ATC phraseology "taxi to runway X" is changing

[KG]

I thought some of you might find this useful. I received this from our POI via my employer. It applies to all who operate at controlled fields.

Basically, the way I understand it, the old ATC phraseology of "taxi to a runway", which meant clearance to cross all other runways to get there, is going away. Now you will need a specific clearance to cross each runway on your route, including "active, inactive, or closed" runways.

This is what I received from our FAA guy:
Attached below is Notice JO 7110.528, Taxi and Ground Movement Operations, announcing that effective 30 June 2010 FAA Air Traffic Control is deleting the phraseology and procedure of issuing “taxi to” when authorizing an aircraft to taxi to an assigned takeoff runway, thus allowing an aircraft to cross all runways/taxiways which the taxi route intersects except the assigned runway. This change establishes the requirement that an explicit runway crossing clearance be issued for each runway (active/inactive or
closed) crossing and requires an aircraft/vehicle to have crossed the previous runway before another runway crossing clearance may be issued.

[canav8]

This has been in effect at most major airports for the last 3 weeks or so. Coming to an airport near you. A lot more radio congestion.

[jrenwick]

Earlier this week I attended an informational meeting at Minneapolis Flying Cloud Airport (FCM), during which a couple of the tower controllers discussed implementing this change. They're doing it already, trying to train themselves and work out the kinks before the change becomes mandatory. Think of it as giving or getting progressive taxi instructions for every movement on the field. They're hoping to get a waiver that will allow them to clear aircraft across both parallel runways with one instruction, but right now they can't even do that. FCM has a second tower frequency that they use very infrequently for split operations, and they're going to start using that for clearance delivery. That will help with frequency congestion on the ground freq. There's a group of T6 guys at FCM who like to do flights of four or six aircraft. That's going to get interesting!

Part of the problem with this, which many pilots may not be aware of, is that the ground controller needs authorization from the local controller (tower) before clearing an aircraft to cross an active runway. The request and authorization need to be given over the mics, so that they can be recorded. Ground has to wait until local has a free moment to do this, which will result in some delays that pilots might have trouble understanding. (Of course, this has always been true. The new rule doesn't change it.)

[hilltop170]

At Merrill Field in Anchorage, you now have to go from ground to tower when you cross a runway, then back to ground. This has not been a problem for me but at a congested airport I'm wondering how much safety is going to be improved vs. how much efficiency is going to be reduced.

[jrenwick]

At Merrill Field in Anchorage, you now have to go from ground to tower when you cross a runway, then back to ground....

This sounds like another way to work around the problem the controllers at FCM were describing. Ground isn't asking local for runway crossing clearance on your behalf -- they're making you ask local directly. I can see where that cuts down on the crosstalk in the tower. While the controllers here were describing all this, I was wondering to myself how many additional controllers they were going to have to have on duty to handle the workload. Maybe what they're doing in Anchorage solves that to some extent.

[hilltop170]

............I was wondering to myself how many additional controllers they were going to have to have on duty to handle the workload............

Or maybe with the slowdown in the economy, the controllers are thinking up ways to stay busy and protect their jobs with the reduced traffic levels at most GA airports.