PHOENIX — Stage 2... The final stage of the PHX Sky Train is almost complete and airport officials say it's on schedule to open to the public early this summer.
"It's very exciting! We're excited to provide this convenience to our travelers," said Airport Spokesperson Heather Shelbrack.
The airport is still completing a few final tests.
"We have to do a variety of testing before it opens. This is anything from testing the vehicles, to testing the guideways making sure everything is running at our stations before we open to the public," Shelbrack said.
The completed PHX Sky Train will allow Sky Harbor passengers to ride directly from the 44th Street Station and terminals to the rental car center, without having to wait on a shuttle bus like they do now.
"The trains are free. They run 24 hours a day and they arrive into port every few minutes," Shelbrack said.
"For those coming into the airport from the West this means they won't have to drive through the entire airport to get to parking," she said.
"It will be parking that's convenient and readily available for them right on the west side of the airport."
Stage 1 of the train opened back in 2013 and it's taken a while for the free service to catch on.
In an ABC15 interview back in 2019, besides a few airport staff, passenger Phoenix Rumsey had an entire car to herself.
"It seemed like it was only employees of the airport and that's definitely an odd sight to see," she said.
But several improvements have been added since then including a brand new park and ride station at 24th Street and art installations at every stop.
"We want to make sure that our travelers have the best experience when they come to our airport," Shelbrack said. "And being able to get them quickly and efficiently between terminals at the rental car center station as well as connected to Valley Metro light rail is very important to us," she said.
Shelbrack says the total price tag for the project comes in at $745 million, with the money raised from airline tickets and rental car fees.
"No local tax dollars are used for this project," she said.
The PHX Sky Train is ADA accessible, with most of it LEED Certified and built using eco-friendly materials," Shelbrack said.
