Toronto Union Pearson Express | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx | MMM Group Limited

ehlow said:
For those complaining about how there's no elevated transit in Toronto, there's a long elevated section right there on the newest transit line :)
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Well, I’m a bit reluctant to fully embrace it as "transit" – being that I don’t consider UPX to be proper transit. But it’s pretty cool nonetheless, and a great example of the merits of elevated guideways. Hopefully in half a century we can have a Vancouver-style branch of the Crosstown hitting up YYZ.

[video=youtube;fgH5zIkztX0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgH5zIkztX0[/video]
 
44 North said:
Well, I’m a bit reluctant to fully embrace it as "transit" – being that I don’t consider UPX to be proper transit. But it’s pretty cool nonetheless, and a great example of the merits of elevated guideways. Hopefully in half a century we can have a Vancouver-style branch of the Crosstown hitting up YYZ.
Click to expand...

This is what we need on Eglinton east/west and Sheppard. Elevated transit, priced somewhere between LRT and subway...

Wish someone would cancel the Scarborough subway and used the funds to make the SRT a through line connected with an elevated Eglinton line and use the remaining funds to finish Sheppard elevated.

I was just in Vancouver and they manage to integrate the elevated stations pretty well with the community. Could totally be done on big thoroughfares like Sheppard and Eglinton here.
 
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This is one of the things I hope the city remains inefficient: Keep arguing over the Scarborough subway, until it's cancelled again and a better solution comes up.

Look at how Eglinton LRT + Hurontario LRT + UP Express, combined, costs far less than three Scarborough subway stations. Wake up, Scarborough! And European style LRTs run twice as fast as TTC streetcars. Sometimes three times as fast, especially with full grade separation like the Scarborough LRT was! No bus transfer needed for a lot of Scarborough residents that will no longer have an RT or LRT station within walking distance.

We don't want Vaughan(late/overruns), Sheppard(stubway) or Eglinton(1990s cancellation/tunnel fill-in) happen to Scarborough. Precedent has, so far, been terrible for recent TTC projects. It is so expensive that a future government may cancel the project mid-construction -- just like Eglinton subway construction cancelled in the 1990s and tunnel filled in -- especially if a financial crisis occurs (e.g. US debt default, unexpected Canada housing crash, major war/terrorism incident, etc) and Scarborough starts riding ECLRT (while Scarborough subway started construction) and realizes how great it is and what a stupid mistake they made, and whole GTA votes for a government that cancel & converts remaining Scarborough subway money into 3 brand new LRTs that perform as wonderfully as ECLRT or Ottawa Confederation. In current forecasts, the whole GO RER network and three LRTs will be done before Scarborough finishes. Scarborough will get jealous and have second thoughts, if construction is not too far along yet. Like a billon or two wasted, four billon reallocated to multiple great LRTs, and two billon to reduce property taxes again. Even a few percent of Scarborough residents would even vote for cancellation after seeing All the superior Metrolinx stuff appear so rapidly in the next ten years. That makes the truly maddening gas plant scandal look minor in comparison. How would you like to take that stupendous subway risk, Scarborough?

But if we have no choice. If the subway gets constructed, I hope Andy Byford and Tory makes sure construction starts sooner, that it goes ahead of schedule and under budget. Snoozing will mean losing.
 
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mdrejhon said:
This is one of the things I hope the city remains inefficient: Keep arguing over the Scarborough subway, until it's cancelled again and a better solution comes up.

Look at how Eglinton LRT + Hurontario LRT + UP Express, combined, costs far less than three Scarborough subway stations.
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Huh? Eglinton Crosstown has a budget of $5.3 billion (2010$) , Hurontario LRT was recently promised $1.6 billion by the provincial government and the UP Express has a budget of $456 million (2010$). Total cost of nearly $7 billion dollars.

The TTC estimates that the Scarborough Subway needs $3.56 billion (2010$)
 
wopchop said:
Huh? Eglinton Crosstown has a budget of $5.3 billion (2010$) , Hurontario LRT was recently promised $1.6 billion by the provincial government and the UP Express has a budget of $456 million (2010$). Total cost of nearly $7 billion dollars.
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I stand corrected -- I actually meant Hamilton LRT (~$0.8bn if approved in future) + Hurontario LRT ($1.6bn) + UP ($0.5bn). That's what I meant -- slipped on ECLRT versus Hamilton. But the point stands; it's apparently a poor use of money.

Now I wonder if future Scarborough cost overruns (like York) plus penalities of previous project cancellations, might bring it within the ballpark of being more expensive than ECLRT. The horror!
 
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Should they consider clarifying the sign to say "Train to Pearson Airport", rather than just "Trains to Airport"?

I have encountered some travelers in and around Union Station looking for "the tram to the airport" (meaning the streetcar to Billy Bishop airport) or "the airport shuttle, y'know the one that goes every 15 minutes" (meaning the Porter shuttle bus to Billy Bishop airport). This current sign at the UPX entrance might unintentionally direct such people towards Pearson airport instead of Billy Bishop.

It might seem obvious to locals but it's quite easy for visitors to get confused, especially when you add in possible jet lag, language barriers, and the general disorientation of being in unfamiliar surroundings. Just think of some of the silly questions you might have been asked by lost-looking out-of-towners.

It's a fact that Toronto has two international airports. In other cities like this, each airport is more often referred to by its individual name rather than just "the airport", like JFK/La Guardia in New York or Narita/Haneda in Tokyo. Maybe we should also think about getting into the habit of calling - and signposting - each of our airports by its own name.
 
Agreed. I once heard a passenger on the 6 Bay ask the bus driver how to get to "the airport". The driver assumed the passenger meant Pearson and started describing the Line 2 > 192 route. When the passenger said, "I have to take the subway to get to the downtown airport?" the confusion was resolved and the driver told him to take the 509.
 
Which shuttle, train, bus, taxi, Uber, whatever will take me to Owen Sound Billy Bishop Regional Airport? That's the one with Airport IATA Code of YOS?

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport has IATA Code of YTZ.

Toronto Pearson International Airport has IATA Code of YYZ.

At least, use the IATA Code. See link.

BTW. Toronto Union Station has a IATA Code of YBZ. See link.
 
Cityminded said:
Should they consider clarifying the sign to say "Train to Pearson Airport", rather than just "Trains to Airport"?

I have encountered some travelers in and around Union Station looking for "the tram to the airport" (meaning the streetcar to Billy Bishop airport) or "the airport shuttle, y'know the one that goes every 15 minutes" (meaning the Porter shuttle bus to Billy Bishop airport). This current sign at the UPX entrance might unintentionally direct such people towards Pearson airport instead of Billy Bishop.

It might seem obvious to locals but it's quite easy for visitors to get confused, especially when you add in possible jet lag, language barriers, and the general disorientation of being in unfamiliar surroundings. Just think of some of the silly questions you might have been asked by lost-looking out-of-towners.

It's a fact that Toronto has two international airports. In other cities like this, each airport is more often referred to by its individual name rather than just "the airport", like JFK/La Guardia in New York or Narita/Haneda in Tokyo. Maybe we should also think about getting into the habit of calling - and signposting - each of our airports by its own name.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree with everything you're saying, but there is a giant "Union Pearson Express" sign right there :)
 
Cityminded said:
Should they consider clarifying the sign to say "Train to Pearson Airport", rather than just "Trains to Airport"?

I have encountered some travelers in and around Union Station looking for "the tram to the airport" (meaning the streetcar to Billy Bishop airport) or "the airport shuttle, y'know the one that goes every 15 minutes" (meaning the Porter shuttle bus to Billy Bishop airport). This current sign at the UPX entrance might unintentionally direct such people towards Pearson airport instead of Billy Bishop.

It might seem obvious to locals but it's quite easy for visitors to get confused, especially when you add in possible jet lag, language barriers, and the general disorientation of being in unfamiliar surroundings. Just think of some of the silly questions you might have been asked by lost-looking out-of-towners.

It's a fact that Toronto has two international airports. In other cities like this, each airport is more often referred to by its individual name rather than just "the airport", like JFK/La Guardia in New York or Narita/Haneda in Tokyo. Maybe we should also think about getting into the habit of calling - and signposting - each of our airports by its own name.
Click to expand...

I think, generally, you are not giving travellers enough credit.....if they plan on using transit to return to the airport at the end of their vacation they would generally have figured out how to do it by using google and other internet tools/sites to plan their trip. As for the bold part, would jet lag not be more of an issue when they arrive here as opposed to when they are leaving?
 
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