What often starts with cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages ends up more expensive once a traveler pays costly cab fares from the airport to wherever he is staying. Travelers often assume that the most direct, fastest way out of an airport is by taking a taxi. While this is sometimes true, increasingly public transit options will get you downtown quicker and at a much cheaper price.
The following are just a few dramatic examples of how convenient and cheap public transit from airports has become:
If you fly into Chicagos OHares Airport a taxi ride to the Loop will cost about $40 and take up to 30 minutes. If you take the CTA Blue Line train for $2.25 it will only take 10 minutes longer to get there.
Traveling from Newark Airport to New York City costs about $55 via taxi vs. $15 on AirTran that links up with New Jersey Transits trains for the 30 minutes trip.
When overseas, public transportation to the city can help travelers avoid long and costly taxi rides. A taxi from Narita Airport to Tokyo costs as much as $220 vs. taking the Narita Express train whose ticket price is under $35.
In Shanghai a taxi ride takes about 45 minutes vs. the magnetic levitation train which takes passengers downtown in eight minutes.
In cities offering convenient mass transit, the only reason to take a taxi is if you are carrying so many bags that paying for an expensive taxi ride makes sense.
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