ATLANTA, GA — In addition to showing your Real ID when taking a flight at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, as you make your way to the concourses, you may be greeted with an upgraded plane train.
The new people mover trains are said to be a little brighter and quicker as they are engineered with energy-efficient features and lightweight aluminum bodies. The train cars are Innovia APM (Automated People Mover) 300R vehicles from Alstom, which is the same company that built the system in Atlanta in 1980.
“A lot of the technology has been updated, mitigate obsolescence, make the vehicles more reliable and of course, some aesthetic improvement,” said Jason Aguirre with Alstom Transportation.
According to a press release from the Atlanta airport, “The new vehicles are designed to enhance passenger experience and operational capacity. The fleet expansion will increase transport capacity from 10,000 to 12,000 passengers per hour in each direction. Most importantly to passengers, wait times between trains will shorten from 108 seconds to just 90 seconds.”
The first train was delivered Wednesday May 7. More will be added and over time the older models will be phased out. Additionally, there will be more tracks that are also being built to update the service between the concourses.
By the end of March 2026, the fleet is expected to have 73 cars.
The Atlanta airport is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.