Metrolinx’s UP Express opens for service

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor
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Metrolinx

Metrolinx's Union Pearson Express (UP Express) in Toronto opened to the public June 6 and offers a seamless airport-to-downtown connection. The trip between Union Station and Pearson International Airport, Canada's two busiest transportation hubs, will take just 25 minutes and trains will depart every 15 minutes.

 

The CA$456-million (US$366-million) UP Express operates on a 25-km (15.5-mile) rail route. Nearly 90 percent is on shared track with Metrolinx’s upgraded Kitchener GO rail corridor (formerly the Georgetown corridor) and the remainder is on a new 3-km (1.8-mile) rail spur that connects the Kitchener line to Toronto Pearson Terminal 1 via its own dedicated station.

UP Express is forecasted to carry 2.35 million passengers a year by 2018 and serve 190 million travellers a year by 2031, almost twice the current annual traffic.

The Ontario government is investing more than CA$130 billion (US$104 billion) over 10 years in public infrastructure, the largest infrastructure investment in Ontario’s history. UP Express is one of CA$16 billion (US$12.8 billion) worth of projects underway to modernize transit infrastructure in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, known as The Big Move.

 

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