Agency also considered raising ticket prices, skipping stops between Union and YYZ to add capacity: draft report
A few sections pulled:
An increase in ridership is prompting Metrolinx to consider luggage rack removals and seating "reconfiguration" to increase standing room, according to a February draft of Metrolinx’s GO Rail Fleet Strategy obtained by
The Trillium.
Plans for the UP Express “remain fluid” but are based on the agency’s understanding that “there is a near term need to increase passenger capacity” in the existing diesel trains, before the agency replaces them with an electrified fleet — which will happen “in the late 2030s at the earliest,” the draft report reads.
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The plan to fit more people on the UP "starts immediately” with a transition to only three-car trains, the document reads. The trains can run in two- and three-car configurations.
Once the agency can “reliably deliver” five sets of three-car trains, the “modification programs” can start, the draft strategy reads.
“These modifications involve removal of luggage racks and some seating reconfiguration to increase standing space and alleviate crowding, adding 15–18% capacity” to each three-car train, the document states.
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Other options to reduce crowding were considered, including raising ticket prices, making the UP Express a “dedicated airport service (not calling on intermediary stations)” and running additional GO trains on the Kitchener line, which runs parallel to the UP Express until Weston Station, the document reads.
More in the article.
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