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New passenger link between Toronto, airport
Wow, $23 for a transit ride!
$23 Canadian is a good deal compared to a taxi ride between downtown Toronto and Pearson. More intermodal connectivity in North America. Keep it coming!
$23 is very steep. A one-way rail ticket from Toronto to Hamilton on GO is $11.50–for a trip that is nearly 3 times longer. This does not compute. Unless you’re traveling solo to the airport, you might as well keep taking a cab.
According to the Union-Pearson express website, the adult cash fare will actually be Can$ 27.50 or Can$ 19.00 if paying with a PRESTO transit card. There will also be a deep (more than 50%) discount for airport employees who use the train to commute. http://www.upexpress.com/en/docs/UP_FareFacts_EN_2015.pdf
Also, at that price you are paying for convenience. Current transit options for getting from downtown to YYZ take at least twice as long as the new rail service will. The new train will as fast as driving when traffic is light and much faster than driving at peak times when the freeways are jammed up.
A dollar a minute is way too expensive . It’s a nice way to go to the airport specially in the rush hour but not at this price .
I’ll be surprised if this is successful. It is simply too expensive. It would have been much smarter to extend the TTC subway to the airport so that people could make the trip for $3.00. Maybe business people flying into Toronto for a business meeting will use the new service, but for people who live in the greater Toronto area it is useless.
For comparison, a taxi from the Union Station area to YYZ costs about CAN$ 60.
Also, FWIW, the fare differential between the Union-Pearson Express and regular GO service is similar to that at many US airports that have added rail connections. BART to SFO has a significant surcharge. Using the AirTrain connections to Newark or JFK in New York adds $5 on top of your subway or rail fare. Chicago charges twice as much to board the El at O’Hare as from any other station. And these charges are not for any premium express service but just for being able to take a train directly to the airport terminal. AFAIK, only Boston goes the other way, with Fare Free boarding of the Silver Line BRT at the airport.
In Dallas, TX the DART “Orange Line” service to DFW is included in the standard single-zone fare. However, using that service from Dallas’ Union Station Includes a change of train at the next station to the north. To make that trip, anyone needing to get to the airport in less than an hour should make other plans. Other than during highway rush hours, the ride by taxi is about 25". Unlike the other services mentioned, there is no “premium” for the last mile or two into the airport. However, the basic service is so slow most people would not consider it a viable alternative to driving, unless they are DART pass-holders and/or airport employees.
DART seems to have a particular allergy to scheduling “limited” or “skip-stop” service along any of their rail lines, taking the position that every train must make a full stop at every station for “safety” reason if no other reason is advanced. It’s unfortunate they have chosen not to learn by example from the SEPTA Route 100 operation where both “express” and “limited” trains operate passing various “local” platforms at full track speed of 79 mph. Before FRA limits, the speed of those used to be well above 80 mph. Some of their earlier (the well-known Budd “Bullet” cars) could break or come close to a 100 mph. bogey.
DART advances an unproven theory that its passengers cannot learn new ways. To the best of my knowledge, DART has never attempted any service plan other than the most “dumbed-down” mode they use today. It shows either a lack of imagination, of the effect of tort lawyers who might be willing to pounce. One DART grade crossing which did sustain a "fatal’ several years ago has received neither wayside horns nor quad gating. The crossing is posted as “H” but fewer than half of the train opeartors bother to use the “loud horn” at all, let alone the full FRA ____, ____. __, ____(sustained) hor