular “people mover” train remains out of service.
More than two years after construction on the Airport Transit System was supposed to be substantially complete, passengers still must rely on shuttle buses to get between terminals and to and from parking lots. Some travelers said they found the process confusing or frustrating.
Mike Davis, who typically flies out of O’Hare several times each month, said he misses the efficiency of the train.
Recently, he found himself sitting on a shuttle waiting at the terminal for its turn to drop off passengers, as the time until takeoff ticked closer. By the time he got off the shuttle it was too late to check his bag, and he booked a ticket for a new flight, he said.
Davis, 38, now plans to arrive at the airport earlier than usual to be safe. On a recent weekday, he waited to catch a shuttle at 5:15 p.m. for an 8 p.m. flight.
“It’s a huge inconvenience,” he said. “Everyone needs to be where they need to be. But at the same time, what else would you do?”
Issues with the “people mover” only add to O’Hare’s “image challenges,” said Joseph Schwieterman, director of DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development.
“The consequences were limited, or minor, when airport congestion was minimal,” he said. “But now it’s become both a headache and an embarrassment.”
Air travel has been creeping up in recent months after a steep drop at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. At O’Hare, 827,000 passengers were expected to pass through the airport between Thursday and Tuesday, nearly six times the number of 2020 Memorial Day Weekend travelers, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Work to update and expand the airport train has been underway for six years, and the trains have been shut down completely since January 2019.
In a 2019 investigation, the Tribune detailed how service interruptions were initially supposed to be kept “to an absolute minimum” during construction, which was to be substantially completed by December 2018. But the investigation found the project soon devolved into delays, finger-pointing and contract disputes between the city and Parsons Construction Group, the main contractor on the project.
The contractor has not provided an updated completion date, said Christine Carrino, a spokeswoman for the Aviation Department. “Substantial” testing procedures must be completed, and that work is continuing, she said in an email.
The contractor has said the pandemic contributed to delays, because various manufacturing and travel restrictions made it harder to get parts and for experts to travel to Chicago to help with testing, Carrino said. She said the contractor has also “encountered challenges during the testing phase of the project.”
“The Airport Transit System (ATS) at O’Hare will return to service as soon as the system is operating safely and reliably,” Carrino said. “Substantial progress has been made in the testing, system integration and commissioning process, and the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) continues to work aggressively with its contractor to complete the project.”
Parsons did not answer questions from the Tribune about the reasons for the delay or when the project would be complete. Spokesman Bryce McDevitt said in an email the company is working closely with the city to “complete this critical program,” and declined to comment further.
Parsons initially signed a $310 million contract, which has been raised to $340 million, Carrino said. The city agreed to pay more as part of two settlement agreements following disputes between the contractor and the city and “work that was unforeseen in the originally envisioned project,” she said.
The shuttles cost roughly $81 million to operate between November 2018 and the end of February, Carrino said.
The project is funded through a variety of fees, including passenger and car rental fees and general airport revenue bond proceeds.
On a recent weekday evening, a steady stream of shuttles arrived at the airport doors, some bound for terminals and others for economy parking lots. Employees in neon green vests helped flag down and direct passengers to the right shuttle.
Some travelers said the shuttles seemed to run often and the process was smooth. But for others, catching the right shuttle could be confusing.
Colette Fox, 26, has for several years flown regularly out of O’Hare for work, and said signs directing passengers to the shuttles were unclear and pickup locations for the shuttles seemed to move.
“I think the shuttles themselves aren’t the problem,” she said. “I think the signage inside the airport is kind of sketchy.”
Danielle Freed, 35, and Megan Kirby, 29, said getting from the parking lot to their flight when they left Chicago was simple. But now that they had returned from a trip to Key West, Florida, figuring out which shuttle would get them back to the parking lot was confusing.
An employee had promised to help, Freed said. But there were many buses to sort out.
“Right now, I have no idea what’s going on,” she said.
