Toronto’s high-speed train between downtown and Pearson International Airport launched last June and offers a 25-minute trip to the airport with trains running every 15 minutes.
However, the speed and convenience comes with a price tag – a one-way fare costs $27.50, and the service has struggled to get past 3,000 passengers a day to the 5,000 it was hoping to hit by the service’s one-year mark, in June of 2016.
Figures released Friday afternoon by Metrolinx, the GTA’s regional transit authority, show that ridership is headed in the wrong direction. The service had 79,010 riders in October, its best level ever, but ridership plunged to 65,593 in November, its first monthly total below 70,000. December wasn’t much better at 67,229. November and December were respectively UPX’s worst- and second-worst ridership since the service started.
The disappointing numbers, which raise questions about whether UPX is viable with its tickets priced that high, will be discussed at Metrolinx’s board meeting on Wednesday.
Last summer, Toronto Star columnist Ed Keenan suggested that UPX trains should offer cheaper fares between Dundas West and Union, to serve passengers from Toronto’s overburdened subway system.