Compendium of student papers: 2011 undergraduate transportation scholars program. Page: 88

                                
Intercity Passenger Rail Access to Airports.: A Case Study at the Milwaukee Airport
STUDENT BIOGRAPHY
Shawn Larson is a student at Brigham Young University (BYU)
located in Provo, Utah. He will graduate in April 2012 with a
Bachelor's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering with
an emphasis in transportation. He also plans on minoring in
.   Mathematics. He has also received an Academic Scholarship for
S.maintaining a grade point average of 3.7.
1 Shawn is an active member of the American Society of Civil
Engineers (ASCE) and an officer in the BYU student chapter of
the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). He is also
planning to attend graduate school to obtain a Master's degree in
Transportation. His interests in transportation lie mainly in
transportation planning and public transportation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research described in this paper was conducted as part of Texas Transportation Institute
Project Number 476090-00075, sponsored by the University Transportation Center for Mobility.
The research activities were conducted in support of the Undergraduate Transportation Scholars
Program. The findings and recommendations included in this paper are based on the student's
summer activities. They should be considered preliminary and not as representative of the
findings and recommendations of the parent project. This paper has not been reviewed or
approved by the sponsor. The contents of this paper reflect the views of the author, who is
responsible for the facts and the accuracy of these data presented herein. The contents do not
necessarily reflect the official view or policies of University Transportation Center for Mobility.
The author would like to express his appreciation to Wisconsin Department of Transportation
and the Center for Freight Infrastructure Research and Education for their help in performing this
study. The author would also like to express his appreciation to his mentors for their support and
guidance throughout this study.
SUMMARY
The link between airports and intercity passenger rail enhances regional and national mobility by
improving the efficiency of intermodal connections. While intercity passenger rail stations at
airports are common in Europe and Asia, there are only four of these connections in the U.S.
One of these four is at the Milwaukee General Mitchell International Airport, Wisconsin, which
is located along the Milwaukee-Chicago Hiawatha Service intercity passenger rail route. This
paper describes a study that was developed to understand the broader impacts of this connection.
A two-part data collection procedure was developed to understand who used the Hiawatha
Service to connect to the airport and how travelers used this connection. Passengers who used
the Milwaukee Airport Rail Station to connect to the airport were invited to participate in this
study which included interviewing the passengers at the airport rail station as well as inviting
them to participate in an online survey. The results of this study showed that this connection

Shawn Larson

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