inchman Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 Inchman: not knowing the present day Toronto or the number of familes with children that live downtown, I am surprised that any service from downtown Toronto to the airport would have any large number of family travelers to draw upon. Has the downtown area changed into a family friendly residential area? I guess not, but the Bloor St UP station is in the middle of one and they offer the same family ratio fare. It is also on the Bloor subway line so that serves a lot of people and families all across the city.In addition, Union Station receives half-hourly GO service right out to Oshawa, which passes through the many family-filled suburbs east of Toronto. Mind you... you can take GO right to T1 from Oshawa for less than 1/2 the price of a UP ticket from Union Station to T1.The UP service will either have to change its fares or suffer being another white elephant. Great concept, poor pricing execution, most likely the result of paying too much to the builder in the first place. Understandable, though, considering the contracts were let under the same Liberal government that signed contracts to build gas power generation facilities with cancellation clauses larger than the cost of building the plant, then actually cancelled them.I'll take that back... not really a great concept. They could have created a truly great concept by building it into an extension of the subway system through Etobicoke and provided both airport travellers and commuters with all day service at a reasonable price... with maybe a bit of a premium at the airport like Vancouver does.You can get from ORD to downtown Chicago for the normal fare of $2.25. Not express, but I've taken it and it works just fine. Probably not great at rush hour.The Hong Kong airport express train is C$16 and is exactly the same travel time, but more frequent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FA@AC Posted June 25, 2015 Share Posted June 25, 2015 I'll take that back... not really a great concept. They could have created a truly great concept by building it into an extension of the subway system through Etobicoke and provided both airport travellers and commuters with all day service at a reasonable price... with maybe a bit of a premium at the airport like Vancouver does.That's pretty much how I see it. I love the new service, but I don't think there's anywhere near large enough a market for an expensive Airport-Union Station link. An extension of existing TTC or GO lines would have been a better idea in my view. To get to many parts of central Toronto using the UPx and then connecting to TTC is no faster than taking the TTC (bus 192 from the airport and then subway) all the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boestar Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 The UP uses the old #3 platform So you still need to walk through Union Station to get to the TTC in otder to connect. Thats 10 minutes right there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagger Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 That's pretty much how I see it. I love the new service, but I don't think there's anywhere near large enough a market for an expensive Airport-Union Station link. An extension of existing TTC or GO lines would have been a better idea in my view. To get to many parts of central Toronto using the UPx and then connecting to TTC is no faster than taking the TTC (bus 192 from the airport and then subway) all the way.Maybe, maybe notFrom the T1 to Yonge and St. Clair, the TTC trip planner offers a minimum trip combination - 192, Bloor line, Yonge line of 58 minutes, and as much as 73 minutes. The train could have a minimum of 22 mins to Union Station, seven minutes to walk to the subway, and then 15 minutes to go from Union to St. Clair, which includes wait time at Union. So 44 minutes vs 58. In off-peak hours when the subway runs less frequently, you have to add five minutes at Bloor for the extra transfer to the Yonge line, so 44 vs 63 mins. The transfer at the Bloor station is typically by stairs. Now your hypothesis would be true for some parts of the east end where you don't need to rise two different subway lines. For places to the North east of downtown, like from Lawrence north into Scarborough or beyond Finch, I'd even argue that the 52A from the airport is even better than the 192. It takes me almost to my door Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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