UPX should let us all ride the rails in style
There’s no reason that a cheaper fare for ordinary daily commuters to ride the UPX wouldn’t be a winning idea for everyone.

thestar.com
July 21, 2015
By Edward Keenan

On Tuesday, I commuted to work in style - a style to which I’d very much like to become accustomed. If a group of transit activists get their way, I would.

At the height of rush hour, arriving at Dundas West subway station on the Junction bus, I departed the crowds of workaday suckers scrumming their way down to the subway and walked around the block to the brand spanking new Union-Pearson Express station. I bought a $16.50 ticket to Union.

I was alone with my thoughts on the downtown-bound platform, but the train arrived on schedule a minute later. It gave me lots of space to stretch out - I think I counted nine other passengers already onboard when I got on. As we embarked on the eight-minute journey downtown, I had my choice of diversions should I find myself bored: the sunny passing cityscape out my window, Wi-Fi and electrical outlets should I want to charge and use my laptop, a new short story by Sheila Heti in the complimentary On the Up in-train magazine.

And just like that we arrived, a voice over the intercom saying “Welcome home.” Disembarking, there were UP greeters on the platform to wish us a nice day, and we exited not into the underground warren of tunnels where GO and TTC passengers engage in the daily excitement of the Running of the Commuters, but into the splendour of Union Station’s Great Hall, where a man was playing a grand piano.

A commute that usually takes me just under an hour, door to door, was over in 40 minutes. In addition to cutting my trip time by almost a third, it cut the level of frustration almost entirely (no crowds, no shoving, no standing).

There was a catch. It cost 650 per cent more.

Even with the Presto discount fare, a commuter like me only going one stop would still be spending something like $620 a month (including the fare for the TTC bus to and from the station) - a price in the same ballpark as leasing a Jaguar. You’d have to be really rich or really stupid to justify the cost to yourself.

But there’s a group of activists in Toronto who we should be able to enjoy the convenience and comfort of the UP Express ride for the price of a TTC token. As my colleague Tess Kalinowski reported last week, TTCriders argue that the we spent $456 million of government money to construct the line, and since the trains are only running at about 12 per cent capacity, it should be added to the TTC network so those of us currently jammed into buses and wedging ourselves onto subway cars can use it. “We don’t need a line that is for jetsetters and people who can afford to spend $27.50 to get on (from the airport). We need this line to be useful for everyone in this city,” spokesperson Jessica Bell said.

They have a point.

Why can’t the rest of us have nice things? More to the point, why can’t we have the use of the nice things we collectively paid for?

Forget pampered schmucks near High Park like me, for a minute. Think of those who live in Rexdale near the airport. Or those who live in Weston. Why shouldn’t they be able to cut their transit trip time in half, and travel in style on public transit?

Metrolinx - the provincial agency that built the UP Express - would answer that they conceived the line for use by airport travellers, and priced it to pay for itself based on demand from richy-rich business types. Which may be fine, if there were enough of them to fill the cars, paying enough to subsidize other transit with their fares.

But right now, during the Pan Am Games, during the summer tourist season, the trains are running mostly empty, while the TTC commuter network bursts at the seams. Metrolinx says the 3,250 passengers a day the service is carrying (on 156 trains with a theoretical seated capacity of over 26,000) is right in line with their plans. Which suggests maybe the plans are worth adjusting.

There’s a potentially perfect alignment here of capacity and demand: Metrolinx says the airport travel peak times start at 2 p.m. We know the commuter peak time is from roughly 7 to 9 a.m. Perhaps there’s room for everyone.

And if they throw the doors open to TTC riders and the trains are overfull, then by all means use price to moderate demand for the express service: charge an extra TTC fare, or even charge the GO fare applicable to the same distances (in the case of Bloor to Union, about $5). When Presto cards are fully implemented on the TTC and GO by the end of next year, this kind of price adjustment should be a breeze. But as a post-Pan Am introductory trial, allowing passengers on with a TTC transfer, would generate a lot of goodwill.

This, after all, is essentially the magical idea behind John Tory’s SmartTrack plan: use the existing rail network for fast service to take pressure off the TTC and allow people a better commute. Presto! A potential pilot project is already built and in service!

Imagine it: a fancy new downtown relief line from the northwest - not in 10 or 20 years, but ready to ride today. The government just has to allow us regular folks the luxury of affording to use it.