Except the brands are uniquely tied to the terminal, no one is connecting from delta to southwest via RDU. It would be the rarity and exception to the 99% of folks connecting via the same brand. Delta and AA are all T2 and right now T1 is all southwest with sook to be frontier as well.
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But even if a passenger doesn’t have to go between terminals for a connecting flight, it is nice to be able to do so for shopping, food, and a change of scenery. When I have connecting flights and spare time I will often go to a different terminal, most often because I prefer a food option available somewhere else, but sometimes just to get some exercise instead of sitting in the same place staring at my phone.
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Like most airports that weren’t designed to be mega hubs from the outset, RDU’s layout has some inconvenient things to work around. Could be worse though. Charlotte’s design wasn’t great either imo. And London has several airports all of which have logistical problems expanding.
Modern airports have one building for check-in, baggage return, and security, and then either a tram or skyways of some sort connecting to all terminals from there. Denver is the prototypical example of this. But they rebuilt their airport from scratch in the 90s (I faintly recall flying out of the old Stapleton airport as a kid, and being confused by how much further away from downtown the airport was when I returned as an adult years later).
The parking deck in the middle of RDU is where a central check-in building for all terminals should’ve gone basically, with a potential 3rd terminal expansion to the north branching off of it if growth demanded it. But they’ve sunk enough money into the setup they have right now that that would be very inefficient to rebuild the whole airport around, so we have two security checkpoints. And two terminals you can’t walk between without having to go through security again.
Maybe a subterranean post-security tunnel parallel to the pre-security tunnel could work, but there are obviously some concerns with that.
There’s probably going to be new bridges that’ll have to be built to let passengers transfer between the two terminals, the CONRAC, and possibly on-campus hotels, right? (If not now, then it’s probably only a matter of time before the current walkway through the parking deck gets too congested)
When the day comes when a new walkway is needed, why not just use that opportunity and make a double-deck pathway? The top level can be a post-security space with moving walkways specifically for people transferring between terminals (or even immigration?), while the bottom level can be open to connections to other parking decks, buildings etc.
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One of the problems about a lower level pedestrian subway between T1 and T2 is the inherent difference of their core layout. As @Street_Grid indicated, T1 is single-loaded with only one level of carriageway and a tunnel underneath already in place being level with the lowest floor of the ParkCentral RDU garage. T2 is double-loaded with vertical separation of arrival and departure traffic with the newly announced tunnel from Baggage Claim having to go down even lower to get under the arrivals carriageway then coming up to the lowest floor of the ParkCentral RDU garage.
Not knowing the original plans that the Freelon Group had when they designed the Park Central RDU structure, I’m not aware if there was any shell space left below that would have accomodated an inter-terminal tunnel. To put one in now could be done, but seriously disruptive.
I’ve still not seen what RDU has finally planned for the last vestige of the 1985 American Airlines hub (architect unknown), namely the old Terminal C garage. It had been tagged as being the Ground Transportation Center in the submitted RDU Vision 2040 documents. But now, it’s gotten moved to reside within the core of ParkCentral RDU (putting it closer to T1).
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The architect for the old American terminal was ObrienAtkins.
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Thanks for that. I’m guessing that since the bulk of Terminal C is no longer extant, the necessity of keeping it on one’s project portfolio is no longer necessary.
Random pro-tip if anybody ever knows anybody renting a car in Raleigh. There’s an Enterprise on Slater Road not far from the airport so if you Uber/Lyft there from the airport, you can save on the airport rental fees. (I use that location for car rentals whenever I need a car for work)
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JK’s chairman of the RDU airport authority? He’s everywhere!!
(Article on food vendor changes coming to T2)
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article236361383.html
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Jee, I wonder why so many anti-Kane people on city council were against the airport selling leasing land to a quarry…
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Leasing the land. Not selling.
My bad. 
Fixed.
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John Kane is ruining our city, He is building tall buildings and encouraging growth and making smart business decisions! Rabble rabble rabble.
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My reading of the plan is that the grade-separated pedestrian access from T2 to the walkway in the parking deck would be a bridge, between the two curbside access levels and between the arrival and departure levels. This is the configuration at DCA for example.
@orulz Playing the CONRAC video, I saw that there was vertical separation going in with T2 as I’m hoping the Gensler will do for the T1 redesign. The overhead bridge was for departures/ticketing traffic to keep pedestrians off of the upper carriageway. And, the pedestrian tunnel was for arrivals/baggage claim traffic to go under the lower carriageway.
(I’ll take your word on DCA. It’s been over 20 years since I’ve flown through there, the last time being soon after they opened the ‘new’ terminal. 
)
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And, more news on RDU’s growth issues. More arriving international passengers. Plans being requested for expansion of the International Arrivals area…
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Wow, according to that article, international arrivals are up 90% since 2014, and up 43% since last year!
I love all this growth at RDU and the increased service it brings.
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I wish they could design the CONRAC and parking deck to incorporate all of the landside activities for both terminals (ticketing, baggage claim, customs, etc…) under one centralized structure and just have the walkways extending over the roadways to the respective concourses. Accomplishing this would obviously involve demolishing most, if not all of the landslide area of terminal two which is basically brand new and is therefore a pipe dream.
From the Article:
RDU eventually plans to add more gates to Terminal 2, which could mean more for international flights, but that won’t happen for at least a decade.
Who wants to bet they start on more gates at Terminal 2 with in the next 4-5 years.
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They can’t build new gates until the new runway is completed. That is what will give them the space to add gates.
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