Toronto Union Pearson Express | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx | MMM Group Limited

So I just noticed my officemate has a coupon sitting on his desk for the UPX, but the provenance is unknown. It's a promotion called
The UP One-UP
basically it's a promotion for buy-one, get-one rides on the UPX. Full fare of $27.50 of course required, so not with Presto. I'll have to figure out where it came from. Interesting to see the change in marketing tack.
 
I just received that promotion in the mail.
You have to purchase a full price $27.50 ticket to get one free--have Presto? You're SOL.
If ridership on this thing was robust we wouldn't be seeing mail offers like this.
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pstogios said:
I just received that promotion in the mail.
You have to purchase a full price $27.50 ticket to get one free--have Presto? You're SOL.
If ridership on this thing was robust we wouldn't be seeing mail offers like this.
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why are you sol if you have Presto? If you are using that coupon with a travel companion don't you just pay with a c.c. for that trip and you both travel for $13.75? So you both get a discounted fare even if your presto card is in your wallet but unused?

Clearly, they are doing what any reasonable business with a new product would do....try to come up with offers to tempt people into the service. The new coffee shop in my building today gave me a free cup of coffee....does that mean his business is in trouble?
 
Presto holders are SOL because the fine print says cannot be combined with other discounts. And the words "Presto" don't appear anywhere on the voucher.

It would be much better to travel for $9.50 each.

I never said UPX was in trouble.

However your coffee shop comparison is not a good one. The coffee shop is in a competitive marketplace--he has no choice but to lower his prices or provide offers like free coffee to stimulate demand.

UPX assumed they were in a much less competitive marketplace. I'm sure the thinking was "we can charge a high price because people have fewer options to travel to the airport". The fact that they are making offers like this means their demand model is way out of whack and obviously they don't have as much monopoly power as they thought. I think this is the first of future price drops.
 
pstogios said:
Presto holders are SOL because the fine print says cannot be combined with other discounts. And the words "Presto" don't appear anywhere on the voucher.

It would be much better to travel for $9.50 each.
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That makes no sense. The offer is basically for two to ride for $13.75 each. Two Presto users would ride for $19 each.

So Presto users can equally take the same offer as non-Presto users, and ride for $13.75 each. Now there's no additional savings for Presto users compared to non-Presto users - but that doesn't mean that they can't benefit.
 
pstogios said:
However your coffee shop comparison is not a good one. The coffee shop is in a competitive marketplace--he has no choice but to lower his prices or provide offers like free coffee to stimulate demand.
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Clearly UP is in a competitive market place....people are still using the airport, and that means they are still getting to the airport and if ridership has not ramped up as quickly as they expected that means the other methods of getting to the airport are grabbing a bigger market share than UP expected.....so they are offering an incentive to people to try it. So they are offering a 50% discount to non-presto users and a 28% discount to Presto holders to try the service out.
 
TOareaFan said:
Clearly, they are doing what any reasonable business with a new product would do....try to come up with offers to tempt people into the service. The new coffee shop in my building today gave me a free cup of coffee....does that mean his business is in trouble?
Click to expand...

A new business is smart to hand out lots of free coupons in its first weeks or months of operation. It did seem that UPX kind of stood firm on its fare structure for the first few months, but maybe their focus was on travellers coming to Toronto from afar so we didn't see this going on. Promotions are a good thing.

Only Starbucks would open a store by charging full price and just assume that people would clamour to get in the door.

- Paul
 
nfitz said:
That makes no sense. The offer is basically for two to ride for $13.75 each. Two Presto users would ride for $19 each.

So Presto users can equally take the same offer as non-Presto users, and ride for $13.75 each. Now there's no additional savings for Presto users compared to non-Presto users - but that doesn't mean that they can't benefit.
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Buy one get one free with Presto means you pay $19 total. Divided by 2 equals $9.50 each.

Sure, $13.75 is a discount from $19 but $9.50 each is better than $13.75 each.

If that was actually available.
 
pstogios said:
Buy one get one free with Presto means you pay $19 total. Divided by 2 equals $9.50 each.

Sure, $13.75 is a discount from $19 but $9.50 each is better than $13.75 each.

If that was actually available.
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Your math checks out...just need to understand how that 28% discount the Presto card holder is getting is defined as "SOL"?
 
LNahid2000 said:
BOGO for everyone now. Still not worth it for me to spend $13 to save 5 minutes.

https://www.upexpress.com/Content/Public/UPExpress_BOGO_00TWATH01.pdf
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I live close to Union and even for me, the time saved is very limited - under ten minutes I would say, compared with taking TTC. I am debating whether I should continue taking it for $16 more. I am sure people living elsewhere have less incentive to.

And I think it is time to stop pretending it is for the business riders. If that's the case, the promotion to all these residents is unnecessary.

Speaking of competition, I kept wondering how come there is no direct bus service from Union to Pearson. They exist in many cities, such as Barcelona or Shanghai, as an alternative option. Since UPX really doesn't save a lot of time (except during peak hours I suppose), the incentive for myself to take it is to avoid the TTC interchanges (twice). If such services exists, I will be more than happy to pay $8 for example to get direct service to the airport and the bus is likely to make money as well. The hotel shuttles don't count because they stop too much and is a huge waste of time unless you happen to be the first hotel they reach in downtown.

$13.75 is a great gesture, why not make it permanent. For a 25 minutes trip it is really not that unreasonable. And the train isn't that "premium" after all. They are just -- trains.
 
Pacific Western cancelled the bus service between Pearson and Union prior to the launch of UP. It also cost marginally less than a full-price UP ticket.

Living by the Rouge Valley, GO+UP works great for me.
 
Printed the coupon. Thx for that -- I'll be able to use it on my January exodus from the island with my daughter. Good that they're ramping up the marketing a little.

APTA -- Do you normally GO to Union for work? Does that mean you already had a Presto card? I ask because people that already Presto would seem to be a natural customer base, and I wonder if there's an easy way to advertise to them (obvious ones would be at Union and on the trains, I assume, as well as the Presto website.)
 
ksun said:
I live close to Union and even for me, the time saved is very limited - under ten minutes I would say, compared with taking TTC. I am debating whether I should continue taking it for $16 more. I am sure people living elsewhere have less incentive to.

And I think it is time to stop pretending it is for the business riders. If that's the case, the promotion to all these residents is unnecessary.

Speaking of competition, I kept wondering how come there is no direct bus service from Union to Pearson. They exist in many cities, such as Barcelona or Shanghai, as an alternative option. Since UPX really doesn't save a lot of time (except during peak hours I suppose), the incentive for myself to take it is to avoid the TTC interchanges (twice). If such services exists, I will be more than happy to pay $8 for example to get direct service to the airport and the bus is likely to make money as well. The hotel shuttles don't count because they stop too much and is a huge waste of time unless you happen to be the first hotel they reach in downtown.

$13.75 is a great gesture, why not make it permanent. For a 25 minutes trip it is really not that unreasonable. And the train isn't that "premium" after all. They are just -- trains.
Click to expand...


No idea how UP Express only takes marginally less time than taking the TTC from Union considering the estimated time to take the TTC to the airport from Yonge-Bloor is 45 minutes which is already 10 minutes more than UP not to mention the extra 10 it requires to get to the Bloor line and transfer time. I'm skeptical.
 
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