Detroit Airport, Michigan, Part 2

My original posting about the Detroit International Airport, McNamara Terminal is here, Detroit Airport (McNamara Terminal), Michigan last April 30, 2011.

Below, I expanded the photos, but collapsed them into a few frames. My first time to see this airport was in April 2004, then visited this place several more times as I flew Northwest/Delta Airlines in most of my trips to the US. The last time I stepped there was around May 2010.

I like the elongated structure of the airport. I think it should be at least 600 meters long, so there are many walkalators, and a train for quicker transfer from one end to the other.

Nice fountain at the middle of the terminal. Moving to another wing or terminal, go down and see the multi-color lighted tunnel with nice music.

Detroit Airport (McNamara Terminal), Michigan

I wrote this in March 12, 2009:

It was my 6th time in that airport (3 arrivals, 3 departures). My 1st time was in 2004 and it would also be my 1st time to visit the US. I was fascinated by that huge airport of glass and steel then. It’s one of the main hubs of NWest Airlines.

What I like in this airport is that it is one long terminal (should be about kilometer, +/- a few meters), so it is very easy to find your departure gate. There are plenty of walkalators on the long stretch, and there is a small train on the top that moves people from the north gates to the southern gates, with a stop at the middle. It is clean, spacious, fast, and unmanned.

On the left side of the terminal are mostly (perhaps entirely) domestic flights, and mostly (if not entirely) international flights on the other side. If you’re coming from any domestic flight to Detroit and moving to an international flight, and if you’re lucky, you come out from the left side of the terminal and just move to the right side.

There are plenty of duty free shops and food shops over the whole stretch of the elongated structure. There are also plenty of clean toilets along the whole stretch. There is alao a water fountain in the middle, it's good. And there is an underground pass with lights and music, but I did not bother to check it even once.

But although this airport is beautiful, I don’t wish to see it again in my succeeding trips to the US eastern side, except perhaps when Detroit City is my final destination. Six times is too much actually, when I have not seen other big US international airports. Thus, I need to take other airlines perhaps, Asian airlines in particular.
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Additional pictures and observations today:

An elongated terminal with boarding/arrival gates on each side. It is difficult to get lost in this airport as all one has to do is take the walkalator, or the skytrain, and move from one end of the terminal to the middle or the other end.

The escalator going to the sky or elevated train station. There are 3 stations there: north, middle and south stations. The glass and steel structure makes this structure neat and nice to look around.

Inside the train. It has no pilot or operator inside, it's operated from a control panel somewhere. All it does is move from the north station to the south and back, morning till evening.

This is the train track. The train should be running at around 40-50 kph, so transfer from end to end should take just a few minutes, including a stop at the middle station.