07) THE UNION-PEARSON EXPRESS: PUBLIC TRANSIT FOR THE RICH?
By David G., Toronto
Metrolinx, the Ontario provincial transit agency, has unveiled the new Union-Pearson Express (UPE) train, which will run from Pearson International Airport to Union Station in Toronto. Service will start in May, a month before the Toronto 2015 Pan-Am Games, which are already controversial for overspending problems and the lack of proper infrastructure.
The Games will cause traffic jams across Toronto, affecting the city's aging infrastructure. Recently, the TO2015 executive CEOs have been found guilty of overspending their budget, after Ontario taxpayers’ money went for expensive limousine rides and luxuries such as designer shirts. This is one of many controversies that the TO2015 committee got itself into in the recent months.
The UPE will run every 15 minutes, taking passengers from Union Station to Pearson in just 25 minutes. But here is the catch: an adult one-way ticket will be $27.50 ($19 if you have a Presto card). Approved by the Wynne government in December 2014, these are the most expensive ticket prices for an airport express in North America. The Canada Line linking Vancouver’s airport to downtown, built in 2010, costs $9 one-way. The Airport rail link in Chicago costs $5 one-way.
This has outraged many Torontonians, since transit prices and the cost of living here have skyrocketed over the past decade. The CBC recently reported a poll showing that two-thirds of Torontonians think the price for the new UPE train is too expensive. NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo has criticized the UPE, saying that “it should not be an executive boutique for business travellers”. Why did the Ontario Liberal government and Metrolinx pour $456 million into a transit line for the privileged elite? Because according to Metrolinx, “business travellers are the demographic”.
This ignorant, one-sided statement and fails to mention that the vast majority of residents in the Toronto area who take public transit are, like myself, people of all kinds who travel everyday on buses, subways and streetcars.
What demographic group does the Union-Pearson Express serve? This Liberal boondoogle obviously doesn't serve the people who regularly use public transit. This express line doesn't serve the workers at Pearson Airport who make minimum wage, nor will Metrolinx give them any discount for the UPE. According to union reps at Pearson, between 10,000 to 15,000 airport workers live in Toronto. Martin Smith, President of CUPE Local 4047 says that “if the fares aren't affordable, the public will not use the Union-Pearson express.”
The prices for the Union-Pearson Express are unjustifiably expensive for the majority of the people in Toronto. This will not benefit anyone except the wealthy. The Communist Party will continue to fight for affordable transit everywhere in Canada, by demanding reduced fares!
(The above article is from the April 16-30, 2015 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)