Platform 27
Active Member
"Reasonable" is, of course, very subjective and usually depends on your income level. That said transit is suppose to be a social service not a income generating source. Essentially, transit is a social service for those who cannot afford private transportation.
It's an express train to the flipping airport, not the Jane bus. How many poor single moms from Rexdale apartment towers -- forced every month to choose between buying groceries and making rent -- do you reckon spent their Monday mornings in the check-in line at Pearson waiting to catch the first flight out to Paris?
They could charge one shiny nickel to ride the train, but so long as its clientele matched the average person flying out of Pearson, each trainload of passengers would still be well above the median income. In effect, you're asking for all taxpayers, including those making far less than median income, to pay a subsidy to keep their costs low.
Any air traveller on a train like this pretty clearly already could "afford" private transportation in the form of a several hundred dollar plane ticket. What we're debating isn't "affordability", it's "value". Different customers might wish to balance time, money and convenience differently when it comes to picking a method of getting to and from the airport.
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