The Union - Pearson Express
Dec. 11th, 2014 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jsburbidgeThe history of the Union-Pearson Express gives it a label of "political hack job" long before the issue of pricing came to bear. The line was in many ways a vanity project, and in particular (originally, when it was a federal project with SNC Lavalin dominating the consortium) a project driven by the ego of David Collennette. Only in 2010 did it become a Metrolinx project, and by that time the cost and design decisions which make it a premium service were baked into its bones. (It wasn't helped by a shotgun addition of two dollars to the fares to "compensate" the Airport Authority for potential lost parking revenues.)
(A number of the changes made to support the UPX also provided a direct benefit to the Georgetown GO line (note that the tracks were originally purchased by the province for GO, not to allow them to take over the UPX project). I would be interested in knowing what the cost recovery model is as regards the two beneficiaries -- it's just possible that this could be sold as dinging business travellers and well-off tourists to provide cost recovery benefitting ordinary GO commuters. Maybe.)
However, it's not quite as bad a deal as many people in the Twitterverse are making out. The 27.50 price being quoted is unrealistic for three broad reasons -- two already present, one probable.
First, there's a sizeable Presto discount, and with the TTC shifting to Presto, it won't be just GO riders who will be likely to have Presto cards. Note that the price of a Presto card is less than the difference for one trip.
Secondly, there's the fact that for many people in the city (those whose primary immediate subway is the Bloor-Danforth Line), it would make sense from a purely functional point of view to take the express not from Union, but from Bloor (cheek by jowl with Dundas West Station). At that location, it costs $15.20 with Presto.
Finally, there's a much bigger pricing issue that's gearing up with regard to Metrolinx and the TTC. The local transit agencies in the 905 and the GO system have discounted fares on transfers between systems (GO to bus is 75 cents in York region, for example). The TTC has no discount or interoperability as far as fares go with Metrolinx. (There's one tiny exception. If you take the TTC to a GO station, GO to a TTC station, and then the TTC again, it doesn't count as a new TTC trip and you can use your transfer for the second leg of the TTC trip. The GO cost is still full-fare, though.)
With the introduction of Presto, there's a great deal of pressure building up to have real fare integration between Metrolinx and the TTC -- whether it's TTC/GO transfers or York Region/TTC transfers (such as the double fares on certain bus routes). This will, at a guess, take the form of discounts rather than full fare integration in many cases, although a single timed trip on routes like the 102D seems like a likely result. This sort of fare integration was a significant part of Tory's "Smart Track" proposal (and one of the features which distinguished it from the generic RER Metrolinx plans).
I wouldn't be surprised, after the tussle that's coming up on fare integration (which is really about who bears the costs, which in turn is tightly coupled to the question of provincial operating subsidies, which is not going away), to see a discount applied to the UPX as part of an integrated trip with Presto. This might (at a wild guess) lower the price by most of the cost of the TTC trip, which might be on the order of a couple of dollars; so that Bloor-transferral trip would then be an incremental thirteen dollars or so, and about sixteen dollars for the entire trip. At that point it becomes competitive with a taxi even for two people. (For that matter, even the Union connection is competitive with a taxi for two people, even if a TTC fare is tacked on, if the Presto fare is used.)
That's still a luxury service cost, higher than GO rates for the same distance, but it's still a reasonably attractive trip cost for the occasional flier.
And there really is a market for this. For a single traveller, especially one with Presto, it's cheaper than the Express Bus (and a bit more convenient); for a traveller from outside the city (excepting travellers from Bramalea, for whom this would be an insane connection in any case) with a good GO connection it will still be much cheaper than a direct link with a taxi or limousine. (Taxi rates begin at 19 dollars for locations just across the city boundary from the airport, and for the downtown / uptown area range between 44 to 56 dollars (for limousine service, add between two to five dollars to the fare).
Note that the parking at Pearson is pricey -- the cheap parking lot is $3 for 20 minutes, $15 maximum per day (and it`s not convenient; it requires a connecting shuttle); express parking is $5 per half hour with a daily maximum of $90. For drop-offs with no parking, driving a car may be the cheapest way to get to the airport after factoring in gas and depreciation (and stress driving), but as soon as parking is factored in -- pick-ups, departures where the driver stays with the party being dropped off for a while -- there`s no "cheap" way of getting to and from the airport. You would still do better driving on a "meet and return" model (one greeter goes up, two go back down) with about an hour`s parking ($60 for UPX to downtown; $10 plus gas plus depreciation for the car). For flying oneself, even on a one-day business trip, the UPX is probably a shade cheaper than $15 for parking plus gas.
My guess is that the market is not large enough, though: I foresee fare alternatives introduced with the aim of increasing use in order to maximize revenue by pricing between specific price points. (Midday use, off-season use, much reduced family fares (one thing to note is that if you're travelling with, say, four people and their luggage it's a challenge to get to Union Station in the first place, so a heavier discount is probably needed to make it attractive), pre-booking discounts, multi-trip discounts, heavier Presto discounts when it's a connecting trip with GO, same-day returns, etc.) As a further complication, the fact that it shares track space with Tory's "Smart Track" proposal, with its lower fare model, will also have effects on the fare structure.
Short of a direct command -- after 2010, when the design and some of the preliminary work had taken place -- from the provincial government to change the mandate of the service from a premium service to a GO service component, this sort of fare structure was pretty well inevitable as a starting position. Whether that structure remains in place without significant modifications by 2017 or so is another question.
Disclaimer: I have used the airport bus from downtown several times, and used taxi/limo services to the airport from various places in Toronto as well as Markham, so I'm probably part of the UPX target market, especially as I go to the airport so infrequently that the cost per annum is negligible.
(A number of the changes made to support the UPX also provided a direct benefit to the Georgetown GO line (note that the tracks were originally purchased by the province for GO, not to allow them to take over the UPX project). I would be interested in knowing what the cost recovery model is as regards the two beneficiaries -- it's just possible that this could be sold as dinging business travellers and well-off tourists to provide cost recovery benefitting ordinary GO commuters. Maybe.)
However, it's not quite as bad a deal as many people in the Twitterverse are making out. The 27.50 price being quoted is unrealistic for three broad reasons -- two already present, one probable.
First, there's a sizeable Presto discount, and with the TTC shifting to Presto, it won't be just GO riders who will be likely to have Presto cards. Note that the price of a Presto card is less than the difference for one trip.
Secondly, there's the fact that for many people in the city (those whose primary immediate subway is the Bloor-Danforth Line), it would make sense from a purely functional point of view to take the express not from Union, but from Bloor (cheek by jowl with Dundas West Station). At that location, it costs $15.20 with Presto.
Finally, there's a much bigger pricing issue that's gearing up with regard to Metrolinx and the TTC. The local transit agencies in the 905 and the GO system have discounted fares on transfers between systems (GO to bus is 75 cents in York region, for example). The TTC has no discount or interoperability as far as fares go with Metrolinx. (There's one tiny exception. If you take the TTC to a GO station, GO to a TTC station, and then the TTC again, it doesn't count as a new TTC trip and you can use your transfer for the second leg of the TTC trip. The GO cost is still full-fare, though.)
With the introduction of Presto, there's a great deal of pressure building up to have real fare integration between Metrolinx and the TTC -- whether it's TTC/GO transfers or York Region/TTC transfers (such as the double fares on certain bus routes). This will, at a guess, take the form of discounts rather than full fare integration in many cases, although a single timed trip on routes like the 102D seems like a likely result. This sort of fare integration was a significant part of Tory's "Smart Track" proposal (and one of the features which distinguished it from the generic RER Metrolinx plans).
I wouldn't be surprised, after the tussle that's coming up on fare integration (which is really about who bears the costs, which in turn is tightly coupled to the question of provincial operating subsidies, which is not going away), to see a discount applied to the UPX as part of an integrated trip with Presto. This might (at a wild guess) lower the price by most of the cost of the TTC trip, which might be on the order of a couple of dollars; so that Bloor-transferral trip would then be an incremental thirteen dollars or so, and about sixteen dollars for the entire trip. At that point it becomes competitive with a taxi even for two people. (For that matter, even the Union connection is competitive with a taxi for two people, even if a TTC fare is tacked on, if the Presto fare is used.)
That's still a luxury service cost, higher than GO rates for the same distance, but it's still a reasonably attractive trip cost for the occasional flier.
And there really is a market for this. For a single traveller, especially one with Presto, it's cheaper than the Express Bus (and a bit more convenient); for a traveller from outside the city (excepting travellers from Bramalea, for whom this would be an insane connection in any case) with a good GO connection it will still be much cheaper than a direct link with a taxi or limousine. (Taxi rates begin at 19 dollars for locations just across the city boundary from the airport, and for the downtown / uptown area range between 44 to 56 dollars (for limousine service, add between two to five dollars to the fare).
Note that the parking at Pearson is pricey -- the cheap parking lot is $3 for 20 minutes, $15 maximum per day (and it`s not convenient; it requires a connecting shuttle); express parking is $5 per half hour with a daily maximum of $90. For drop-offs with no parking, driving a car may be the cheapest way to get to the airport after factoring in gas and depreciation (and stress driving), but as soon as parking is factored in -- pick-ups, departures where the driver stays with the party being dropped off for a while -- there`s no "cheap" way of getting to and from the airport. You would still do better driving on a "meet and return" model (one greeter goes up, two go back down) with about an hour`s parking ($60 for UPX to downtown; $10 plus gas plus depreciation for the car). For flying oneself, even on a one-day business trip, the UPX is probably a shade cheaper than $15 for parking plus gas.
My guess is that the market is not large enough, though: I foresee fare alternatives introduced with the aim of increasing use in order to maximize revenue by pricing between specific price points. (Midday use, off-season use, much reduced family fares (one thing to note is that if you're travelling with, say, four people and their luggage it's a challenge to get to Union Station in the first place, so a heavier discount is probably needed to make it attractive), pre-booking discounts, multi-trip discounts, heavier Presto discounts when it's a connecting trip with GO, same-day returns, etc.) As a further complication, the fact that it shares track space with Tory's "Smart Track" proposal, with its lower fare model, will also have effects on the fare structure.
Short of a direct command -- after 2010, when the design and some of the preliminary work had taken place -- from the provincial government to change the mandate of the service from a premium service to a GO service component, this sort of fare structure was pretty well inevitable as a starting position. Whether that structure remains in place without significant modifications by 2017 or so is another question.
Disclaimer: I have used the airport bus from downtown several times, and used taxi/limo services to the airport from various places in Toronto as well as Markham, so I'm probably part of the UPX target market, especially as I go to the airport so infrequently that the cost per annum is negligible.
- In the Etobicoke cases, (pretty near to the airport) the taxi model would be much preferable to the UPX on both price and time, but that's hardly a surprise.
- For the connections I made on business travel from Kennedy and the 401 (I used to work there for Carswell in the 1990s) the price would be good for UPX assuming RER on the Markham line (GO from Agincourt to Union, UPX to the airport), as the taxi is $63 (total for GO + UPX + taxi to Agincourt would be about $35), but the time is much reduced (about half an hour for the taxi depending on traffic but about an hour or a bit more for the multi-leg option (22 minutes plus about 5 minutes taxi plus about 20 minutes GO + waiting time).
- Interestingly, for the connection from Markham, an RER + UPX connection is very attractive, both in time and money. The only cheap way to get to Pearson via transit is GO + TTC, which involves going downtown and then all the way out to Islington, which just takes too long.
- From Uptown (roughly Moore Park) I`d probably go with TTC + UPX via Bloor: the total trip would be under an hour for less than $20. UPX via Pearson would be slightly faster but cost $4 more.
