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

Interesting note on the current ridership. So I guess it'll need more than 14,000 riders a day to break even?

Del Duca said Thursday that it was a day to “celebrate” because a year after the fare dropped from $27.50 to $12 the air-rail link now has 9,000 riders a day. The train, which covers a route between Union Station and Pearson International Airport, launched June 6, 2015, with the target of attracting 5,000 riders a day within a year. The service was promised to break even three to five years after launch and that would require around 7,000 riders a day with the one-way fares set at $27.50.
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http://www.torontosun.com/2017/03/0...t-say-how-much-up-express-will-cost-taxpayers
 
micheal_can said:
When GO becomes all day 15 minute service, will having this service separate still make sense?
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It has to be, since the station at Pearson cannot support 4-car BiLevel EMUs or any other part of the current or planned GO fleet--the elevated guideway also has some limits iirc, but the station is the bigger issue.

I'm hoping once RER rolls out they can cut some UPX stops (not going to happen, but one can dream), raise the fare a bit, and have it revert to being an actual airport express service. Once GO trains run in that corridor every 15 minutes I can't think of much reason for people to be taking the UPX trains for commuting.
 
EastYorkTTCFan said:
yes because Go transit won't be serving the airport. They could probably make it be a direct train to the airport without the two stops in between at the point.
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there will always be a stop at Bloor station and one at the new mount dennis station.....as linking the train to other rapid transit lines makes sense.....as I have written before I always thought Weston would cease to be a stop once mount dennis opened....I am less convinced of that now.
 
EastYorkTTCFan said:
yes because Go transit won't be serving the airport. They could probably make it be a direct train to the airport without the two stops in between at the point.
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Then what about those considerable numbers connecting at Bloor and ostensibly connecting at Mt Dennis when it opens? Will they have to ride down to Union to catch UPX?

UPX can still be run staggered between RER schedules, and share tracks on a headway done in many other cities.
 
UPX should be turned over to the TTC so it becomes another subway line. UPX is a built as a standard Metro............grade separated transit. It simply needs to be electrified, increase service and have TTC fares. Funny how Toronto bitches about it's lack of transit funding and then merrily espouses spending $3.5 billion on a 6km subway that will serve few and yet won't even contemplate spending a couple hundred million to serve dozens hundreds of thousands of customers who have no rapid transit now.

Toronto can bitch at Queen's Park and Ottawa about it's small subway system but the reality is that it's Toronto itself that inhibits expansion. Torontonians may not have the subway system they want but they certainly have the transit system they deserve.
 
ssiguy2 said:
UPX should be turned over to the TTC so it becomes another subway line. UPX is a built as a standard Metro............grade separated transit. It simply needs to be electrified, increase service and have TTC fares
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1) It's not a subway line/"standard metro", and 2) it's already seriously overcrowded thanks to the fare having been cut too far down, and you want it to have a standard TTC fare so that most people have to stand and people have to wait 30, 45, 60 minutes to board a train with room? No thanks.
 
Could be interesting though if the frequencies can be tighter (more train sets, adjusted signalling, etc.) so that the line acts as an ad hoc Westside line- but it would probably be more trouble than it's worth- and that's what GO RER is for anyways.
 
could they not run TTC subways on that track as they have more cars so are longer, will hold more people and can run more frequently like every 5 min?
 
Palma said:
could they not run TTC subways on that track as they have more cars so are longer, will hold more people and can run more frequently like every 5 min?
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1) The station at Pearson cannot support longer trains (can we edit the thread title to include this? :p )
2) There are federal railway safety laws that I'm pretty sure TTC subway trains don't come remotely close to meeting (nor do they need to as they do not run on railways with other heavy rail traffic)
3) Can the third rail power supply be installed on a standard rail line and still be safely traversable by GO/Via/Freight trains?
4) If the fare is restored to a reasonable figure, not the initial $19 but perhaps something like $14 (halfway between the original and current fares) ridership should be reduced such that there are few to no standees, and once RER is rolled out combined with the fare increase there should be no standees and a few available seats for future growth; capacity aside, 15 minutes is plenty frequent for an airport service
5) All this aside, a good first step would be for them to start running 100% of their service with 3-car trains; I rode the UPX from Pearson to Union and back on a weekend recently and it was a 2-car train both ways, completely jam packed with tons of standees, a very unpleasant experience...a third car would have provided seats for most people, luggage storage for all passengers, and hopefully minimal standees
 
APTA-2048 said:
What would be the point? Longer trains and higher frequencies aren't exclusive to the TTC subway.
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But obviously ups is not doing it. If people are saying upx is overcapacity and people need to stand ( as if they do not stand on ttc)
 
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