Platform 27
Active Member
^What you just described is the very definition of "not competing": One service for one market segment, another service for a second.
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^What you just described is the very definition of "not competing": One service for one market segment, another service for a second.
Of course they will be competing. The UPX has always been a "premium" service. Not for us regular folk.
The UPX would be great for a businessperson, who'd have no problem paying $33 for a ~43 minute tip from his Bloor-Yonge hotel to Pearson.
But for a "regular" family (aka, a family that doesn't want to pay $120 for a trip to the airport), they'd likely rather pay $12 for a ~51 min trip via the TTC
The UPX issue has almost turned into an "us vs. them" issue, whereby all of us "normal folk" hate on the big bad rich business guys that'll be able to afford the UPX fares lol. Just a comedic observation. (Note: I understand the greater issue at hand )
I think the UPX's primary target is the business traveller....what is news to me from your post is that they are staying at Bloor-Yonge? I always thought that the typical business traveller/visitor to Toronto is staying at the hotels down nearer the financial core...ie the ones that are an easy walk from Union. If that is the case, both the cost (which we don't know yet but expect to be in the low/mid $20 range) and the time (which we expect to be in the 25 minute range) are quite different from your post.
Obviously the UPX fares need to be lowered. Unfortunately, if you lowered the fares to a reasonable level ($2.65) then you would find that the trains are full of airport workers and Weston residents, and you would need longer trains. Not designing the UPX to be compatible with existing 12-car GO rolling stock was a poor decision.
The UPX issue has almost turned into an "us vs. them" issue, whereby all of us "normal folk" hate on the big bad rich business guys that'll be able to afford the UPX fares lol. Just a comedic observation. (Note: I understand the greater issue at hand )
... despite nobody knowing the fare yet. It could be anywhere from $10-$30, nobody really knows. People should complain once they release the fare price.
The service was never designed to be a regular GO service, it was designed to be a premium service airport shuttle, which is very common worldwide. it is for airport passengers, who are generally willing to spend $15 to get to the airport, considering they are about to hop on a $200-$2000 flight to somewhere on the planet. people need to realize that it isn't designed to be a regular old GO train service, it is something else that absolutely has a market for it. its silly to expect the service that will be provided to ever drop below $10.
The LRT to the airport isn't the same sort of service, the UPX will get you downtown in half the time as the LRT, and you won't have to spend an hour sitting on cramped TTC trains, but rather you get a nice comfortable leather seat with free wifi for 25 minutes. very few people who will pay the $10-$30 for the UPX will switch to the LRT once (if) it opens.
a train with 15 minute service can''t act as a DRL.. or really anything that operates on mixed rail like the UPX does.
^ 5 minute frequencies aren't even possible as the UPX has to cross over tracks at union to get to its stop, and having it cross over every 2.5 minutes would screw over the Barrie, Milton, and Kitchener GO services.