You guys are proceeding from a false assumption................that airport travellers are rich and only business class.
What about the thousands who actually WORK at the airport and paid taxes to build it. Don't they count? Many people who work at airports are also low income............security guards, restaurant workers, sales people, flight attendants, ticket sellers, etc..........their taxes were good enough to pay for the line but apparently their social and economic status doesn't qualify for them to take it.
As for travellers, yes if you are flying you are not dirt poor but that doesn't make you wealthy either. Canada is a big country and train travel is limited to the Corridor. Even cheap vacations, visiting family, friends or emergencies outside the Corridor requires air travel in a country as large as ours.
Not all tourists coming to the city are wealthy either. Most tourists travel in at least pairs {hence nearly all hotel rooms are charged on double occupancy} and for 2 people the UPX is hardly worth it and certainly not if your hotel isn't right at Union Station. As for 3 or more travellers, the UPX is a huge expense.
As for business travellers, most are not in the 1%. All you have to do is look around in any airplane and see the very few seats for the business class while the 95% of the rest of the plane, the passengers are squeezed in like sardines and consider themselves fortunate if they are offered a refill on their coffee. Someone is going to tell me that those 95% are all tourist and not a good chunk are business people who, wait for it, have to travel on a budget?
This line is only expected to carry 5000 passengers a day.................that is pathetic beyond belief, even by American standards.
It's amazing how a $500 million line running to the airport is going to cost $25 but Vancouver built a $2.4 billion line serving the airport that runs every 6-7 minutes all day and night and will get you to the airport in the same amount of time is only $5 from anywhere. A flat $5 whether you are coming in from Maple Ridge, Langley, White Rock, or Lion's Bay.