2) Upgrade the People Mover to Mark III ICTS, and extend it to the North and South Hubs. It would then have 5 stations total: North Hub, Viscount, Terminal 3, Terminal 1, South Hub. An optional station could be added at International Drive, which has some hotel redevelopment potential.
Let me predict: I think ultimately, they will jiggle plans around and make the
Pearson North Hub is Woodbine Racetrack station.
In theory, if LINK is connected to the UPX spur after UPX electricifation, the line could be merged. Train frequency would be a point of contention, but if that was solved (e.g. interspersing back-and-fourth unmanned people movers, with the manned UPX trains, or simply terminating trains at Woodbine Racetrack) -- then you'd have a train connecting all the stations, to a theoretical future HSR train stopping at Woodbine.
This option would be far less expensive than building a new massive hub AT Pearson, which would likely include substantial tunnelling and a massive new structure.
Agreed. Would be cheaper to turn UPX spur into an upgraded LINK train, by merging a LINK upgrade and a UPX electricifation upgrade, also for congruence to interchanging with future HSR train at the end of the UPX spur (e.g. Woodbine Racetrack) so the proposed high speed train doesn't have to divert into Pearson.
In other words, a massively upgraded people mover going over the UPX spur, and connecting with a nonstop bullet train departing Woodbine Racetrack to Toronto Union. Probably could arrive in about 12-15 minutes. SmartTrack would bring those Bloor/Weston people to the Woodbine Racetrack instead.
Woodbine Racetrack station becomes the massive Pearson Rail Hub -- servicing SmartTrack trains, GO trains, and HSR trains, in a 25-year plan. (Long term enough that UPX would be discontinued by then. People departing Union would take the highspeed train instead, and connect to the upgraded LINK people mover going over former UPX spur to the Person Rail Hub (aka Woodbine Racetrack Station)
Options of travel:
- Highspeed train from London/Kitchener/Pearson/Toronto Union to Pearson Hub (Woodbine Racetrack), then an upgraded faster LINK peoplemover going over UPX spur to all concourses.
- SmartTrack train from Union,Liberty,Bloor,Eglinton,Weston, to the Pearson Hub (Woodbine Racetrack), then onto LINK people mover.
- Any other conventional GO trains (whatever not replaced by SmartTrack and HSR) stopping at Pearson Hub (Woodbine Racetrack).
Making
Woodbine Racetrack station the Pearson Hub, to merge HSR/SmartTrack/UPX/LINK
- Connect LINK routing to UPX spur routing
- Run an upgraded faster LINK train over former UPX spur (2-3min headways).
- Can be made to support SmartTrack, highspeed trains, GOtrains, VIA
- No diversion of HSR route needed
- No tunneling needed
- Reuse of existing UPX spur infrastructure
- Allows full service life of UPX before discontinuing when HSR arrives (~2030s).
- Faster transport of people from Union to Pearson, due to nonstop HSR train skipping Weston/Bloor.
- Services everything in the Northeast rail corridor (especially between London through Toronto)
It is sensible, it allows an eventual exit plan for UPX and reuse of former UPX track for HSR trains instead, it enables HSR, it is cheaper than the alternatives being brought forth. If Metrolinx and GTAA connects well, they can make this their master plan.
Toronto to Pearson in about ~15 minutes (corridor pretty much allows this today, already, with only minor tweaks -- a UPX train recently took only 19 minutes to Pearson by stopwatch, including the time of trip over the UPX spur!). Avoid stopping at Bloor/Weston, and the spur, and HSR trains may be able to go between Union and Perason Hub (Woodbine Racetrack station) in slightly less than 15 minutes. With only simpler corridor optimizations and virtually no Georgetown Corridor speed limit changes -- except for faster USRC speed limit with faster crossovers in the USRC (>15mph) for the high speed train platform at Toronto Union.
You have to transfer to LINK anyway today, so that transfer simply gets shifted from airport over to Woodbine instead, but now the transfer serves HSR/SmartTrack/GOtrain concurrently!! And with 2-3min headways on the upgraded LINK trains going over former UPX spur (instead of 4-8min), you're from Union to Pearson in a blazing time period, whatever train you caught (HSR/SmartTrack/GOtrain) anywhere between London through Toronto. Genius, is it not?
This will make concourse transfer much more convenient as it shifts transfer point from the Pearson UPX station to the Woodbine Racetrack station, so you actually save almost 50% of your Union-to-Pearson travel time over today's UPX, in situations when you have to do a transfer anyway to the LINK train.
So, that's why they will slowly eventually dismiss the folly expensive megaproject silly ideas like a rail tunnel under Pearson station -- that's a waste of money. From a sensible budget perspetcive, I predict that Woodbine Racetrack is the final ultimate location of the proposed
Pearson Rail Hub. Who knows, they may actually name it Pearson Hub instead -- much like Metrolinx renamed GO James North into GO West Harbour. So ignore the little racetrack nearby (it's just a coincidental bonus); but the smart people can see it on the wall -- Woodbine Racetrack is the obvious location of Pearson Hub.
Tourists just hop onto the LINK train at any airport concourse -- transfer to any train (SmartTrack or highspeed train) heading to downtown Toronto at the Pearson Hub. It services
everything that runs in the Northeast rail corridor. Caught a VIA train from London? Getting on the highspeed train from Kitchener? Caught SmartTrack from Markham or Toronto Union? All of yous now got a Pearson Hub stop!
*NOTE: SmartTrack RER is not necessarily included; it might go to Airport Corporate as originally. Or it can do both (7.5min at Weston, split every other train to Eglinton vs Bramalea, to also serve Pearson Hub too).
I hope that
Ontario's high speed EA is considering this potential, as a big cost-saver for the proposed Pearson stop for HSR trains.