Metrolinx noncommittal on train fares for airport workers
Airport workers came away disappointed Thursday from a much anticipated meeting with Metrolinx officials about the fares for the Union Pearson (UP) Express trains.
The private meeting came probably too late to change the recommendations Metrolinx will make to its board next week, said Alison MacDonald, a flight attendant. She expects the new train will be too expensive for her commute to Pearson from her home near King and Niagara Sts.
“The proposed $20 to $30 (fare) is phenomenal. You can get door-to-door service with a cab for just a fraction more,” she said.
She would like the UP Express to operate like public transit, with more stops and a price similar to a $3 TTC fare.
It takes her up to one hour and 45 minutes to get to the airport on the TTC, said MacDonald.
Metrolinx and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority have been negotiating an agreement by which airport workers would get a discount on the airport train when it opens in the spring. The GTAA would, in exchange, drop a $1.85 surcharge on the tickets that was supposed to compensate the airport for lost parking revenue.
But at an expected one-way fare of about $29, even those reductions would render the train too expensive for many workers.
That's still about half the cost of a taxi, according to Metrolinx.
A statement from its spokesperson called Thursday's meeting “very productive.”
“We were able to directly hear their concerns and insights into the project,” it said.
The agency, which says it will announce the fares next week, says the service is being priced to make it self-financing in the future.
Among about 40,000 airport workers, only about 3,500 live within the UP Express catchment areas and only 1,400 are interested in using the service, according to Metrolinx.
The provincial transportation agency did not commit to public consultations or price compromises on Thursday, said Jessica Bell, a spokesperson for TTCRiders, a transit group working with the airport workers’ unions.
“Our take-home response is that the province and Metrolinx are not ready to make this a public transit line. Twenty-three kilometres of new track could be a downtown relief line for the west. It doesn’t make sense,” said Bell.
Government officials have said that the UP Express offers a faster, higher level of service than airport transport in other cities and it is being priced for travellers rather than commuters.
