Thanks to Massport, the Boston Logan Airport taxi situation has gone from mildly annoying to hellishly intolerable, but don't blame the taxi drivers.
Massport, in their infinite wisdom, at some point, decided it would be best for the hordes of taxi drivers anxiously awaiting an airport fare to sit in a holding area away from the terminals and wait to be "called" to the terminal when a taxi was needed. So the system, as we understand it is akin to waiting for meat at a local supermarket deli. Taxi drivers enter the holding area, get a number, and wait for the Massport traffic controller with a walkie talkie to call their number and direct then to their terminal.
However, what ends up happening is there are never enough taxis outside the terminal and the clueless Massport controller never knows how many taxis to call in from the holding area. To further complicate the mess, taxi drivers in the holding area regularly bail if their number hasn't been called after a long period of time, thinking there are no passengers needing a taxi at the airport.
You expect this sort of Disneyworld-like line when you land in Vegas, where taxi supply struggles to keep up with demand, but at BOS, at 1:15 AM? When one flight lands and every passenger who needs a taxi ends up waiting twenty five minutes, you know there is a big issue.
The solution to this clusterfuck seems simple enough -- allow a limited number of taxis to wait at the terminal, once Massport guy sees the post flight taxi rush he can make himself useful by calling in the next group of taxis. Kind of like how Southwest use to board their flights. This make way more sense than calling in taxis one by one -- oh and isn't it how almost every other airport in the country works? We certainly never have an issue at JFK or LAX or other busier airports.
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· Please Explain Taxi Lines at BOS [Jaunted]
· Boston Travel Stories [Jaunted]]]>
