Phoenix Sky Harbor (PHX) and the Sky Train
The PHX Sky Train is free, runs 24 hours a day and links both terminals with the Valley Metro Rail station at 44th Street and Washington, where the ticket machines are. Between 10pm and 5am it slows down considerably.
- The Sky Train is free and runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- It is how you leave the airport by rail. Valley Metro's light rail does not enter the airport; the Sky Train carries you out to it at 44th Street and Washington.
- Buy your light rail ticket at 44th Street. The machines are on Level 2 of that station, not in the terminals.
- Waits are 3.5 to 7 minutes between 5am and 10pm.
- Between 10pm and 5am it is slower. Maintenance runs nightly and waits can be 15 minutes or more, so allow extra time on a red-eye.
- Terminal 4's station is on Level 3, and you can walk straight from the platform to security.
- Terminal 3's station is on Level 5, up two sets of escalators from Ticketing.
- At East Economy, check the destination display before boarding. Trains leave that station in both directions.
How the airport connects
- Phoenix Sky Harbor is unusual in that the city's light rail stops outside it. Valley Metro Rail runs past on Washington Street, and the airport's own automated people mover, the PHX Sky Train, bridges the gap.
- The Sky Train is free, with six stations: 44th Street and Washington, East Economy, Terminal 3, Terminal 4, 24th Street and the Rental Car Center.
- It runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which few airport people movers do.
- 44th Street and Washington is the interchange. That is where you step off the Sky Train and onto Valley Metro Rail for downtown Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa.
Buy your ticket at the right place
- The Valley Metro Rail ticket machines are at the 44th Street and Washington station, on Level 2. There are none in the terminals, so do not go looking for one at baggage claim.
- The same station has boarding pass kiosks for participating airlines, which is worth knowing on the way out.
- It is also a sensible place to be dropped off if someone is driving you and you are flying from Terminal 4, since it avoids the airport roads entirely.
The overnight caveat
- Nightly maintenance runs seven days a week between 10pm and 5am. Service continues but frequency drops, and the airport's own advice is that waits can be 15 minutes or more, with possible delays and train changes.
- During those hours buses replace the train between 44th Street and Terminals 3 and 4, for employees.
- So build in a buffer for an early departure or a late arrival. The three and a half to seven minute wait you get in the daytime is not what you will get at 3am.
Inside the terminals
- Terminal 4 station is on Level 3. Step off and walk to the security checkpoint.
- Terminal 3 station is on Level 5. From Ticketing, take the escalators up to Level 4, enter the station, then up again to Level 5 for the platform.
- East Economy is the one to concentrate at. Trains run in both directions from it, so read the lighted destination display rather than boarding the first train that arrives.
- The Rental Car Center is on the same line, all the way west, and runs around the clock.
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