Nearly seven in 10 Toronto voters who responded to a recent poll say that a planned express train linking Pearson Airport and Union Station will be too expensive.
In the poll by Forum Research, 69 per cent said the Union-Pearson Express is too expensive, 23 per cent said the new train is priced correctly, three per cent thought it is too cheap and five per cent didn’t know.
When it opens in approximately six months, the Union-Pearson Express will cost $27.50 for a one-way trip from Union Station to Pearson Airport, or $19 with a Presto Card.
The Presto Card is a reloadable smartcard offered by several local transit authorities, and works at some TTC stations.
Discounts for the express train will be offered for families and airport employees, and it will cost less to board at either of the two stops between Union Station and the airport. Those stops will be located in Weston and on Bloor Street West.
The agency released full details of the fare structure earlier this month.
Bruce McCuaig, president of the government agency Metrolinx, defended the cost Monday by pointing out that the train will have wireless Internet, depart every 15 minutes and take only 25 minutes to get from Union to Pearson.
“If you are driving in the peak period in the Toronto region, you don’t know how long it’s going to take,” he said.
McCuaig said that Metrolinx expects to have 2.5 million customers annually by the third year of operations, and the government agency will monitor numbers carefully after it begins operating about six months from now.
"We will be wanting to make sure that we provide the right kinds of fare products to get people to use the train,” he said, “because in the end, we want people to use the train."
