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A good place for a train


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I'm not much for trains but this would be a good place for one:

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031113.walink1113/BNStory/National/

I'm not really familiar with T.O. geography but isn't there someway this could have been done with an extention to a subway line ( I know there is one at Union Station but that means going downtown brfore going back out to the airport ).

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No subway nearby. There is a commuter train line that goes near the airport, and this train will run on that track and a new spur will be cut off the line right into a rail terminal which has been built at the new Terminal 1. At least that's my recollection

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A couple of my thoughts:

$20 is too much for one way. And you know that price will increase every year. You can take the TTC for around $3.00.

It should be somewhere between the price of TTC and an airport bus; something around $10 would be more reasonable. I think of the light rail in Cleveland that will get you downtown for next to nothing.

22 minutes from downtown? That isn't rapid transport. What are they gonna be using, a choo-choo train? Mitch Cronin can do it in half the time!

$200 million??? For What??? Union station would need no modification. The rail line already touches the north-east corner of the airport. $200 million for a short piece of track and a train stop. My RRSP may be chump change but $200 million isn't.

Nahh... I have an even better idea - let's put in a bridge from downtown to Pearson! Straight to that biggest-in-Canada parking lot they just built. I'll run that by Dave Miller.

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Yup, no doubt $10 is better than $20. And $5 is better than $10, but I'm just a cheap pilot! I wonder how our passengers will see this - what is the daily rate to park at YYZ? If you add the $40 to a ticket, how many days does it take to break even?

The other point is that it won't be in service till 2008! Four years from now!! It's not the %$#>ing panama canal, so why will it take four years to build? It still seems like the best solution ( to me ) would be to extend the NW arm of the subway system to connect to YYZ.

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The daily parking rate at the terminal - as opposed to the long term lot - is $21, or is it $23? It will probably be $30 by 2008. But the car people aren't the people who would take this train. A taxi downtown is $35-45 each way. plus tip. Add another $5 for the limousine. The bus may be $3 but no traveller takes the TTC - 90 minutes to get to Lawrence West station. Then there is the bus to the subway (Yorkdale and York Mills). I don't know how much that is, but likely about $12 each way to the subway plus subway fare.

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You don't actually think the two are related to you? (No bridge to the Island but a train from down town to Pearson.)

Business travellers are covered, they can now more easily fly out of Pearson.

I bet there are a few hundred limo drivers wishing that they hadn't voted for Miller. A few Lincoln Town Cars likely on the market in a couple years

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I think the key point is that the service will run on a 15 minute departure cycle. It doesn't matter so much if it takes 22 minutes or 42 minutes as long as there another departure every 15 minutes.

I thought it would be nice to see the subway tied into this but, as you point out, not many people will drag their suitcases to the subway and then spend the extra time it takes, let alone if you factor in a bus ride.

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I think the key point is that the service will run on a 15 minute departure cycle. It doesn't matter so much if it takes 22 minutes or 42 minutes as long as there another departure every 15 minutes.

I thought it would be nice to see the subway tied into this but, as you point out, not many people will drag their suitcases to the subway and then spend the extra time it takes, let alone if you factor in a bus ride.

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Guest Terrier

So is Heathrow with the 15 minute to downtown express and the subway from all terminals. $12 from Heathrow right to the other end of line at the extreme north of the system.

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Guest citiflyer

Critics lash at Pearson rail plan

Moscoe says line won't fund itself Minister defendslink for travellers

KEVIN MCGRAN

TRANSPORTATION REPORTER

It's too expensive, it'll never happen and there are better ways to get to Pearson airport, say the critics who came out in full force yesterday to knock Transport Minister David Collenette's announcement of a rapid-transit link between Union Station and the airport.

But Collenette shrugged off the criticism after announcing that a division of Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin has won the right to build and operate the rail link. He said the idea had the backing of prime minister-in-waiting Paul Martin, that it would not use any public funds and it would prevent 1.5 million car trips annually.

TTC Chair Howard Moscoe wasn't buying . "It will never pay for itself," Moscoe said, referring to the expected $150 million cost to retool GO Transit's Georgetown line.

Collenette defended the plan.

"You tell those 80,000 passengers a day who go into Pearson that this is not important. This is not public transit for Torontonians, necessarily ...but it's about all those people who come from around the country and around the world to Toronto and want to get downtown."

The train will make one stop at GO's Bloor station, near the TTC's Dundas West station. Upgrades there to link all three will cost at least $2 million.

Collenette was flanked yesterday by supporters of the rail link at the announcement at Union Station, including MP Art Eggleton, GO chair Gordon Chong and mayor-elect David Miller.

Marylynne Chambers, president of SNC-Lavalin's engineering and construction division, said the train, dubbed "Blue 22", will run every 15 minutes from 5:30 a.m. until 12:45 a.m.

The "Blue" represents the "calm, relaxed" ride passengers will experience, said Chambers, while the "22" reflects the travel time in minutes. She said the line will target tourists, airport staff and business travellers with its $20 fee.

Some think that's too much.

"I think $20 is ridiculous, an air-limo only costs $36, so you're definitely better off sharing a limo then taking the train," said North York's Benjamin Soong. "A reasonable price would be around $8."

The airport limousine industry doesn't seem concerned about the competition.

"I think it will have a very small impact on our business," said Ann Ruddy, manager of Aaroport Limousine Service.

Construction for the line is a long way off. There's still an environmental assessment to go through, "final" agreements with stakeholders, such as CN Rail, VIA Rail and GO Transit, and the rebuilding of GO's Georgetown line before the airport "spur" line will be done.

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Ya know what I think:

It doesn't really make sense for Collenette to use the argument of 80,000 pax a day at Pearson benefiting from the train, when the only ones really concerned are those who are actually starting or finishing their trip there. I wonder how many of the 80,000 are connecting passengers. I'm willing to bet a huge chunk of them are.

And I would have figured that the "Blue" part of the name comes from the fact that Pearson's ground vehicles are named "Blue" or "Red" etc., depending on their function. Not because of some strange artsy-fartsy relation to the calming effects of the colour. I guess that wouldn't have been a sophisticated enough explanation for the public though.

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