131 breakdowns. Just last year. One hundred thirty-one times the train failed, leaving passengers stranded in concrete tunnels. The fix? Walking. Specifically, walking up to 1.25 miles. With your bags. On your own two feet.
Construction on these new pedestrian corridors starts next year. A victory for common sense? Or just more evidence that this airport is a logistical nightmare? JonNYC has been shouting about this disaster from the rooftops for ages. Now the rest of the world is hearing it too.
The Good (If You Ignore Getting There)
Look, Denver International Airport—DEN—isn’t all bad. Well. Not everything is bad. The layout actually allows for serious expansion. Runways, ramps, terminal space—they’ve got room to grow. There are plenty of gates. A ton of them. And yes. The lounges are ridiculous in a good way. You’ve got American. Delta. Three huge United Clubs. A Club Fly concept. AmEx. Capital One.
Competition is fierce here. Southwest used to reign supreme. Now? United is slowly eating their lunch. Frontier still helps keep fares cheap at off-peak hours, though. So that’s something.
The Bad (Getting There And The Train)
Here’s the problem though. I love connecting here. I hate flying to or from this place. Why? Because it’s nowhere. Literally nowhere near the city. The TSA lines? Often a chaotic mess. Maybe one of the worst systems in the country.
But the trains. Oh. The trains.
They are not optional. Gates are too far to walk—until now, officially. So you’re forced into those automated vehicles. And they break. Constantly.
Sometimes the doors just… open.
We saw videos recently. Passengers standing inches from a drop. Doors wide open on a moving train car. Heading to Concourse A. The airport blamed the passenger. Excuse me? The fail-safes failed. The engineering failed.
This isn’t new. It started on day one. 29 years ago.
In 1998, a loose wheel snapped a cable in the tunnel. Power cut out for seven hours. United lost 30% of their flights that day. More recently, a deflated tire dragged across the tracks, ripping up the power rail. Passengers were dumped in tunnels. Delays skyrocketed. One-track operations. Chaos.
A White Elephant From Day One
But let’s be clear. This wasn’t an accident. This is a design failure baked in from the start.
The whole project was supposed to be automated. Smart. Futuristic. The baggage system crashed so hard they just gave up and switched to manual handling. That alone cost the airport an extra $1.3 billion. And 16 months of delays before they even opened the doors.
The current renovation? Turmoil since 2017. Contracts terminated in 2019 due to scope creep and pure mismanagement. Audits confirmed the obvious. Bad leadership. Ethics issues.
Enter Phillip A. Washington. Airport head since July 2021. Long enough to see these problems fester. Long enough to do nothing about the trains.
He even tried to become FAA Administrator under Biden. July 2022. Thankfully, the Senate didn’t confirm him. Given how poorly this airport is run—and how dangerously those trains operate—who could argue that wasn’t for the best?
So. You can now walk a mile. With your bags. Through tunnels where trains used to stall.
Is this progress? Or just admitting defeat? 🤷♂️
