[URBAN NOTE] On the decision to deeply slash fares for the Union-Pearson Express

[rfmcdonald]

blogTO let me know of the planned cuts in fares, The Globe and Mail's Oliver Moore and Jane Taber going into greater detail.

The province is moving to slash fares on Toronto’s airport train and make it more of a commuter option, backing away from the “premium” business model amid mounting concern that it isn’t attracting enough riders.

The Globe and Mail has learned from multiple sources that the shift would bring the base fare -- now set at $27.50 -- to $12. For people with a Presto fare-card, the cost would drop from $19 to $9.

Under the plan, riders using the Union Pearson Express (UPX) to travel between the three stations within the city – and not going to the airport – would also see their fares decline, to the same price as the corresponding GO fares. At less than $6, this would make it about double the cost of a Toronto Transit Commission token.

“It’s a step in the right direction but it’s certainly not enough,” said Jess Bell, head of the advocacy group TTCRiders, which is calling for the train to have the same fare as the TTC. “We think it should be as cheap as possible, because we need as many people riding public transit, that’s the best way to deal with congestion.”

The new commuter fares would answer a key criticism of the train – that it doesn’t help the people whose neighbourhoods it runs through. The Kitchener GO line now has five commuter trains, each of which can carry about 1,800 people, arriving at Union station between 7 and 9 a.m. The airport trains are smaller, with space for only about 350 people each, but run more often than GO’s commuter trains. The eight UPX trains between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. could, in theory, increase ridership along that section of the route by about one-third if all the trains were full.

The Toronto Star's Tess Kalinowski had more.

Fares on the underused Union Pearson Express (UPX) train will as of March 9 be cut by more than half — down to $9 from $19 with a Presto card, or to $12 from $27.50 without one.

Also, in a bid to fill empty seats, commuters hopping aboard the airport train at Bloor and Weston stations will pay the same as GO riders — $4.71 for a single stop, $5.02 for two stops.

[. . .]

High ticket prices have drawn the ire of government critics and transit-hungry commuters frustrated at watching empty trains (which cost $456 million in provincial funding to build) speed up and down the Kitchener GO tracks both ways every 15 minutes.

This is good. I just hope the economics will make sense. A loss-leader would be terrible for rail transit in Toronto.