Yet in the rest of the world many people use the train to get to the airport. When I fly into Moscow DME, why would I want to sit in a traffic jam for 90 minutes when I could get the train in under half that time. Taxi from Amsterdam Schipol? That would be crazy. From Tokyo Narita? You're having a laugh. London Heathrow? Get the express to Paddington and a taxi from there. Or just take the tube the whole way.
When I told a cab driver in Tokyo I wanted to go to Narita he was extremely confused and had the hotel bell hop explain to me that, basically, I was nuts and should take the train.
You're lucky he didn't stick you on one of those awful hotel-affiliated coach buses to Narita, the drivers of which are forbidden from applying steady pressure to the accelerator.
Nothing wrong with taking the bus in certain cases. I used one last time from the Ginza area. It was either being compacted in peak hours Tokyo Metro, or walking to a nearby hotel and waiting for a bus in the lobby. The choice was clear and I don't regret it.
> JFK requires an airport train to take you to the train station
It's the same train that takes you from one terminal to the next. The alternative would be to force the LIRR or the A train to stop at literally every terminal on its way to Jamaica/Far Rockaway. That would be way worse.
It's not like transferring between them is any more inconvenient than having to transfer between two subway lines, so it seems like a distinction that not particularly meaningful.
