smallspy said:
Shorter trips at a lesser fare will not bring the line closer to paying its own way - especially with the premium being charged to those who travel to Pearson.
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I'd love to see that modeled out. Add the stops at King, St Clair, Eglinton, and maybe Islington, and build the connection at Bloor/Dundas West. Charge TTC fare but double-fare for Pearson (like the buses that cross into other regions) and run trains with the capacity to comfortably carry enough passengers. I wonder how much less the fare revenue would actually be.
 
torontocolin said:
I'd love to see that modeled out. Add the stops at King, St Clair, Eglinton, and maybe Islington, and build the connection at Bloor/Dundas West. Charge TTC fare but double-fare for Pearson (like the buses that cross into other regions) and run trains with the capacity to comfortably carry enough passengers. I wonder how much less the fare revenue would actually be.
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If Pearson became the end of a ST-like UP service, stopping at a subway-like stop spacing, it would enable a Regional GO service that didn't have to stop anywhere between Woodbine and Union, which would.greatly improve timings from the 905 and beyond.

I like that configuration a lot better than an express airport service interleaved with GO trains making all stops (thereby making trip times to Kitchener intolerably slow)

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
If Pearson became the end of a ST-like UP service, stopping at a subway-like stop spacing, it would enable a Regional GO service that didn't have to stop anywhere between Woodbine and Union, which would.greatly improve timings from the 905 and beyond.

I like that configuration a lot better than an express airport service interleaved with GO trains making all stops (thereby making trip times to Kitchener intolerably slow)

- Paul
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The problem is that Pearson have an agreement with MLX to run UPX onto their lands. If the nature of the service was to change to a subway which largely served intermediate points from Union, I would expect some pushback to occur.
 
dowlingm said:
The problem is that Pearson have an agreement with MLX to run UPX onto their lands. If the nature of the service was to change to a subway which largely served intermediate points from Union, I would expect some pushback to occur.
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I suspect that the agreement would be renegotiated, yes. But if the "subway" brought an even greater number of travellers to the airport by transit, thereby reducing auto traffic, would the GTAA resist that?

Oh....yeah..... Toronto...... perhaps they would.

- Paul
 
Reecemartin said:
I think the bigger problem I have with adding stops at every intermediate station (because cmon the UP is a lot nicer than the standard GO trains) is that the trains just do not have the capacity. They are pretty choked right now at rush hour and adding a few more stops and a couple of years of natural growth and we will have a big problem.
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The trains vary from 2 to 3 car trains. Three car trains should be the standard. Should also look into extended the trains to have four car trains, maybe with just the doors next to the platforms, and the ends protruding past the platforms.
 
3 car consists are supposed to be the standard, but my understanding is the cars have reliability issues. The service is also limited at Pearson where the station can only hold one train at a time and has limitations on length even if all the doors weren't being used.

Hopefully the theoretical Pearson transit hub will be built with the capacity to significantly increase service on this line. All the other stations could use other platforms if necessary (though level boarding is ideal for an airport train).
 
torontocolin said:
3 car consists are supposed to be the standard, but my understanding is the cars have reliability issues. The service is also limited at Pearson where the station can only hold one train at a time and has limitations on length even if all the doors weren't being used.
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Is that a recent situation? I'm sure I've taken UP when a train on each of the UP Pearson station platforms has been there. Or do you mean one train per platform?
 
torontocolin said:
If we reach a point where we're servicing the Kitchener line with EMUs on 15 minute intervals to both Pearson and Bramalea, do we really need special branding for one of those services at all?
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They have luggage storage which is imperative for an airport line. Even at Tokyo Narita, multiple heavy rail lines serve the airport, with the Sobu rapid line handling rapid service traffic, the Narita line and keisei lines handling local traffic, The Keisei HND-NRT line handling inter-airport transfers, The Keisei Skyliner handling trips into Center Tokyo, and the Narita Express acting as the Limited Express train from the suburban cities (Yokohama, Chiba, Omiya, etc) to the airport.

Even though Metro Tokyo has 4-6* the population of our metro area, Narita Airport actually sees fewer passengers than YYZ. I can imagine UPX branding being shifted to through express service to the Lakeshore East, Barrie and Stouffville lines in the distant future. It would make taking the train to the airport truly the most convenient way to get there.
 
torontocolin said:
Luggage racks are a feature, not a brand. You can put luggage racks on a GO branded train that services Pearson. The TTC puts luggage racks (and bus wraps) on the 900, but it's otherwise just another express bus route.
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I think the point was that an airport focused service has features like luggage racks and so since you are customizing some part of your fleet you may as well brand it differently. After all you won't see the custom buses you see on the airport rocket route being used on mainline or even express routes.
 
Or, we could just install some racks on more GO coaches. With 2WAD service coming to most, and eventually all lines, and the extensions, it won't be too long you could use it for overnight travel. For that matter, back in College, I did that on many occasions.
 
torontocolin said:
You can wrap the trains and give the line a name like GO Union-Pearson line without maintaining an entirely separate brand, independent from GO transit.
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You're right - you could.

But that's not what they did. Presumably in order to make it easier to spin off and privatize it should that need or want arise.

Dan
 
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