D
Duck
Guest
We drove in from Kitchener today to ride the UP Express. Parked at Kipling, took the subway to Spadina, then caught a new LFLRV on the 510 down to Union for fun. Got on the UP Express at about 11:30 with no wait (walked right onto a waiting train, almost full, which left a few minutes after we sat down).
Your train went a whole lot faster than ours! Perhaps there was some track congestion when we rode, but I felt it never reached more than about 70 km/h, and even at that only briefly. There were many delays and near-stops along the route, and it just crawled along the elevated guideway in and out of Pearson (maybe 30 km/h). Overall, I was disappointed at the speed (lack thereof), but I didn't check my phone to see what time it was when we departed and arrived, so maybe it just does run that slow and it hit it's 25 mintue travel time after all. The train itself is a lot like the O-Train in Ottawa (a "bus on rails") with that noisy Diesel engine just clattering away constantly. It reminded me of the old Budd Cars/RDC's. The interior is nice and the stations are pretty, at least - except what the hell did they do to Pearson!? They covered up all the beautiful wood in the ceiling with ugly black netting:
Onboard, I saw one or two people with suitcases get on at Pearson at the last minute and they had no where to sit and looked a bit annoyed. One of them was complaining to a CS agent that they had paid for a ticket and wanted a refund. Understandably. I worry this weekend's free rides may have done more harm than good for impressions of the service.
Overall, I can see that it is a needed connection, and it functions, but it just feels a bit derpy to me. The Arlanda Express in Stockholm was just so much... sexier.
It topped out at 130 km/hr, I checked.
Your train went a whole lot faster than ours! Perhaps there was some track congestion when we rode, but I felt it never reached more than about 70 km/h, and even at that only briefly. There were many delays and near-stops along the route, and it just crawled along the elevated guideway in and out of Pearson (maybe 30 km/h). Overall, I was disappointed at the speed (lack thereof), but I didn't check my phone to see what time it was when we departed and arrived, so maybe it just does run that slow and it hit it's 25 mintue travel time after all. The train itself is a lot like the O-Train in Ottawa (a "bus on rails") with that noisy Diesel engine just clattering away constantly. It reminded me of the old Budd Cars/RDC's. The interior is nice and the stations are pretty, at least - except what the hell did they do to Pearson!? They covered up all the beautiful wood in the ceiling with ugly black netting:
Onboard, I saw one or two people with suitcases get on at Pearson at the last minute and they had no where to sit and looked a bit annoyed. One of them was complaining to a CS agent that they had paid for a ticket and wanted a refund. Understandably. I worry this weekend's free rides may have done more harm than good for impressions of the service.
Overall, I can see that it is a needed connection, and it functions, but it just feels a bit derpy to me. The Arlanda Express in Stockholm was just so much... sexier.