Union Pearson Express is a division of Metrolinx an Ontario provincial entity that also operates GO Transit trains and buses. UP Express operates a passenger train service between Toronto Union Station and Toronto Pearson International Airport a.k.a. Toronto Pearson Airport or YYZ in air language!
First talked about decades ago studies were done in 1989, 1990 and 1991 to no avail. Another decade went by and in April 2001 Transport Canada responsible for airports proposed such a service. SNC-Lavalin subsidiary Union Pearson AirLink Group was finally selected. They put forth Blue22 based upon a 22 minute travel time with one stop en route at Bloor GO station to connect with a TTC Subway line. This name soon died when YIMBY’s (Yes In My Back Yard) intervened demanding a station in Weston! They got it! It was to operate using refurbished RDC’s “Budd Cars”. It didn’t get off the ground and in June 2008 a PPP (Private_Public_Partnerhip) was put forward. It too failed to result in anything happening.
Metrolinx took over the project in July 2010 creating Union Pearson Express a.k.a. UP Express as a division of GO Transit. The project required a major expansion and upgrade of the GO (ex CN) Georgetown line for 14 miles between Bathurst Street and Malton adding two more tracks to the already two-track mainline. It also required adding bridges and new signals matching those on the Lakeshore Line that permitted high frequency operation. Some three dozen signal indications (adding all those flashing lights) ra
When returing to Toronto at Pearson, I used to take a town car home for $50.00. Now, I take the UPX to Dundas West for $2.50 and then the King streetcar to home on Roncesvalles avenue. A lot less money and a whole lot less time. It’s a nice service and ridership is high since the fares were lowered.
The line going into the terminal at Pearson has the concrete bases for catenary but the latest thing is discussing running conventional GO trains on that line which means a total reconfiguring of the tracks at Pearson. If regular GO trains are used they will arrive and depart from the straight-through tracks at Union Station.
The trains are very quiet and there are noise barriers along the line on Dundas Street West, north of Bloor street but these, naturally are covered in graffiti.
You can use the Presto card to pay but it is half the price if you pay with a debit card. There used to be an “in-flight” magazine in the seat pocket in front of you but that’s gone. One thing that is under discussion is to have a direct entrance to the subway as the Dundas West stations platforms east end are directly under the UPX/GO station which I think would increase ridership but I have no idea when or if that will happen.
Thanks for that 54light15. I haven’t been back to the Roncesvalles 'hood or the bottom of Queen or the Parkdale area since the early '80’s so I would imagine the changes are quite significant.
There was a radio personality, a stock analyst ( no longer on the air) who just hammered the UPE every day… I listened to the show twice a day via live streaming. Thinking he did significant damage to the ridership but perhaps was instrumental in the decision to lower the fares substantially. Quite amusing to listen to.
Is there still a large Polish presence in Roncesvalles or has that disappeared now and been replaced by newer immigrants?
Okay, Miningman, after reading your fine report on The Other UP and having a couple of Molsons, I came up with this little ditty to the tune of Great Big Rollin’ Railroad.
(I have some extra letters in there at some spots so you know how to make the syllables work with the tune.)
Union Pearson
There’s a nifty little railroad, that everybody knows
It runs betw-e-en the airport, and downtown To-ron-to
As you pass highway congestion, you’ll be zippin’ 'long just fine
It’s the U-u-union Pearson, and you’re gonna be on time!
Ça va faire une maudite… well, you know. (Isn’t that what they said when starting work on the Union-Pearson?)
This has me thinking … you know, Tim Horton’s technically owns Burger King, right? And BK has access to beaucoodles of fries, right? A little brown gravy would go nice with some of them … a word from corporate, perhaps?
Perhaps in the future it will be a reality… poof, poutine!
I’m sure there was a few “tabernac and a half” thrown around although in Toronto I suspect the construction workers and foreman were Italians… they get it done and done right!
By the way, I hope the other UP down in Omaha doesn’t give the Union Pearson any grief over unauthorized trademark use. There was a helluva flap over that when the Union Pacific put the squeeze on railroad model companys over that. It was eventually resolved, but it was ugly while it lasted.
I haven’t seen it in any domestic BK yet, and that includes Erie, PA which is relatively close to the border. I’m planning on going up to check the Falls, and I now have an additional ‘reason’…
ALL of them have Poutine-- Wendy’s, McDonalds, Burger King, Tim Hortons, A&W, Dairy Queen … even KFC but it’s Poutine Popcorn Chicken whatever the blazes that is :
Here is a Wendy’s review-- " Building on its iconic fries, cut from whole potatoes, cooked skin-on, served hot and crispy with a sprinkle of sea salt, Wendy’s poutine adds fresh Canadian cheese curds (a poutine must!) and is covered in the brand’s rich poutine sauce.Apr 25, 2012
Now I know there’s something wrong. First 4935 in Tuscan and now this.
I distinctly remember seeing Kinder Surprise for sale numerous times, in places like Walmart even. Perhaps there is some version made specially for the United States, but this is the first time I’ve read about a ban on the things; I haven’t looked carefully at the history but it’s certainly interesting reading.
Kinder Surprise is kind of like the FAO Schwartz of candy, the same way that those Rocher truffle things in the foil are waaaaaay too expensive for what you get until you get them on Manager’s Special. Perhaps the idea was to make them so expensive that only rich, caring parents who carefully supervise the ‘experience’ could get them.
One thing this suggested to me is that it helps explain something that even today I remember as defining one of the ends to my childhood: the ruining of the toys in Cracker Jack. There used to be cool stuff in those little boxes, the high point being a green locomotive that you had to snap together – there were other train cars that went with it; I had the caboose and I think a tank car – which was actually well-proportioned. And then, one day, what we got was some little paper thing. Thereafter that was the only thing. Not worth picking the unpopped kernel pieces out of your teeth for those.
Only now, in the hindsight of enlightenment, do I see that this could be a response to the kind of law supposedly used to justify confiscating those eggs: far less likelihood of inhaling Oh My Goodness SNAKE micro-stationery ‘by accident’ than some plastic tchotchke, and perhaps less likelihood it would pass down a tiny windpipe even then.
Flintlock76, if GO Transit was ever of a mind to use something like this for a radio commercial or such, of course they would have to approach Union Pacific about rights to use the tune.
However, I think a jingle radio campaign and a serving of poutine for each rider would fill up the trains!
Hmmm, poutine. I have to confess I needed to look that one up.
Looks pretty good! I’d try it. (Hey, I tried and loved codfish tongues when I was in Newfoundland!) Although I doubt Burger King’s likely to poutine here in the US anytime soon. Maybe up close to the US/Canadian border if market research shows it might be a good seller.
The thing is, any good American diner worthy of the name will put brown gravy (usually turkey) on your fries if you ask for it. The cheese curds? Not likely.
Still waiting for a Timmy’s here in the Richmond area. I suppose I’m in for a long wait. Probably a longer wait than Abe Lincoln had waiting for the Union Army to take the place.
Crackerjack prizes? They stopped being worth a damn decades ago.
We need a better marketing name. I actually found ‘cheese curds’ as a product for sale in my local supermarket in Erie yesterday, so they’re an ‘item of commerce’ in this part of the United States, and presumably available to restaurants to serve… it’s just that nobody wants something with a name and appearance so close to ‘turds’.
Back in the '80s I was involved in a startup aquaculture operation that raised mussels (Mytilus edulis). Lots and lots of mussels, and many of them had their shells broken in processing, so it was actually cheaper to process them for meat than to dispose of them safely. When I got there, they were making extremely tasty breaded ‘nuggets’ largely out of this better-than-free meat … but calling them by the extremely unattractive name “mussel nuggets”. Would you buy such a thing to try in a Burger King? This was particularly unfortunate because once you’d actually put one of the things in your mouth you’d be a repeat customer immediately.
The ‘curds’ are very similar to the product known as string cheese, which is itself not a very attractive sounding thing if you haven’t tasted it. We need something better to tout as an essential ingredient.
Poutine? No thanks, never had it. Looks like a plate of barf to me. As I understand it, it was what you ate in Quebec after playing hockey in -40 degree weather. I’ll pass. It’s really not as common as you jokers seem to make it out to be, but having said (written?) that, there are restaurants that only sell poutine. Look up Smoke’s Poutine, there’s a bunch of them around.
Roncesvalles avenue is still Polish somewhat but nowhere to the extent it was 25 years ago- there are only two Polish restaurants left and two Polish delis. The Polish places have mostly been replaced by stores that sell high-end baby carriages, Beautiful Things For The Home and places where women go to get manicured and waxed- there are only 6 of those places on the street. Oh, and there are 4 Thai restaurants. And 5 coffee shops, only one of which is Tim Horton’s selling their watery swill.
Every September there is a Polish festival that takes up the entire street, North America’s biggest celebration of Polish culture. People come in from the suburbs and do whatever it is you do at a street festival. I have buskers right outside my door playing the pan flute and I only hear them play that Simon and Garfunkel song that goes “I’d rather be a hammer than a nail” abut 20 times a day. It’s a good time to get the hell out of town!
Kinder Surprises are illegal in the States? Odd, they’re sold everywhere around here- every corner store has them and yeah, I sure remember when Cracker Jack had decent prizes- I stopped buying it when there was only TWO peanuts in the whole box!
Mussel nuggets? Man, I’d try those in a heartbeat, especially if they had a marinara “dippin’ sauce” to go with 'em!
I can get mussels with marinara at my local Italian restaurant (The owner’s from Brooklyn) but unfortunately not in the big pot quantity I used to get in New Jersey. Hey, at least they’re available!
Mussels are great! Shows you the benefits of going fishing at low tide! [:-^]
