Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
Conflict Ground Conflict; Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Procedure; Human Factors; Airport
While taxing out on the Blue line to Spot 66; we had switched from ramp to ground and were instructed by ground to taxi to Runway 16C via Taxiway Bravo. An Airbus was on the orange line behind us talking to ramp we think with instructions to join Taxiway Whiskey and park at [gate]. The Airbus was taxiing very fast and came up behind us off our right in the neutral zone past Spot 66 to join Taxiway Whiskey. I also had clearance in to the neutral zone beyond Spot 66. If it wasn't for my First Officer seeing the Airbus at the last second we would have slid right to join the taxi line beyond Spot 66 to continue to Taxiway Bravo and collided with the Airbus going to occupy the same space.The Blue and Orange lines need to continue to join taxi line Bravo or Whiskey. This will give pilots guidance on the ground on where to taxi so that they don't cut the corner and have a conflict with one another.Also there is a dead zone between Ramp and Ground control at the same spot so that both parties control the space but cannot provide conflict resolution when multiple aircraft are on different agencies frequencies.
B737 Captain reported ambiguous ramp and taxiway markings and the use of different frequencies in a hot spot area resulted in a critical ground conflict.