The original plan was to build a JNR Shinkansen line from Narita back to Tokyo, but difficulties in getting the right of way pretty much doomed the project. As a result, at the time the airport opened, the only train service was the Keisei Electric Railways’ “Skyliner” service, where you had to take a bus from the Narita terminals to a Keisei station in the town of Narita before boarding the train back to Keisei’s Tokyo-area stations at Nippori and Ueno.

Due to continuing complaints about convenient transport back to Tokyo from Narita, it was decided to open up the unused space under Narita Terminal 1 (and the soon-to-open Terminal 2) intended for the shelved Narita Shinkansen to regular trains. As a result, in 1991 both Keisei and JR East started to run trains directly into the Narita terminals, which tremendously increased patronage of passenger rail as a means to get back to Tokyo.

In 2010, Keisei opened up the Sky Access Line, using some of the right of way intended for the Narita Shinkansen for the line. As a result, the Skyliner trains can now go from Narita Airport to Ueno in just over 35 minutes, by far the fastest way to get back to Tokyo from the airport.

The lessons from Narita have also supposedly influenced the developments of airports outside Japan too. Wikipedia says that Munich’s airport development was done in a far more conciliatory tone after the big hoo-hah over Narita