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DMUs for new Toronto airport link being delivered
Cool. Goes to show you that Japanese DMU tech and design can be exported to North America for heavy-rail passenger operations. It meets both FRA and EPA standards.
What we need to see next is a tilting intercity version, which could give good service on routes like Albany-Boston. DMUs are very fuel efficent, have fast excelerations, and lower weight compared to locomoitive hualed trains.
The Brits have used DMU forever, all we had was RDC and a couple others. Brits seem happy with them. A commuter line in California is gonna use them soon.
How are they going to convert the hydraulic transmission to run off of overhead wires? The Metra crew that tested the first pair said they were very speedy… when the transmission stayed in gear.
I expect this design to be the most successful DMU in North America since the RDC (which is not saying much, seeing how you’re looking at the SPV2000 and the CRC DMU in between). It is entirely possible, also, that we might finally be seeing a real replacement for the RDC, which are still in everyday service in Portland and Canada.
They’re talking in the thirty dollar range (Toronto Star) from Union Station to Pearson. This is about half the cost of a taxi to be sure but is still way too much. You can do it for three dollars now by riding the underground to Kipling Station and then picking up the Rocket express to the airport.
What I would like to see, in addition to the Express, is a solid link to the transit system in Mississauga. If they had that I’d pay five bucks but not thirty.
If you don’t want to ride the rocket, or you are Mississauga up by the airport you can get a taxi for about $25 to Kipling Station, then it’s three bucks to anywhere in Toronto. Thirty bucks for the express is a non-starter.
All well and good, but the proposed fare of $30 is ridiculously high and the range of the service doesn’t extend to include the million or so people who live in city neighbourhoods and the four growing suburbs (over 500,000 people) east of Toronto Union Station. At $30 per person, plus the taxi to the GO station in Whitby and the fare between Whitby and Union, plus the hassle, when my partner and I travel it will still be cost-effective to take a limo to the airport at $90. Stupid.