They'll be able to quickly get to the airport, the Bloor-Danforth subway, or downtown to Union Station.
If you are going to Bloor-Danforth or Union Station why would you take the more expensive UP Express with luggage racks?
The airport train stop at Weston will also allow for connections to and from the Kitchener GO line.
Weston already had a GO Station, why would it make sense from a connections perspective for someone to go all the way to Weston to switch to a train on Kitchener line?
It makes sense in every way except for the high fare of the service, but the same advocates for the station have advocated for a lower fare comparable to GO or even integrating the service into GO with stops in different neighbourhoods.
The train only has two cars and cannot be expanded because they built a cheap airport spur and not a more expensive corridor diversion. For GO trains they have 10 car trains filled with seats so there is really no leg room and there are still trains with people standing so they have rolled out 12 car trains. If you have only a 2 car, one level train and replace a quarter of the seats with luggage racks how can you possibly charge a normal GO fare and have space for airport passengers to sit? When you have a 12 car bi-level you have way more seats to divide the operational costs over. With a 2 car single level with luggage racks you need to charge a higher price both to recover costs and ensure the airport passengers get seats by driving away regular commuters which would fill the seats and aisles at rush hour if it was a cost comparable to commuter services.
The corridor improvements are a benefit to the whole system, but an UP Express stop at Weston is of little benefit to anyone.
At the very least, the fare should be distance based. The Clean Train Coalition has suggested that the airport train be a form of DRL-like transit with several stations along the route, along with more affordable fares so that people can get around the city more quickly and easily. It's a sensible suggestion.
It isn't the audience the service is targeted at. The audience is the people who are on the street in cabs and limos currently that will no longer be on the highway, not the people who are already on the TTC bus and subway.
What we've seen in Weston and in many neighbourhoods along the corridor with the emergence of the clean train issue is the growth of an informed group of citizens who want a transit system that provides the most utility for this part of the city.
Their stance that somehow a two car Tier-4 diesel train will create significant pollution is not that informed, and is coupled with their push for a local stop which actually slows these vehicles forcing greater pollution. An idling delivery truck which stays in the same place is likely creating greater localized pollution. The faster the train goes through the neighbourhood the less time it will be polluting in the neighbourhood, and the less it needs to accelerate in the neighbourhood the less it pollutes in the neighbourhood... so is the Weston community pushing for the line to go faster and not stop... no they are pushing for electrification they know there is currently no budget for. They may want a DRL but that was never on the table and what they got is a stop on a route they will never use. The improvements to the corridor to add tracks and capacity that were always part of the project is what will enable all-day GO service that benefits the greater population. It is great they got electrification on the agenda, but that still doesn't explain how it makes any sense to have an UP Express stop in Weston.
They're YIMBYs for infrastructure that works for the city and for the people who live around the infrastructure. Their views are reasoned and informed, unlike the way some people here portray them: always with vitriol, bitterly, and sarcastically as if they were simpletons that deserve the worst for their community so that the province and Metrolinx can freely cut corners in building massive infrastructure projects that will be around for generations.
If they are so informed why wasn't their push from the start for corridor diversion into the airport, or an airport monorail to the corridor rather than a spur because obviously a two car train whose line ends at the airport can never meet the commuter requirement? How does stopping UP Express in Weston meet their stated objectives? How does having the corridor dive down under Weston meet their stated objectives?
One can't dispute the intended market. But therein lies the problem. It's our only rail link to the airport, and it will run quite frequently throughout the day, but its utility is being limited by the fares in spite of all the public investment involved in making it a reality.
The corridor improvements serve the Kitchener line and the UP Express, and only the spur and the UP Express trainsets serve the intended market specifically and the fares are being set to try and recoup the costs similarly to other services. Logistically and economically it is not possible to have the same fares on a two car train with luggage racks as a bi-level 12 car commuter train packed with seats. I would have preferred a corridor diversion or a monorail to the corridor, but at no time has it seemed that was the focus of the Weston coalition. Their focus has not been on the system, but on local interests alone and spending money that simply wasn't in the budget. If the push had been to ensure the money spent on the airport connection was supportive to through service to Kitchener the Weston community would have met their objectives of improved local service naturally since GO trains would then serve Pearson alongside the UP Express trains, but the focus has been on the Weston dive-down, a UP Express stop, and electrification of an already comparatively clean form of transportation and none of those provide improved service to Weston.
