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

I've ridden transit all over the world, I use GO all the time and ride TTC/MiWay/Zoom and it still happened to me the first time i rode UP Express. They installed two readers on the same platform that looked identical to each other. They are the same size and shape, same tap face and they were pretty much painted to same colour (one was light purple/greyish vs light green'ish). I tapped the GO reader at Bloor station and tapped UPX at Pearson and was charged max fare. It took several calls to sort it out because if you phone UP Express lines, they can't actually do the refund, it's done through GO Transit, so you get transferred over and have to start the process again.

Doesn't help people who are colour blind.

Same problem with the gray garbage bins and navy blue recycling bins. Especially at night. People are always putting out the wrong colour bins on the night before collection day.
 
I've ridden transit all over the world, I use GO all the time and ride TTC/MiWay/Zoom and it still happened to me the first time i rode UP Express. They installed two readers on the same platform that looked identical to each other. They are the same size and shape, same tap face and they were pretty much painted to same colour (one was light purple/greyish vs light green'ish). I tapped the GO reader at Bloor station and tapped UPX at Pearson and was charged max fare. It took several calls to sort it out because if you phone UP Express lines, they can't actually do the refund, it's done through GO Transit, so you get transferred over and have to start the process again.
For sure. It's easy to make that mistake, especially if you're in a hurry.
 
^ I think they mean the King/Liberty GO Expansion/Smart Track station. From an article by Steve Munro in 2018. I think these stations now have to be built by the private sector per Metrolinx? Or is the City funding them?

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Smart Track is in limbo because the province wants private sector involvement but the City is the one funding them. Nothing has really been made public about them for a while, nobody really seems to know whats going on.
 
^ I think they mean the King/Liberty GO Expansion/Smart Track station. From an article by Steve Munro in 2018. I think these stations now have to be built by the private sector per Metrolinx? Or is the City funding them?

View attachment 233290

In August, the Feds contributed $585 million for the “SmartTrack” stations. I believe it’s acting as a backstop if TOD deals don’t materialize. In my humble opinion, if the cash is there, they should get built ASAP, with or without TOD.
 
Smart Track is in limbo because the province wants private sector involvement but the City is the one funding them. Nothing has really been made public about them for a while, nobody really seems to know whats going on.

The city and the federal government


Roughly $585,200,000 will be spent constructing six new SmartTrack Stations stations along the Stouffville, Lakeshore East, and Kitchener GO rail corridors.
 
I knew a GO / Smart Track station was being proposed here, but I haven't heard that it would also be a UPX station. I know many communities in the west end pushed for additional UPX stations when the line was first being proposed and Metrolinx pushed back arguing that would slow down the trains, which was intended to be a fast way to get to Pearson. If they're now looking at new UPX stations that would be quite the change of position.
 
I knew a GO / Smart Track station was being proposed here, but I haven't heard that it would also be a UPX station. I know many communities in the west end pushed for additional UPX stations when the line was first being proposed and Metrolinx pushed back arguing that would slow down the trains, which was intended to be a fast way to get to Pearson. If they're now looking at new UPX stations that would be quite the change of position.

Communities are pushing for the UPX because they don't understand GO-RER/GO Expansion. They see the UPX and this is all they understand. They don't want to get to the airport. They want the 15 minutes all day service that Weston GO is currently using as a transit line downtown.

Its the responsibility of Metrolinx to properly inform these communities about GO Expansion as to not let ill-informed ruin what is supposed to be an express service, only to have the service eventually mirrored by GO, or worse, cancel GO Expansion due to the redundancy.
 
Communities are pushing for the UPX because they don't understand GO-RER/GO Expansion. They see the UPX and this is all they understand. They don't want to get to the airport. They want the 15 minutes all day service that Weston GO is currently using as a transit line downtown.

Its the responsibility of Metrolinx to properly inform these communities about GO Expansion as to not let ill-informed ruin what is supposed to be an express service, only to have the service eventually mirrored by GO, or worse, cancel GO Expansion due to the redundancy.

In the end, it may not matter as there will be high enough service on the line that they see that they have GO as often or more often.
 
In the end, it may not matter as there will be high enough service on the line that they see that they have GO as often or more often.

Not before wasting a ton of money building UPX stations and crippling the express aspect of the UPX service. I think in the end that really matters.
 

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