[...]
Transport Canada made a request for proposal for an airport rail link in April 2001. In May 2003, the submissions were pared down to four pre-qualified private consortia, who were then invited to submit business cases. An
SNC-Lavalin subsidiary named the Union Pearson AirLink Group was selected as the successful respondent to finance, design, construct, operate and maintain an airport rail link on November 13, 2003.
[16] The service was to be called
Blue22, as a trip would take 22 minutes to or from Pearson with a stop at the Bloor GO/Dundas West TTC Station. Trains were to be refurbished
Budd Rail Diesel Cars, and were expected to begin running between 2008 and 2010.
[15]
By 2008, there had not been significant progress on the project because of failed consensus in negotiations, regulatory hurdles and community opposition. In June 2008, the Ontario government revised the
environmental assessment process from a required three-year period to six months, and later that summer it resumed negotiations with Union Pearson AirLink Group on terms for a public-private partnership. Furthermore, the high-speed link received public statements of strong support from
Premier of Ontario Dalton McGuinty, Toronto Mayor
David Miller and the
federal government.
[17]
In November 2008,
Metrolinx, the Ontario government agency for Greater Toronto and Hamilton transportation, released its Regional Transportation Plan titled
The Big Move, outlining how an airport rail link was part of a strategy to establish multi-directional high-order transit connectivity to the Pearson Airport district, in addition to the
Mississauga Transitway, rapid transit corridors along Highways
427 and
407, and
light rail transit lines along
Eglinton and
Finch Avenues.
[14] In December 2008, Metrolinx became the proponent of new EA that would simultaneously assess a combination of both the UP Express and GO Transit's
Georgetown South expansion.
[18] The final Environmental Project Report was released on July 30, 2009.
[14]
Metrolinx takeover
After two years of failed negotiations and financing difficulties, the public-private partnership between Ontario and the Union Pearson AirLink Group was called off in July 2010, and Metrolinx was handed responsibility to directly own and operate the service.
[19][20] Metrolinx established the new operating division that would become Union Pearson Express.
[21] The name 'Air Rail Link' was used as a placeholder until the official name was unveiled on November 29, 2012.
[4]
Metrolinx largely preserved the same project scope as had been approved in the environmental assessment, with the service designed for air travellers rather than for conventional commuters. Changes from SNC Lavalin's former proposal included refinements to take into account synergies with GO Transit.
[21] In November 2010, the Board of Directors of Metrolinx authorized its staff to enter into negotiations with Sumitomo Corporation of America to supply Diesel Multiple Units (DMUs); the contract was approved by the Board in February 2011 and executed on 31 March 2011.
[22] Kathy Haley was named the first president of the division in July 2011.
[23]
[...]
