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

[mdrejhon]

Well, despite the Star having some low brow rag elements and lower quality columns (fewer words written at a lower grade level audience), it does have other things. For one, its investigations division has been excellent, with the Ford, Ghomeshi, Lang, and now Solomon affairs all being broke by the Star. This was all just excellent journalism and won a lot of respect from me.

Don't forget Mazza -- the Ornge scandal. Star broke that one too.

For me, The Star (for me) has the highest average overall reputation of a somewhat dissapointing field of Canadian newspapers (again, for me). Headline wording -- tabloid style -- aside, these actual articles aren't tabloid reputation. As most intelligent people know, most of the National Enquirer style tabloid stuff tend to end up fake or super-exaggerated. But these Star investigations aren't faked, and are highly regarded by a lot of Canadians (even if not by everyone). I read all of the papers that happen to land in my hands or just lying around within reach of my GO train seat or newspaper box purchase -- and try to understand the viewpoints from all sides even if I disagree with all of them to an extent, Toronto Star, National Post, Metro, 24, Epoch, Globe & Mail, and The Sun, and Star is still my overall favourite even after all these years. And Star's Comics section is one of the better ones in Canada. True, I give due credit to their competitor, The Sun, for having a vastly superior angle of coverage of many sports, but sports hasn't been my main interest of news. Favourites can heavily slant depending on area of interest.

Hah. Newspaper rivalry, like sibling rivalry or hockey rivalry. Everyone has a favourite paper they'll pick up, if all were laying around on an empty bus or train seat. Now we're veering into politics, and things can get heated quite quickly.

Sensing this danger, let's go back to talk about Planes, Trains, and Automobiles in this Transportation forum.

 

[nfitz]

Waiting for a taxi: 5 minutes
Taxi: 20 minutes
Walking to UPX: 5 minutes
Wait for UPX: 15 minutes
UPX: 25 minutes
Walk to check-in: 5 minutes

75 minutes total... and well, the placards all had nice even multiples of 10, so round that up because maybe it was 76 minutes.

Still hard to buy. Traffic at that time of day is very light. Riverdale Park to Station street is a 10-minute drive - and taxis seem to do faster than average. And it's hardly a 5-minute walk from taxi on Station Street right in front of the doors to the UPX platform to the UPX platform. And then to be unlucky enough to arrive to see the previous train leaving? And then a 5-minute walk at Pearson to check-in? It all seems a bit off - with 45 minutes from starting to boarding the UPX train, one should have been able to take the 504 and walk down York Street - which is a 30-minute trip at 9:30 AM. There's no way taxi is almost the same speed. I have to think there is some user error here

 

[nfitz]

The Star is lowest of four for Toronto papers in my opinion.

Surely, no one in the city, or even the Sun newsroom, would think the Star is lower than the Sun! Surely this only demonstrates that anything else that someone who'd make such a laughable comment can't be taken seriously.

The Star gets action. The Sun ... well, does their travel budget even let them travel west of Jarvis Street?

 

[DarnDirtyApe]

I eagerly await this answer.

Globe: Educated centrists/lefties (editorial board is still conservative but most contributors are not) - the newspaper of the intelligentsia
Post: Educated conservatives & business people
Star: Working/Lower middle class class lefties - good investigative journalism but otherwise written at a low grade level
Sun: Working class, uneducated right wingers - suitable only for auto body shop waiting rooms, etc.

I read the Post for business news, the Globe for Canadian and International coverage and the Star for local exclusives.

 

[muller877]

Well, despite the Star having some low brow rag elements and lower quality columns (fewer words written at a lower grade level audience), it does have other things. For one, its investigations division has been excellent, with the Ford, Ghomeshi, Lang, and now Solomon affairs all being broke by the Star. This was all just excellent journalism and won a lot of respect from me.

I normally read the Globe and the Star in the morning. If it is interesting (or I know the Star is low brow on the issue) I read the Sun and Post in the PM to get a balanced approach (somewhere between the Star and the Post is the truth...and its sometimes a huge distance).

The Star does do some excellent investigative work as long as they don't have to travel north of Bloor.

And btw, Canadaland broke the Lang story. Jesse Brown also broke the Ghomeshi story with the help of the Star...he wanted to get paid! Jesse Brown is a bit of a left wing conspiracy theorist but does break some really interesting stories...again, have to take some of his rants with a grain of salt though.

Regarding the Star's "polls". You can get any answer you want if you phrase the question the right way. Quite often the Star reports on polls like their gospel without looking at the underlying fundamentals of the survey.

 

[nfitz]

The Globe and Post are both great papers. But they are nationals.

Hard to compare them to either the Star or Sun. The 4 big locals are Star, Sun, 24 Hour, and Metro - which only have 2 owners. Though With Post owning 24, Sun, and Post, I guess there's only 3 owners for all 6 papers.

I can't see how anyone wouldn't agree that the Toronto Star is by far the best Toronto (as opposed to national) newspaper.

A judgement the Sun seems to share, as when I walk past their office at 7:30 AM, there's always a fresh unopened stack of Toronto Stars sitting there.

 

[Allandale25]

Getting back on topic here, I was just curious if there is any sense of how the UP Express service is preforming? Are the trains generally sticking to their schedules? How has the interaction between GO Trains and UP Express trains been? I realize it's very, very early.

Any speculation or guesses on when or if UP will release ridership numbers? It'll be interesting to see how close they are to their projections.

Also, when I rode it opening weekend, I didn't see terminals to check into flights. Maybe I missed them. I thought that there will be terminals at Union similar to those at Pearson where you could obtain your boarding pass?

 

[TOareaFan]

Getting back on topic here, I was just curious if there is any sense of how the UP Express service is preforming? Are the trains generally sticking to their schedules? How has the interaction between GO Trains and UP Express trains been? I realize it's very, very early.

Any speculation or guesses on when or if UP will release ridership numbers? It'll be interesting to see how close they are to their projections.

Also, when I rode it opening weekend, I didn't see terminals to check into flights. Maybe I missed them. I thought that there will be terminals at Union similar to those at Pearson where you could obtain your boarding pass?

Since their projections are, what, 2 million riders a year in 3 years...are we not about 154 weeks away from being able to judge that?

 

[rbt]

Any speculation or guesses on when or if UP will release ridership numbers? It'll be interesting to see how close they are to their projections.

I rarely go to a city without having some idea of what type of transportation option I need to take to get into the city. I assume many others are similar. Judging from the Pearson Airport website, I would guess it's going to be a while before tourists catch on that it's an option, and it's buried on the "Ground Transportation" page which you get to from the "To and From" page. Front page has a news item, but I expect that'll disappear in a while.

http://www.torontopearson.com/en/toandfrom/ground/

UP Express is a horrible name on top of that. I can figure out "Public Transportation" far easier than what UP Express might mean, and for added bonus UP Express doesn't get a mention on the Public Transportation page.



I usually use the airport website to find out my options. Hong Kong Airport front-page makes it crystal clear a rail option exists.

http://www.hongkongairport.com/eng/index.html


I haven't been to Pearson to look at signs yet but have a trip next week, so I'll do it then.

 

[lead82]

I rarely go to a city without having some idea of what type of transportation option I need to take to get into the city. I assume many others are similar. Judging from the Pearson Airport website, I would guess it's going to be a while before tourists catch on that it's an option, and it's buried on the "Ground Transportation" page which you get to from the "To and From" page. Front page has a news item, but I expect that'll disappear in a while.

http://www.torontopearson.com/en/toandfrom/ground/

UP Express is a horrible name on top of that. I can figure out "Public Transportation" far easier than what UP Express might mean, and for added bonus UP Express doesn't get a mention on the Public Transportation page.



I usually use the airport website to find out my options. Hong Kong Airport front-page makes it crystal clear a rail option exists.

http://www.hongkongairport.com/eng/index.html


I haven't been to Pearson to look at signs yet but have a trip next week, so I'll do it then.

The GTAA wanted to make the UPX service stand out so they kept it as a separate option from the local buses listed on the Public Transportation page. Union Pearson Express is a perfectly boring name and suits Toronto just fine. It matches other cities express trains to the airport. The Stockholm train is called Arlanda Express as it goes to Arlanda from Central Station.

As for Pearson signs, they are non as far as I can tell. They seem to have grouped them together with the terminal trains. You have to follow the 'Trains' signs to get to UPX. GTAA wants to keep Pearson clean of frivolous signs but UPX should be there.

 

[drum118]

June 14
It was a zoo on Sat to the point all trains I saw and were on was standing room only.

Back to right hand running as well the C cars back on the west end. Mainly A-C trains on the line and most likely due to washroom complaints from last weekend.

As for no washroom at Pearson, it falls under the require distance of needing one, but most of staff I talked to said there should be one there since the station can support one.

It seams the door issues between cars have been there from the test stage as well some of the other issues. Under warranty and fix by the company in the US who built them in the first place.

The New Weston Station is now open as well the plaza. The UPX platform is top dog with the rest of the GO working taking place slowly. Ceiling still going up on the UPX platform and missing the glazing for the shelters.

The new bridge over Lawrence is supposed to be open this week sometime.

The plaza entrance off Lawrence is not we approved last year.

You can see the foundation going up for the John St Bridge.

Headways were all over the place from 10-19 at various time and had to due with the ridership.

People with luggage were out in force to the point some were getting free rides as checking was non existing on the trains and staff were putting them on at both ends in the first place.

Bulk of riders were getting on at Weston to the point I ran into the person who is responsible for all the construction on this corridor who drove in from Georgetown. Then there was one of the project manager and this family from the diamond.

While at Bloor Station, watch a female cycles carry her bike over the 2 track at the north end and then rode down the centre platform only she couldn't gain access to the UPX Platform. With no opening on the west side, she had to backtrack and use the RailPath to Bloor. She was in her 30-40's. How dumb.

 

[mdrejhon]

June 14
It was a zoo on Sat to the point all trains I saw and were on was standing room only.

Headways were all over the place from 10-19 at various time and had to due with the ridership.

Wow. Saturday? Do you mean Sunday? I thought the open house was on Sunday.

If Saturday, that means all the passengers were supposed to be paying passengers. Why was UPX so popular?

The UPX open house at Weston was popular for sure, but standing room on every single UPX train you were on? How many percent were free riders and how many percent were airport users, do you think?

 

[muller877]

June 14
It was a zoo on Sat to the point all trains I saw and were on was standing room only.

Headways were all over the place from 10-19 at various time and had to due with the ridership.
.

Great news how busy it is (needs both the weekend tourist and weekday business crowd to be a success).

One of my friends pulled out a stopwatch. Only 19 minutes to the airport last Thursday. Great news at the speed...is this the norm or just a surprisingly fast train?

 

[mdrejhon]

One of my friends pulled out a stopwatch. Only 19 minutes to the airport last Thursday. Great news at the speed...is this the norm or just a surprisingly fast train?

19 minutes? Wow.

I wonder if they're researching speeding up UPX service to 20 minutes, after the bad Toronto Star news coverage. Granted, that was an unfair test.

More likely it was probably a late train catching up to its schedule slot. There's a lot of schedule pad even for UPX, 25 minutes is actually conservative and very safe. In fact it was supposed to be 22 minutes back in the "Blue22" days.

 

[mdrejhon]

As for Pearson signs, they are non as far as I can tell. They seem to have grouped them together with the terminal trains. You have to follow the 'Trains' signs to get to UPX. GTAA wants to keep Pearson clean of frivolous signs but UPX should be there.

If they don't want to do brand names, they should put small subheadings like:

TRAINS
To Terminal 1
To Downtown

Simple, to the point, and something that would possibly satisfy GTAA's desire to be simple to tourists. And if they prefer iconography, they can come up with an iconography for downtown Toronto (with the word "Downtown" or "To City") like they have the concourse number with the word "Concourse"). Something symmetric to that.