were not even allowed bikes on the UPX big G that a huge fail i dunno what they were thinking doing this. I guess we felt lucky when the UP did come but the people deserve a real train.
We need the same for Waterloo Region. They could easily run rail to the airport or at least offer regular bus service like Halifax does. Unlike the current On-demand service.
I went to Narita airport for the first time two weeks ago and I was surprised at how many things there are outside the airports. There’s a lot of shops for gifts, but also convenient stuff to get transit cards, international atm, post office to receive mobile hotspots, etc. I don’t think I would have « got » your video without seeing it but it’s a great pattern to replicate. On top of great train transit of course ;)
Years ago a client visiting from Germany said to me "I love your city. Hate your airport" Great ideas you have here, I hope Metrolinx and the GTAA is watching this.
Even if they are watching, they won't do anything. From the cities to the GTAA, to the various levels of government, and politicians, they look out for their jobs and not what's best for the public
@@RMTransit Like Stuttgarts Terminal 4. Terminal 1-3 are nice Terminals in buildings built for customers. Terminal 4 is a supposedly temporary Terminal quickly built in a former aircraft hanger.
This is fantastic 🙏🙏💯 thank you for such a detailed oversight I would love to alsoo see some much needed bullet train service in Canada and Pearson>ottawa n Niagara falls would be where it start! I would vote for you for mayor sir! Much better than Bonnie or Olivia chow!
Really appreciated this video, and I'm glad you noted the inclusion of "normal" shopping. One thing I like about European train stations and airports (or at least the ones I used in Switzerland) is that the station is "integrated into the daily fabric of society" - I see no reason why such a facility couldn't have a "full-on" grocery store to serve not only people transiting through, but to also serve locals with their (hopefully) daily shopping.
Yeah exactly. Copenhagen Central station used to have a grocery store that was really useful with affordable prices, and I was gutted to see it close. The station does have a lot of other shops though like beauty shops, cafes, multiple fast food venues, and kiosks, but man it was just good to grab something quickly from the supermarket.
Here in Sweden they did a study answering the question "Can you save money by having a car and using it to go too big shopping centres and grocery stores outside the city centre that usually have lower prices. The answer was a big NO. It's way cheaper for everyone and society as a whole to walk from the train or subway station and shop at your local grocery store( that has higher prices) on your way home. In Sweden it's almost a rule that every station has at least one grocery store very close by.
@@pettahify The train station in Geneva had, in my opinion, the best bread because the bakery was always busy with people buying their bread (and other excellent baked goods and treats) while transiting through. This was because the station was central to society and functioned not only as a station.
The best grocery store I have seen so far in an airport was in Amsterdam Schiphol. It is directly in the main hall directly over the train station of the airport. The prices in that grocery store are the same as in any grocery somewhere else in the city. So a bad of potato chips was less than a Euros for example, while it would cost up to $6 at any major airport in the US. American airports are especially bad when in comes to ripping of customers. They take advantage of the fact that customers have nowhere else to go. So they sell a simple toast sandwich for $15. There should be consumer protection laws against that. The same is true for food stands at concerts and sports events. Singapore shows how it is done better. At the Formula One Grand Prix food is very cheap and drinks are even cheaper. I wonder what food and drinks costs at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Such a fantastic video! As an airline pilot based at YYZ, improved intermodal connectivity at Pearson would be incredible for the vast amount of airport staff and aircrew as well. The amount of time spent looking for parking in the staff parkade at Viscount can be insane sometimes! Greater transit options out of Pearson could take so many more cars that airport employees use off the road, most of which are single-occupancy anyways.
Love your concept for the bus terminal at Pearson. While your underground concept for rail is great, I doubt our leaders are going to spend additional money on tunnelling after wasting it on that guideway for UPX Compared to the rest of North America, UP Express is not entirely bad. Had it been electrified, and had the elevated guideway been built without sharpe curves, we could have had much better travel times. REM will probably Canada’s darling for Airport Transit connections once the Dorval extension opens. Having ridden Tokyo’s NeX and Keisei Skyliner, we can of course do much better in Toronto.
@@RMTransit I think that Pearson should become officially part of Toronto so it is easier for funding (MiWay isn't as likely to support as TTC to connect Pearson with Toronto) But this is just a guess. I feel like all 4 transportation systems, MiWay, York Region Transit, Brampton Transit and the TTC of course should have connections. Like Finch West LRT and Eglinton LRT should connect to Pearson, Mississauga Transitway should go north from Renforth to terminate at Pearson, Viva Yellow should end at Toronto Pearson, and Zum's 505A should actually terminate at Toronto Pearson instead of at Viscount like 900 metres away from Pearson. and GO Transit should stop at Pearson, but not by branching, It should go from Etobicoke North to Pearson to Malton. VIA Rail should also use the same tracks as GO Transit and stop at Pearson instead of Malton. UP Express will be 24/7 with trains each 5 minutes. Finally, all systems of Transit except Terminal Link will connect to one Central station on Airport Road in between the 427 and 409 highways like your idea, the way to get from Central Station to a Terminal would be by using Terminal Link which will have good frequency (shuttle every 2.5 minutes). This would have a total of 7 Transit systems connecting to Pearson, which are: Brampton Transit, GO Transit, MiWay, TTC, Union Pearson Express, York Region Transit, and VIA Rail, but of course this needs a lot of support to be done as it will be expensive but worth it. All land in-between the 427, 407, 410, and 401 should be cleared to expand Pearson Airport to be a hub for more flights and to be the 4th largest airport in the world. This took me a lot of time to write RMTransit so please read this and thank you if you have read it.
My feeling is that the real question is "What do we need most next"? My suspicion is a better Pearson is just not that high on the list because it is already being served. Even if the service could be better.
dude your plan would result in an entire neighbourhood being razed to the ground. a neighbourhood that, btw, is primarily resided in by South Asian and Caribbean immigrants. Malton and its residents deserve better transit options, not to be displaced by overly ambitious and ruinous pie-in-the-sky plans Also the Khalsa Dabar would need to be demolished as well, which would have… implications
Nothing is impossible. The leaders shouldn't be given a choice. The 57% who couldn't be arsed to vote in the last provincial election have much to answer for.
Pearson airport has been a godsend when I wait for suburban buses to restart after going to toronto clubbing at late night. Few places are open and accessible at 4-5am
Thanks for your video Reece! This is exactly what we need - a public discussion of a Pearson transit terminal. It feels like much of the discussion has happened in secret. Your ideas are good.
I'm glad you mentioned The Jewel at Changi! It's great when airports do awesome things for those who wanna go to the airport just because rather than to actually fly somewhere. JFK International for example has the TWA Hotel which incorporates the TWA Flight Center by Eero Saarinen (who also worked on Dulles and the Gateway Arch) with two buildings added, a rooftop pool offering wonderful views of the different planes taking off and landing, and even a cocktail lounge inside a preserved Lockheed L-1649 Starliner, the last model of the Lockheed Constellation line of airliners. For those who are plane spotters or love aviation history in general, it's heaven. They also fully restored the Solari flipboard inside the Flight Center! The Jewel's façade was designed by a consortium of architects, led by Moshe Safdie who also designed Marina Bay Sands! The landscape architect was Peter Walker and Partners, who co-designed the National 9/11 Memorial! The Jewel currently houses more than 2,000 trees and palms, and over 10,000 shrubs covering a total area of more than 21K square meters. There are some 120 species, originating from all around the globe! Its majestic indoor waterfall stands at 40 meters high, with recirculating rainwater pumped to the roof to free fall at up to 37,850 liters per minute. And that's not mentioning the things those transiting at Changi can enjoy like a free 24-hour cinema and a butterfly garden!
You can even find good examples of solid public transit at airports in the US! Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport station on the DC Metro for example, served by the Blue and Yellow Lines, is located across Smith Boulevard from Terminal 2 and its mezzanine is directly connected to Level 2 of the terminal (security checkpoints/gates level) by two pedestrian bridges. The first city in North America to offer direct rapid transit service to its major airport was Cleveland as Airport station on its Red Line opened in November 1968! Even St Louis's Lambert International has stations at Terminal 1 and 2 for its MetroLink system! That being said, European and Asian airports very much serve as a role model for how to easily connect passengers from the airport to their final destination without needing to worry about how much you'll need to rent a car. Frankfurt Airport for example has stations for both regional services and long-distance trains like ICE high-speed services. Frankfurt Airport long-distance and Limburg Süd station are the only railway stations in Germany that are served exclusively by long-distance trains. Paris's Charles de Gaulle on the other hand has the RER B, CDG Express (starting in 2025), and TGV high-speed services which even includes a stop at Marne-la-Vallée-Chessy for those traveling to Disneyland Paris.
I made a post on Reddit a while ago about how bad the transport to New York's airports is. No direct subway to JFK, the ridiculously priced airtrains at JFK and EWR, and no option other than a bus to LGA. The response from New Yorkers seemed to just be "just get a taxi", which kinda missed the point of what I'm saying, but just highlights how poor the airport connections are.
Chicago-O’Hare built a new beautiful intercity bus terminal attached to its new consolidated car rental facility (“Multi-Modal Facility”). It’s also served by two local bus routes. The biggest local bus transfer transfer center near O’Hare probably remains the Rosemont CTA station, located one Blue Line stop away.
This is a fantastic idea, RM. Would you also have additional platforms for a potential extension of line 4 to Pearson (and possibly beyond)? I really like the idea of extending the GO line under Pearson to Mississauga City Centre, a high speed rail connection is definitely needed to there.
I didn't;'t include space for Line 4 as I figure thats more like 40 years out. One option would be trying to have THAT directly serve both terminals and the Pearson Central Station, and allow using it for free for airport passengers.
I live in London and my transit options to go 150km to Pearson are either a $3 city bus ticket to free 20 minute flight (Air Canada typically makes booking from either airport the same price), a $75 3 hour bus ride, or $80 2hr45 train (including waiting at Union + 25 minutes on the UP). I think the bus is as slow as it is, because it stops a few times, and serving cities from the 401 is not fast (10 minutes to get off highway to bus stop, 10 minutes to get back to same interchange). In past experience they'll only take it until Burlington, then go on side highways that actually intersect with Guelph/KW/London.
Making better inter-city rail connections could reduce the need for connecting flights from Pearson to London, Ont/Sarnia/Windsor/Kingston, and even Montreal & Ottawa. I think we need to reduce the number of flights overall, largely by making train more attractive for those trips under 600 km or so. However, the Kitchener line train goes quite close to the Region of Waterloo Airport, so with frequent trains and station + shuttle near the Waterloo airport it could take some pressure off of Pearson's flight volumes.
Whenever I travel to TO I "ride the rocket" from Pearson, a wonderfully mis-named transport option, as that bus can end up being incredibly slow getting caught in traffic on the highways it travels down. The fact that there's no decent shelter whilst waiting for that bus, and that I end to visit during winter, is not great. I wasn't even aware of the existence of the UP trains until a couple of years ago, but given that it's over 3 times as expensive as TTC it's never felt worth it to me. I also tend to want to go somewhere that has a TTC station, rather than getting to Union, so I'd just have to change to TTC anyway and incur another ticket cost. What you're suggesting here is exactly what Pearson needs. Who knows, we might even see something like this before 2050. 🙂
I agree it's lacking a lot. However, I recently travelled from Spadina -> Bloor -> terminal 3 by rail and whilst the connections and moving suitcases around wasn't the smoothest experience it was 100 times better than Dublin Ireland where I had to wait an hour after arrival for the first coach home and it just didn't show up 🙃
I would say Gatwick is the airport in London with the best rail links. You have lots of direct connections to lots of place both North and South with Thameslink, Southern, and the Gatwick Express, and one to the West with Great Western. Whereas Heathrow is at the end of two lines with links only into central London. Heathrow is much better for bus connections though.
Agree. But note that "London" has several official airports. Luton (with its new people mover) from nearby Parkway on the MML (Midland Mainline) has improved, Stansted has recovered post-pandemic while, for ease of use and an inexpensive fare, London City cannot be beaten. I mean the latter lies in Tfl Zone 3 and has its own DLR station.
@@RMTransit Yes in UK the planning and approval process takes for ages. I mean it took 20 years to build LHR's T5 (because of appeals, consultations etc). One good airport nowadays is Munich and Zurich isn't to be overlooked. Amsterdam has disappointed its fans with the capacity cut ...which has annoyed the US DOT (because of JetBlue being denied slots for summer 2024).
@@tylerkochman1007 Of course it's really busy. Pity that LGW lies south of the capital and therefore isn't so convenient for the many millions living to the north.
Logan Airport in Boston has slightly better transit service - there's a Blue Line subway station at the west boundary of the airport with shuttle busses to the terminals and there's a Silver Line bus "rapid transit" direct from the terminals to South Station downtown where you can change to Amtrak, commuter rail, subway, and commuter and intercity busses. The Silver Line and shuttle busses drop you off and pick you up at curbside right outside each terminal.
I don’t know that it’s better, the airport shuttles and especially the silver line get stuck in traffic. Silver line has absolutely taken me 30 min from south station to Logan at rush hour (Ted Williams tunnel 😢) about the same as UP express. And pearson’s a lot farther from the city than Logan - you can see downtown from the tarmac.
Last year I flew to Toronto Pearson from Vancouver and ended up waiting an obscene amount of time for our baggage to arrive. After we finally got our baggage after at least 45 minutes - 1 hour of waiting. Then we had to rush as fast as possible to get onto the Union Pearson express to catch a train to Windsor. We nearly missed the Union Pearson because of how long it took us to get from the baggage area to the station. It also wasn't a fast trip and we had to run to catch our train the moment the UP stopped at Union. That was our first experience with the UP, so yeah, not great first impressions. Our trip back to the airport after getting back from Windsor was fine though, if not a bit slow.
Takes 30-45 minutes to get the bags off the plane. Screened and back on the belt before it gets to you on the carousel. That's if there's no technical difficulties
The TTC - UP connections are horrendous. If you are elderly or physically challenged, the connection at Dundas West requires that exit the TTC and walk outside several hundred metres to get to the UP station - a poorly signed route which involves crossing Dundas St.! Similarly, the distance between the UP stop at Union and the TTC and GO can be an impediment and it is again poorly signed. It seems that the TTC and UP don't talk to each other, after travelling back from Finland in 2022 ( over 15 hours travelling) I got off the UP at Dundas West to get on the Bloor-Danforth line only to find the BD line was closed for signal work and that I'd have to take a shuttle bus to Ossington....this TTC closure was not announced on the UP upsetting several people (to make matters worse the shuttle bus didn't actually go into Ossington but let us out a block north.
When it comes to airport railway systems, the best example is in Frankfurt-am-Main, which is at the edge of a high-speed railway line and can be reached by so many high-speed routes.
The thing you mentioned about “people might go to the airport even if they are not flying” is definitely a more of a thing outside North America, but there are plenty of places inside where that is common. Take SFO, when I lived in San Francisco as a young child, I remember Taking BART to go ride the SFO airtrain just for fun around the terminals. Now most people wouldn’t do this for fun, but there was a substantial number of people without luggage riding it. It shows that there are examples of good airport connections in North America, even if the majority good get upgrades (you can do better LAX)
Why do I get the overpowering feeling that you do far more city planning than most of the Departments of Transportation or city planners all over this world?
Im afraid we are going the LAX direction. It seems as though no one wants to make YYZ a proper hub because it’s privately run And while I like the UP Express, it’s a massive inconvenience if you live outside of the city core. For me in Durham it’s a 55 minute train to Union, then a transfer to the up. For a family of 4 it’s close to the cost of parking for a week. So we loose cost savings, increase time and still have the need for a car once you get to the final stop Great video as always.
Logan Airport in Boston is definitely one of the best with regards to transit access in the US; second to DC. Sucks the Blue Line doesn't directly go to Logan but there is plenty of free transit access from there that loops around Logan every ~15 mins.
I take the UP to my job at the airport every single day and I think it’s important to expand the frequency and size of the UP cars because it’s not just travellers and holiday goers that use it. Electrify the line and use modern trains with faster trips with less waiting.
If UP connects to the Bloor-Danforth subway (2 Train) the authorities could simply extend the subway out to the airport and maybe run a Train to the Plane.
@@JogBird Using batteries is generally the lazy solution for a relatively frequent service if you own the tracks (four trains an hour in a single direction is not a small number for regional trains, for example).
@@JogBirdbatteries is a good solution on short lines exclusively if the frequencies are low. Batteries trains are more expensive to buy than standard electric trains (batteries cost), have higher operation cost (you need to use more trains because you need to recharge batteries and batteries recharge are quite slow), are heavier and less powerful than standard electric ones. Batteries are not the solution for high frequency lines.
I had a 23 hour layover (Thanks to Air Canada to mess my Vacation) and I wanted to vheck in my 2x23 kg bags before I go tot he hotel. This is what a Pearson employee told me :"Bud, I am not sure who's gonna win the Stanley cup, but I am god damn sure that if you check in these bags before 3 hours of your flight, it will be lost"
Unfortunately, Toronto Pearson‘s problem isn’t just unique to Toronto. Except for a very select few airports, North American airports have terrible connections, and some even have none at all, like both Houston airports, LaGuardia, and Detroit. The only airports I’d say that have pretty decent connections in North America are San Francisco, JFK, and even Chicago O’Hare, well sorta. San Fran and JFK probably have the best and even JFK would benefit from a subway line that goes directly to the airport instead of a transfer. O’Hare at least has a subway line that goes directly to the airport
UP needs to run 24/7 and GO Trains from Union need extended hours. Taking public transit after work hours to the suburbs is a pain at best and near impossible after the UP closes for the night.
Before the pandemic, the UP ran until 1am. During the pandemic, frequency was every 30 min and earlier (closer to the 11:27pm last train now) with reasons being demand and labour. I don’t know what demand is like now but I have just missed out on the last train and don’t know why it doesn’t run later. Is it labour still?
The part about going to the airport without having a flight is funny to me, because when i take the train I regularly stop at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Not because i want to or anything, but because its just a regular stop on one of the busiest and most important train lines in the country. I sometimes think about how insane it is I can take an 8-minute bike ride to the station where a train will bring me right into the very heart of one of Europe's busiest airports.
Having even an Airport Train station like Brussels-Zaventem, a bit smaller than Schipol, is still a game changer with also an underground train station that goes almost all over its Suburban and intercity network
Hmm, off the top of my head: - Complete the REM link - Continue to extend it south to stop at Dorval station. - Perhaps continue to extend it through Lachine & LaSalle to connect to the Metro Green Line at Angrignon. OR extend the Green Line west to connect at Dorval & make Dorval a 3-way connection between REM, Metro, and Exo. That would cost a whole lot more, but I wanted that when I lived in that area long before the REM was a concept, so it's kind of my pet project. - Dorval station to the south already has a bus terminal - it may need renovation/expansion - Marie-Curie station north of the airport should be bus a hub as well. Traffic around the airport has been nuts for a while now, so a non-road link will make a big difference.
@@RMTransit Yeah, just completing the REM, and perhaps adding the discussed extension to Dorval station would be enough to help much of the airport issues. Before the REM was a thing, a Blue line extension would have been my choice too for the airport. I was just thinking that the Green Line stops just short of LaSalle and it's ~80K residents. Lachine has another 40K. If you extend it that far, it's easy to look at a map & say "why not a little further?" and close the loop with the REM at Dorval. The fact that the Orange Line extension to meet the REM at Bois Franc seems like it might happen some day would also improve airport accessibility too.
You have a powerful and clear eyed view. The “bus experience” has only been awful…a sad reflection of lack of foresight from the grand opening until now.
Landed in Pearson in 2009 at like 5am and had to either freeze outside waiting for the bus or wait 2h for the train service to start or something like that. I was really surprised how such a massive airport had such a bad connection.
If you're going tunnel west under the airport (which transport Canada might have some questions about) it's about the same distance to the Brampton Gateway Terminal as it is to Mississauga City Centre. Seems like light rail route with two branches connecting to the Hazel McCallion LRT might be the answer if we're dreaming in technicolour.
Airport was never designed transit friendly or even car/passenger friendly. Hate having to drive from Hamilton to use it. Being stuck in traffic on a bus is no better than in a car.
I find the DC subway very convenient in going to both Dulles and National. DC had the best subway in America. Meanwhile NYC subway does not connect to any airports
Topic Suggestion: An update on the KW Ion light rail line. I read an interesting article comparing the ridership numbers with Ottawa. As a resident of Cambridge I would also like to get your thought on the proposed extension. There's some really interesting documents they have posted online outlining the proposed route. Great video on the airport, I wish the people who end up designing transit thought about it as deeply as you do
Until I was 3.5hrs early for a flight from Nice to Madrid (only operated by Iberia, and their only route there), I thought landside options seemed illogical, but now I’m more on board with the idea
You should look into the St. Catharines GO station, I think you’d have fun with it. Tons of land around the station ready to be built on, but they have no plan. There’s opportunity to make it a great transit city, with connecting transit lines to the go station from across the city. The Niagara GO line is full of potential is crazy, you’d have a lot of fun with it. The region has zero vision and a video like yours will most defiantly be taken seriously by them.
I visited YYZ a few weeks ago and it was crazy to me how it is even possible to run an Airport that size with just one, not even proper, rail connection (the UP Express DMU's are tiny). Even smaller Airports like ARN, BER or FUK would probably cause the surrounding road network to collapse, if all passengers were about to arrive by car or Taxi/Uber. Also the transit at Bloor is a mess. Why do I have to walk ~5 minutes at the street, if the Subway stops just under the UP Express platform?
It amazing that the Go Bus 91 ffrom Finch Subway Stn only stops at Terminal one so you have to spend 30 minutes with luggage to get there if you fly with anybody but AC FROM OVERSEAS. It would only take 5 minutes to go to 3. Why Go and Metrolinx is the worse
Sacramento added a new airport terminal awhile back, and has more capacity than needed. Now a light rail connection is being added to their existing small metro area rail network. It seems the rail connection should have been in place long before the new airport terminal was added.
I just traveled for the first time to Toronto last month, and I understand you're advocating for more of a transit hub for the surrounding area instead of strictly a train station from the city core, but I must say, I was a little confused about this vid. I flew into Bishop but flew out of Pearson, and maybe this is just me speaking as someone who lives in Chicago and LA before that, but I was VERY impressed with the UP Express. I understand you have issues with it being diesel, which is fair, but I didn't notice the winding viaduct at all. Frankly, as a bit of an avgeek I loved being up high enough to see all the planes/airlines on the ramp. And I didn't find it to be very slow. I got on UP at Bloor and honestly, I wished I could have spend MORE time on the train. Plenty of luggage storage, USB ports for every seat, and a smooth ride. Didn't even take 20 minutes for me to get to Pearson. All that for the cost of like $6 CAD (even cheaper for a Yank like me)? I'll take all of that you got. UP Express was one of the unexpected highlights of a fun trip. Loved Toronto's transit. So much better than Chicago's, which has major gaps. Obviously LA's too, and to get to ORD or LAX is a huge pain. Not possible by rail in LA, but the Blue Line to ORD is only convenient from downtown or the west side. Really not practical via train from from the northside. So I was enamored with the UP Express, and I'm surprised to hear you diss it. My main thrust is that your airport link from the downtown area and western neighborhoods is amazing and you shouldn't take it for granted. It's 1000x better than sitting on the slow ass Blue Line making stops at a half dozen stations in highway medians.
Totally agree with your recommendations. I don't think, however, that the average transit rider will care about the spur line for the UP from Pearson to the main Kitchener line tracks. I think it's too short of a section to notice it's slow. And the elevated view is so great.
I want the UP express to be rebuilt into just a straight up through-running electrified GO line at the same time as a Lawrence Subway that goes out to Scarborough, as the Crosstown is a potato that I can already tell will be slow and inefficient.
Two thoughts from a current employee of an Airport Operator. Otherwise great video bud! 1. Eliminate shops, restaurants and stores on the public side of terminals to prevent unnecessary loiter time in your ticketing and pre-screening areas. Offer a gate pass system so that customers who’ve come to shop and not fly are able to pass through screening to access the secure side. 2. Electric Busses are more of a hassle than they’re worth. We bought two. Up-time for those assets were about 38% with the rest of which being spent charging or undergoing routine mx. Diesel or Biodiesel are still the most effective option for vehicles that are used to run a 24 hour service.
This was a great video. You highlighted an issue we know in the US all too well. I've traveled through a lot of US airports and if you're lucky you even get any public transportation/connections at all. They love to do the people movers and air trains connecting terminals and maybe parking lots, but it's not often enough that we get a true downtown connection by rail from our airports.
I was thinking about this the other day. Maybe an LRT going up and down hwy 27 to connect humber (and finch lrt) to the eglington crosstown west extension (and I guess also the race track), then run it down the hydro coridor to kipling station. It would connect a lot of the convention centres together with transit, and also the bloor subway to the airport.
Visited Toronto and Montreal this summer. Was appalled at the slow speed of the UP coming out of the airport, but happy to have a train. Then went to Montreal and was even more appalled to be squeezed into a bus (although the name, 747, was humorous). As someone from Vancouver, it's shocking that the larger cities of Toronto and Montreal have such mediocre transit to and from their airports.
I have often seen people without luggage take the Vancouver skytrain either to the airport or the station before the airport. Do you know the purpose of these trips? Are these people going to the airport to rent a car? Or because they are out-of-towners and the airport has cheap parking? Or are these people all flying on Flair/Lynx with just an under-seat bag? The Vancouver skytrain to the airport is pretty good. It is however a pretty long walk to the sky train station from the arrivals lounge. Transit at Toronto Pearson could be improved but its a lot better than it was 10 years ago.
@@pmycro They could be going to greet someone arriving, or take a quick flight themselves. Some may also work at the airport, it's quite a large building/entity with lots of employees. Renting a car may be an option as well. The station before the airport is Sea Island Centre, primarily parking but also some offices. And then of course Templeton, the 2nd stop after/before the airport, is the outlet mall.
GO Transit is now offering airport transport from Pickering. It makes around two or three stops along the way, Scarborough Town Center, Yorkdale Mall and I believe one other stop. This is nice but a nice high speed train would be better.
Long time Ontario residents will tell you that GTAA has been doing nothing for transit but collecting parking fees until Metrolinx brought the money for the UP. Without the UP Pearson has, like, nothing but parking lots and long walks in the snow. It's an airport ruined by MBAs despite the better intentions of architects. Generally a Toronto vibe, really.
There are some airports close to my hometown that dont have a rail connection or a very bad one and i dont even consider flying from there. The different realities are crazy sometimes.
Germany's airports of Frankfurt and Düsseldorf already have 200mph high-speed train stations, and ofc they also provide local and regional public transit (trains, light rail aka "S-Bahn", and buses). From December 2025 onwards, high-speed trains can directly reach both Berlin-Brandenburg airport (thanks to a new link called "Dresdner Bahn" which halves travel time from Berlin city center to 20 minutes) and Stuttgart airport (after the completion of the massive 10bn "Stuttgart 21"-project). The airports of Cologne-Bonn and Leipzig-Halle are worthwhile mentioning, too. Sadly, this form of intermodality is a thing that's often completely missing in other countries like Spain (e.g. Madrid, Barcelona airports), France (e.g. Paris-Orly, Marseille airports); but Italy's Rome Fiumicino “Leonardo Da Vinci” International Airport can be reached directly with high-speed trains from other Italian city centers with no need to change trains.
Hey, it's still a lot better than it was a few years ago. Last time I visited Toronto in 2011, the UP Express didn't exist, and the only way to get to my uncle's house in Mississauga without an expensive taxi was him picking me up from the airport!
As a Londoner who flies to Pearson twice a year and travels on to Brantford, I like your plan, but I have 1 issue with it and 1 suggestion. My issue is the site you propose it's pretty far from the terminals, which would be quite annoying. I honestly think the road spaghetti ought to be massively simplified first, and then build the station in the space left. There's just a totally unnecessary number of spurs and slip roads. If you improve transit connectivity, there should be less road traffic, so it shouldn't be an issue. My suggestion would be to take that extra rail spur you mentioned and build a new rail line from Pearson to Hamilton (and maybe beyond), that would go under the airport, then pop up next to the Mississauga Transitway and follow the 403 and hydro corridors down to Hamilton. I reckon it would be quite cheap to build apart from the tunnel under the airport, and it would massively improve rail connections to the west of Toronto.
if we have decent high speed rails, we don't need domestic flights. In the meantime, Extend UPX to Kennedy Station to serve the East End. Move the bus stop closer to the terminal entrance, with clear signage and dedicated bus shelters, move kiss and fly drop offs to Viscount.
Was at Pearson a few months ago, drove from north of the city. What a nightmare. Signage was poor with little warning. Used to exit 409, find your terminal on sign and drive straight to it. Not any more. The UP train has to be better than the Kipling bus was.
I just wanted to mention Oshawa has recently released more updates for their potential rapid transit plans in the future if you wanted to look into it for a potential video!
I visited Toronto in 2007, long before the UP Express. Had to wait for the Airport Rocket, which only went as far as Kipling station. My hotel was around the corner from St. Andrew station, so that meant changing trains at St. George station. Not exactly a short trip. So the UP Express would have been more convenient, despite its flaws.
I'd be really curious to hear what you would suggest to improve Square One as a transit hub. The fact that there is no direct route to Union Station makes getting into the city from the suburbs unnecessarily cumbersome
Re: Parking around the airport, height limitations will keep any buildings below a few storeys and noise will make residential and some commercial unfeasible.
I'm on exchange at Brock University and have been travelling through person a couple of times. It's very annoying because I don't have a car. I either have to take the Megabus to Toronto Union Station and take the train from there or take an Uber or the Niagara Airbus, which is very expensive. There is a big lack of options for getting to Pearson. for context, I live in the northern part of Norway, and to get to my closest relatively big airport (Tromsø), there is a bus twice a day that takes three hours. Altough this is not great, there is about 170 000 people living in the whole county of Troms, and 65 000 of them live just in the city of Tromsø, and this compared to the massive size of Toronto and the fact that the GTA has more people than the whole of Norway, it is very surprising that the offerings are this bad.
I feel like especially for local bus routes that they should still go into the terminals, like the 52 Lawrence West. You get on/off the bus right at the terminal with little walking and no train required and its very convenient rather than walking 10 minutes/get that train
I've lived in Toronto my entire life, and i recently go back from a trip. I wanted to meet my ride at the Viscount car park, but the signage was absolutely DISMAL. I had to ask 3 different employees, because the signage and way finding was so insanely bad.
When I was in Toronto in 2009, the only option was the bus. It was the most comfortable airport bus I have ever seen though. Air condition, leather seats and tinted glass. It had a few stops in the city center. Most rail connections from an airport only have a single stop in the city center. If a train went to Union Station for example, I would have had to switch to a bus or a taxi there. I still prefer trains though, because they do not require interaction with the driver. Recently I was in Istanbul. They have a shiny new airport, which is planned to be the busiest airport in the world one day. They also have a rail connection. The station is quite large and impressive, but you have to walk a few hundred metres to get there and they have columns preventing you to use a baggage cart on the travelators. The problem is that the columns are so close together that a two wheel bag will not fit through them unless you rotate it by 90 degrees and then drag it through the columns. I am still young and strong, but for elderly people that is not optimal. I wondered why they did not manage to build a station directly under the terminals, as the airport was built from scratch. I think I know the answer. They are afraid of a terrorist attack and therefore built the station far enough from the terminal that a bomb in a train would not cause a closure of the terminal. Those are the times we live in.
I heard that domestic travel within Canada is insanely expensive - is that true? A few fellow Aussies told me, and mentioned mobile phone planes (esp data) is bizarrely expensive.
I am in th Buffalo NY area. YYZ is my go to airport for international travel. Sure the Buffalo Airport has plenty of flights, but it is SO much nicer to get a direct flight say to Europe than to have to fly in many cases out of the way (Detroit, Chicago, or any major hub south), or worse go through the already congested and relay prone NYC regional airports such as JFK & Newark. It's also usually 20-35% less expensive to fly those direct routes. As we all know the traffic has gown incredibly since I first started going to YYZ when we moved to the Buffalo area in the mid 1980's. Back then there was easy/free flowing traffic between the international bridges and Burlington. Even then traffic was easy to Ford Drive and things really got busy close to downtown. Today anything east of Burlington is slow most of the time and a near parking lot during peak times. There is the 407 expressway and most of the time I'll pay th $18 each way to take that for all of 20 odd miles to save a lot of time and slow traffic. None the less, the last 15 miles to the airport are usually between busy and stop and go traffic. I would love to be dropped off at the Burlington Go Train station and have a smooth predictable ride to the airport. That would be so much easier for anyone dropping us off, or when I have to return the favor for others. I grew up in the Netherlands and remember the train station being built in front of the main terminal building at Schiphol. Over time the airport has grown so much that it expanded overtop of the station and now it's centrally integrated into the main public departure / arrival hall. It's a great example for Toronto to see how well it can integrate into regional rail. It would be interesting to see how easy it would be to convince people to not have to deal with modern heavy Toronto road traffic and just get on a train that gets you right to the heart of the Airport.
Not sure what the dig against Los Angeles was for, considering their new people mover isn't even open yet. Nobody really knows how good or bad a system it will be. The transit station that will be connected to the people mover will have two light rail lines leading to various parts of the area, with both featuring additional potential extensions, especially the K Line. Now neither leads directly downtown, but that matters less in Los Angeles than other major cities as LA is very decentralized, and you can get to downtown via one additional transfer. The people mover will also be used to get from one terminal to another as well as to the rental car facility and long term parking, in addition to connecting to the light rail.
I genuinely would love to see you become the Canadian Transportation Minister or something in Ottawa, able to make high level decisions country wide. You are the kind of visionary this country soo desperately needs.
Brilliant! It will be good that the Kitchener line should be running q 15 mins or so as part of the RER program. Amd electrified. So as to not stink up your pretty new station!
I had a conversation with my father regarding the idea of building an airport in Pickering. I have been referring to the topics and solutions suggested by you, NotJustBikes, CityBeautiful and other urban/transit design channels that could make getting to Pearson more digestible without the need to uproot farmland and natural spaces in the proposed Pickering airport site. This video will surely help in making that point! Keep doing these cool videos! I will certainly be coming back for more!
Then there is O'Hares connection to the Blue Line CTA at ORD which, itself, is a long tunnel walk. But unlike the tunnel connecting Kipling TTC to the Kipling Intercity Terminal, you got cell-service.
When I was studying downtown at UofT I would always just talk a short trip down line 1 to Union station and hop on the UP-Express to the airport during the holidays to travel back home. Had I not lived in that area and been pretty much anywhere else in the city it's obvious how lacking service into the Airport really is.
You are a lowkey hero. It's so common for TO'ians to claim TO is a world-class city and mnh, I guess in some specific ways, but we are woefully mid in other ways. I've been slushed before waiting for that airport express TTC bus and it's experiences like that which come to mind when I doubt our status in the world. Who knows, maybe you calling it out will have a ripple effect in the future.
They should look into building a high speed rail that connects Pearson Airport to other cities like KW, London, and Kingston. It's gonna open up so many possibilities and make traveling to and from Pearson much, much easy.
If you enjoy this video make sure to share it around! We really need Pearson to start talking about a better transit centre!
Flying Cruise Airship.. Some how My brain said adding rail creates multimodal station which one day could... The Canada Flying Cruise Airship
were not even allowed bikes on the UPX big G that a huge fail i dunno what they were thinking doing this. I guess we felt lucky when the UP did come but the people deserve a real train.
We need the same for Waterloo Region. They could easily run rail to the airport or at least offer regular bus service like Halifax does. Unlike the current On-demand service.
I went to Narita airport for the first time two weeks ago and I was surprised at how many things there are outside the airports. There’s a lot of shops for gifts, but also convenient stuff to get transit cards, international atm, post office to receive mobile hotspots, etc. I don’t think I would have « got » your video without seeing it but it’s a great pattern to replicate. On top of great train transit of course ;)
Indonesian video when?
Years ago a client visiting from Germany said to me "I love your city. Hate your airport"
Great ideas you have here, I hope Metrolinx and the GTAA is watching this.
It wont. If it doesn’t come from inside Metrolinx they wont listen to anybody
Even if they are watching, they won't do anything. From the cities to the GTAA, to the various levels of government, and politicians, they look out for their jobs and not what's best for the public
German Airports are well connected, though often not all that nice!
@@RMTransit Like Stuttgarts Terminal 4. Terminal 1-3 are nice Terminals in buildings built for customers. Terminal 4 is a supposedly temporary Terminal quickly built in a former aircraft hanger.
@@RMTransit BER is by far the nicest one, its not a stressful mess like Frankfurt
Another RMTransit banger! I'm surprised you haven't been hired by the TTC or Metrolinx to redesign the GTHA's transportation network already!
Thanks for watching, always happy to share some ideas.
No we can't let that happen. He would make transit too good in Toronto! /s
@@RMTransit But fr, would you be interested in doing that?
its because they have politicians doing it and not the right people such as RM Transit.
This is fantastic 🙏🙏💯 thank you for such a detailed oversight I would love to alsoo see some much needed bullet train service in Canada and Pearson>ottawa n Niagara falls would be where it start! I would vote for you for mayor sir! Much better than Bonnie or Olivia chow!
Really appreciated this video, and I'm glad you noted the inclusion of "normal" shopping.
One thing I like about European train stations and airports (or at least the ones I used in Switzerland) is that the station is "integrated into the daily fabric of society" - I see no reason why such a facility couldn't have a "full-on" grocery store to serve not only people transiting through, but to also serve locals with their (hopefully) daily shopping.
Yeah exactly. Copenhagen Central station used to have a grocery store that was really useful with affordable prices, and I was gutted to see it close. The station does have a lot of other shops though like beauty shops, cafes, multiple fast food venues, and kiosks, but man it was just good to grab something quickly from the supermarket.
Here in Sweden they did a study answering the question "Can you save money by having a car and using it to go too big shopping centres and grocery stores outside the city centre that usually have lower prices.
The answer was a big NO.
It's way cheaper for everyone and society as a whole to walk from the train or subway station and shop at your local grocery store( that has higher prices) on your way home.
In Sweden it's almost a rule that every station has at least one grocery store very close by.
@@pettahify The train station in Geneva had, in my opinion, the best bread because the bakery was always busy with people buying their bread (and other excellent baked goods and treats) while transiting through. This was because the station was central to society and functioned not only as a station.
Absolutely, places like Switzerland are absolutely the examples to emulate!
The best grocery store I have seen so far in an airport was in Amsterdam Schiphol. It is directly in the main hall directly over the train station of the airport. The prices in that grocery store are the same as in any grocery somewhere else in the city. So a bad of potato chips was less than a Euros for example, while it would cost up to $6 at any major airport in the US.
American airports are especially bad when in comes to ripping of customers. They take advantage of the fact that customers have nowhere else to go. So they sell a simple toast sandwich for $15. There should be consumer protection laws against that. The same is true for food stands at concerts and sports events. Singapore shows how it is done better. At the Formula One Grand Prix food is very cheap and drinks are even cheaper. I wonder what food and drinks costs at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Such a fantastic video! As an airline pilot based at YYZ, improved intermodal connectivity at Pearson would be incredible for the vast amount of airport staff and aircrew as well. The amount of time spent looking for parking in the staff parkade at Viscount can be insane sometimes! Greater transit options out of Pearson could take so many more cars that airport employees use off the road, most of which are single-occupancy anyways.
Love your concept for the bus terminal at Pearson. While your underground concept for rail is great, I doubt our leaders are going to spend additional money on tunnelling after wasting it on that guideway for UPX
Compared to the rest of North America, UP Express is not entirely bad. Had it been electrified, and had the elevated guideway been built without sharpe curves, we could have had much better travel times. REM will probably Canada’s darling for Airport Transit connections once the Dorval extension opens. Having ridden Tokyo’s NeX and Keisei Skyliner, we can of course do much better in Toronto.
Its less our leaders and more GTAA who need to spend the money. The UP being bad and needing to be replaced is all the more reason to do it right
@@RMTransit I think that Pearson should become officially part of Toronto so it is easier for funding (MiWay isn't as likely to support as TTC to connect Pearson with Toronto) But this is just a guess. I feel like all 4 transportation systems, MiWay, York Region Transit, Brampton Transit and the TTC of course should have connections. Like Finch West LRT and Eglinton LRT should connect to Pearson, Mississauga Transitway should go north from Renforth to terminate at Pearson, Viva Yellow should end at Toronto Pearson, and Zum's 505A should actually terminate at Toronto Pearson instead of at Viscount like 900 metres away from Pearson. and GO Transit should stop at Pearson, but not by branching, It should go from Etobicoke North to Pearson to Malton. VIA Rail should also use the same tracks as GO Transit and stop at Pearson instead of Malton. UP Express will be 24/7 with trains each 5 minutes. Finally, all systems of Transit except Terminal Link will connect to one Central station on Airport Road in between the 427 and 409 highways like your idea, the way to get from Central Station to a Terminal would be by using Terminal Link which will have good frequency (shuttle every 2.5 minutes).
This would have a total of 7 Transit systems connecting to Pearson, which are: Brampton Transit, GO Transit, MiWay, TTC, Union Pearson Express, York Region Transit, and VIA Rail, but of course this needs a lot of support to be done as it will be expensive but worth it.
All land in-between the 427, 407, 410, and 401 should be cleared to expand Pearson Airport to be a hub for more flights and to be the 4th largest airport in the world.
This took me a lot of time to write RMTransit so please read this and thank you if you have read it.
My feeling is that the real question is "What do we need most next"? My suspicion is a better Pearson is just not that high on the list because it is already being served. Even if the service could be better.
dude your plan would result in an entire neighbourhood being razed to the ground. a neighbourhood that, btw, is primarily resided in by South Asian and Caribbean immigrants. Malton and its residents deserve better transit options, not to be displaced by overly ambitious and ruinous pie-in-the-sky plans
Also the Khalsa Dabar would need to be demolished as well, which would have… implications
Nothing is impossible. The leaders shouldn't be given a choice. The 57% who couldn't be arsed to vote in the last provincial election have much to answer for.
Pearson airport has been a godsend when I wait for suburban buses to restart after going to toronto clubbing at late night. Few places are open and accessible at 4-5am
Very fair, airports are real 24 hour destinations and thats all the more reason to put more amenities there
Thanks for your video Reece! This is exactly what we need - a public discussion of a Pearson transit terminal. It feels like much of the discussion has happened in secret. Your ideas are good.
Thanks for watching, its a conversation I want to see far more!
I'm glad you mentioned The Jewel at Changi! It's great when airports do awesome things for those who wanna go to the airport just because rather than to actually fly somewhere. JFK International for example has the TWA Hotel which incorporates the TWA Flight Center by Eero Saarinen (who also worked on Dulles and the Gateway Arch) with two buildings added, a rooftop pool offering wonderful views of the different planes taking off and landing, and even a cocktail lounge inside a preserved Lockheed L-1649 Starliner, the last model of the Lockheed Constellation line of airliners. For those who are plane spotters or love aviation history in general, it's heaven. They also fully restored the Solari flipboard inside the Flight Center!
The Jewel's façade was designed by a consortium of architects, led by Moshe Safdie who also designed Marina Bay Sands! The landscape architect was Peter Walker and Partners, who co-designed the National 9/11 Memorial! The Jewel currently houses more than 2,000 trees and palms, and over 10,000 shrubs covering a total area of more than 21K square meters. There are some 120 species, originating from all around the globe! Its majestic indoor waterfall stands at 40 meters high, with recirculating rainwater pumped to the roof to free fall at up to 37,850 liters per minute. And that's not mentioning the things those transiting at Changi can enjoy like a free 24-hour cinema and a butterfly garden!
You can even find good examples of solid public transit at airports in the US! Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport station on the DC Metro for example, served by the Blue and Yellow Lines, is located across Smith Boulevard from Terminal 2 and its mezzanine is directly connected to Level 2 of the terminal (security checkpoints/gates level) by two pedestrian bridges. The first city in North America to offer direct rapid transit service to its major airport was Cleveland as Airport station on its Red Line opened in November 1968! Even St Louis's Lambert International has stations at Terminal 1 and 2 for its MetroLink system!
That being said, European and Asian airports very much serve as a role model for how to easily connect passengers from the airport to their final destination without needing to worry about how much you'll need to rent a car. Frankfurt Airport for example has stations for both regional services and long-distance trains like ICE high-speed services. Frankfurt Airport long-distance and Limburg Süd station are the only railway stations in Germany that are served exclusively by long-distance trains. Paris's Charles de Gaulle on the other hand has the RER B, CDG Express (starting in 2025), and TGV high-speed services which even includes a stop at Marne-la-Vallée-Chessy for those traveling to Disneyland Paris.
Yes. I agree that Pearson REALLY needs a transit hub, especially if it means having multiple services connect to it.
For sure, it would benefit all involved!
well those are the current plans.
I made a post on Reddit a while ago about how bad the transport to New York's airports is. No direct subway to JFK, the ridiculously priced airtrains at JFK and EWR, and no option other than a bus to LGA. The response from New Yorkers seemed to just be "just get a taxi", which kinda missed the point of what I'm saying, but just highlights how poor the airport connections are.
Chicago-O’Hare built a new beautiful intercity bus terminal attached to its new consolidated car rental facility (“Multi-Modal Facility”). It’s also served by two local bus routes.
The biggest local bus transfer transfer center near O’Hare probably remains the Rosemont CTA station, located one Blue Line stop away.
Good feedback on the airport, but as an aside, I also really like that red hat!
I’ve taken the bus to and from pearson many times and this nailed everything. Great job!
This is a fantastic idea, RM. Would you also have additional platforms for a potential extension of line 4 to Pearson (and possibly beyond)? I really like the idea of extending the GO line under Pearson to Mississauga City Centre, a high speed rail connection is definitely needed to there.
I think the current plan with line 4 is extending it west to Sheppard west and east till Sheppard/McCowan
I didn't;'t include space for Line 4 as I figure thats more like 40 years out. One option would be trying to have THAT directly serve both terminals and the Pearson Central Station, and allow using it for free for airport passengers.
I live in London and my transit options to go 150km to Pearson are either a $3 city bus ticket to free 20 minute flight (Air Canada typically makes booking from either airport the same price), a $75 3 hour bus ride, or $80 2hr45 train (including waiting at Union + 25 minutes on the UP). I think the bus is as slow as it is, because it stops a few times, and serving cities from the 401 is not fast (10 minutes to get off highway to bus stop, 10 minutes to get back to same interchange). In past experience they'll only take it until Burlington, then go on side highways that actually intersect with Guelph/KW/London.
Added to my "Fly by Rail" playlist 👍
Nice!
Making better inter-city rail connections could reduce the need for connecting flights from Pearson to London, Ont/Sarnia/Windsor/Kingston, and even Montreal & Ottawa. I think we need to reduce the number of flights overall, largely by making train more attractive for those trips under 600 km or so. However, the Kitchener line train goes quite close to the Region of Waterloo Airport, so with frequent trains and station + shuttle near the Waterloo airport it could take some pressure off of Pearson's flight volumes.
Whenever I travel to TO I "ride the rocket" from Pearson, a wonderfully mis-named transport option, as that bus can end up being incredibly slow getting caught in traffic on the highways it travels down. The fact that there's no decent shelter whilst waiting for that bus, and that I end to visit during winter, is not great. I wasn't even aware of the existence of the UP trains until a couple of years ago, but given that it's over 3 times as expensive as TTC it's never felt worth it to me. I also tend to want to go somewhere that has a TTC station, rather than getting to Union, so I'd just have to change to TTC anyway and incur another ticket cost.
What you're suggesting here is exactly what Pearson needs. Who knows, we might even see something like this before 2050. 🙂
The Rocket bus is fast more than its slow. However regarding cost - 10 dollars for UP feels pretty great assuming you are heading to Union or Downtown
I agree it's lacking a lot. However, I recently travelled from Spadina -> Bloor -> terminal 3 by rail and whilst the connections and moving suitcases around wasn't the smoothest experience it was 100 times better than Dublin Ireland where I had to wait an hour after arrival for the first coach home and it just didn't show up 🙃
Its not the worst experience in the world, but I want a great experience!
I would say Gatwick is the airport in London with the best rail links. You have lots of direct connections to lots of place both North and South with Thameslink, Southern, and the Gatwick Express, and one to the West with Great Western. Whereas Heathrow is at the end of two lines with links only into central London. Heathrow is much better for bus connections though.
Agree. But note that "London" has several official airports. Luton (with its new people mover) from nearby Parkway on the MML (Midland Mainline) has improved, Stansted has recovered post-pandemic while, for ease of use and an inexpensive fare, London City cannot be beaten. I mean the latter lies in Tfl Zone 3 and has its own DLR station.
None of the airports in London are amazing, I'd say Berlin and Amsterdam are both better
@@RMTransit Yes in UK the planning and approval process takes for ages. I mean it took 20 years to build LHR's T5 (because of appeals, consultations etc). One good airport nowadays is Munich and Zurich isn't to be overlooked. Amsterdam has disappointed its fans with the capacity cut ...which has annoyed the US DOT (because of JetBlue being denied slots for summer 2024).
Gatwick is of the busier train hubs in all of the UK, actually
@@tylerkochman1007 Of course it's really busy. Pity that LGW lies south of the capital and therefore isn't so convenient for the many millions living to the north.
Logan Airport in Boston has slightly better transit service - there's a Blue Line subway station at the west boundary of the airport with shuttle busses to the terminals and there's a Silver Line bus "rapid transit" direct from the terminals to South Station downtown where you can change to Amtrak, commuter rail, subway, and commuter and intercity busses. The Silver Line and shuttle busses drop you off and pick you up at curbside right outside each terminal.
I don’t know that it’s better, the airport shuttles and especially the silver line get stuck in traffic. Silver line has absolutely taken me 30 min from south station to Logan at rush hour (Ted Williams tunnel 😢) about the same as UP express. And pearson’s a lot farther from the city than Logan - you can see downtown from the tarmac.
Great ideas and sorely needed. Bonus marks for including the Canadian English term "parkade"!
Last year I flew to Toronto Pearson from Vancouver and ended up waiting an obscene amount of time for our baggage to arrive. After we finally got our baggage after at least 45 minutes - 1 hour of waiting. Then we had to rush as fast as possible to get onto the Union Pearson express to catch a train to Windsor. We nearly missed the Union Pearson because of how long it took us to get from the baggage area to the station. It also wasn't a fast trip and we had to run to catch our train the moment the UP stopped at Union. That was our first experience with the UP, so yeah, not great first impressions. Our trip back to the airport after getting back from Windsor was fine though, if not a bit slow.
Takes 30-45 minutes to get the bags off the plane. Screened and back on the belt before it gets to you on the carousel. That's if there's no technical difficulties
Also pearson is a real airport vs Windsor lol
The TTC - UP connections are horrendous. If you are elderly or physically challenged, the connection at Dundas West requires that exit the TTC and walk outside several hundred metres to get to the UP station - a poorly signed route which involves crossing Dundas St.! Similarly, the distance between the UP stop at Union and the TTC and GO can be an impediment and it is again poorly signed. It seems that the TTC and UP don't talk to each other, after travelling back from Finland in 2022 ( over 15 hours travelling) I got off the UP at Dundas West to get on the Bloor-Danforth line only to find the BD line was closed for signal work and that I'd have to take a shuttle bus to Ossington....this TTC closure was not announced on the UP upsetting several people (to make matters worse the shuttle bus didn't actually go into Ossington but let us out a block north.
I'm mostly just talking about at the airport! The connection at Dundas West is soon going to be indoors!
Edmonton's Valley Line SE LRT has officially opened today!
When it comes to airport railway systems, the best example is in Frankfurt-am-Main, which is at the edge of a high-speed railway line and can be reached by so many high-speed routes.
AMS, ARN, CDG, CPH...
Just the title itself is spot on
The thing you mentioned about “people might go to the airport even if they are not flying” is definitely a more of a thing outside North America, but there are plenty of places inside where that is common. Take SFO, when I lived in San Francisco as a young child, I remember Taking BART to go ride the SFO airtrain just for fun around the terminals. Now most people wouldn’t do this for fun, but there was a substantial number of people without luggage riding it. It shows that there are examples of good airport connections in North America, even if the majority good get upgrades (you can do better LAX)
Before 9/11 people would go to the airport just for fun.
@@tonywalters7298 yeah that musta been heaven for plane-spotters
Why do I get the overpowering feeling that you do far more city planning than most of the Departments of Transportation or city planners all over this world?
Interesting that you make a video about a union station west a couple days after plans for a union station east are released for Pickering 🤔
Im afraid we are going the LAX direction. It seems as though no one wants to make YYZ a proper hub because it’s privately run
And while I like the UP Express, it’s a massive inconvenience if you live outside of the city core. For me in Durham it’s a 55 minute train to Union, then a transfer to the up. For a family of 4 it’s close to the cost of parking for a week. So we loose cost savings, increase time and still have the need for a car once you get to the final stop
Great video as always.
Logan Airport in Boston is definitely one of the best with regards to transit access in the US; second to DC. Sucks the Blue Line doesn't directly go to Logan but there is plenty of free transit access from there that loops around Logan every ~15 mins.
I take the UP to my job at the airport every single day and I think it’s important to expand the frequency and size of the UP cars because it’s not just travellers and holiday goers that use it. Electrify the line and use modern trains with faster trips with less waiting.
If UP connects to the Bloor-Danforth subway (2 Train) the authorities could simply extend the subway out to the airport and maybe run a Train to the Plane.
given the short distances traveled, i wonder if battery locomotives could work
@@JogBird Using batteries is generally the lazy solution for a relatively frequent service if you own the tracks (four trains an hour in a single direction is not a small number for regional trains, for example).
@@JogBirdbatteries is a good solution on short lines exclusively if the frequencies are low. Batteries trains are more expensive to buy than standard electric trains (batteries cost), have higher operation cost (you need to use more trains because you need to recharge batteries and batteries recharge are quite slow), are heavier and less powerful than standard electric ones. Batteries are not the solution for high frequency lines.
I had a 23 hour layover (Thanks to Air Canada to mess my Vacation) and I wanted to vheck in my 2x23 kg bags before I go tot he hotel. This is what a Pearson employee told me :"Bud, I am not sure who's gonna win the Stanley cup, but I am god damn sure that if you check in these bags before 3 hours of your flight, it will be lost"
Unfortunately, Toronto Pearson‘s problem isn’t just unique to Toronto. Except for a very select few airports, North American airports have terrible connections, and some even have none at all, like both Houston airports, LaGuardia, and Detroit. The only airports I’d say that have pretty decent connections in North America are San Francisco, JFK, and even Chicago O’Hare, well sorta. San Fran and JFK probably have the best and even JFK would benefit from a subway line that goes directly to the airport instead of a transfer. O’Hare at least has a subway line that goes directly to the airport
UP needs to run 24/7 and GO Trains from Union need extended hours. Taking public transit after work hours to the suburbs is a pain at best and near impossible after the UP closes for the night.
Before the pandemic, the UP ran until 1am. During the pandemic, frequency was every 30 min and earlier (closer to the 11:27pm last train now) with reasons being demand and labour. I don’t know what demand is like now but I have just missed out on the last train and don’t know why it doesn’t run later. Is it labour still?
Well said Reece. Very good concept.
The part about going to the airport without having a flight is funny to me, because when i take the train I regularly stop at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Not because i want to or anything, but because its just a regular stop on one of the busiest and most important train lines in the country.
I sometimes think about how insane it is I can take an 8-minute bike ride to the station where a train will bring me right into the very heart of one of Europe's busiest airports.
Having even an Airport Train station like Brussels-Zaventem, a bit smaller than Schipol, is still a game changer with also an underground train station that goes almost all over its Suburban and intercity network
Now I'm curious what you'd do for Dorval Airport
Hmm, off the top of my head:
- Complete the REM link
- Continue to extend it south to stop at Dorval station.
- Perhaps continue to extend it through Lachine & LaSalle to connect to the Metro Green Line at Angrignon. OR extend the Green Line west to connect at Dorval & make Dorval a 3-way connection between REM, Metro, and Exo. That would cost a whole lot more, but I wanted that when I lived in that area long before the REM was a concept, so it's kind of my pet project.
- Dorval station to the south already has a bus terminal - it may need renovation/expansion
- Marie-Curie station north of the airport should be bus a hub as well.
Traffic around the airport has been nuts for a while now, so a non-road link will make a big difference.
@@WhiskyCanuck If you do it right and have a heavy use of cut and cover the blue line would make more sense to connect to the airport.
Honestly probably just an extension of the REM, and if we really want to get crazy a better heavy rail connection@@WhiskyCanuck
@@RMTransit Yeah, just completing the REM, and perhaps adding the discussed extension to Dorval station would be enough to help much of the airport issues. Before the REM was a thing, a Blue line extension would have been my choice too for the airport.
I was just thinking that the Green Line stops just short of LaSalle and it's ~80K residents. Lachine has another 40K. If you extend it that far, it's easy to look at a map & say "why not a little further?" and close the loop with the REM at Dorval.
The fact that the Orange Line extension to meet the REM at Bois Franc seems like it might happen some day would also improve airport accessibility too.
You have a powerful and clear eyed view. The “bus experience” has only been awful…a sad reflection of lack of foresight from the grand opening until now.
Landed in Pearson in 2009 at like 5am and had to either freeze outside waiting for the bus or wait 2h for the train service to start or something like that. I was really surprised how such a massive airport had such a bad connection.
If you're going tunnel west under the airport (which transport Canada might have some questions about) it's about the same distance to the Brampton Gateway Terminal as it is to Mississauga City Centre. Seems like light rail route with two branches connecting to the Hazel McCallion LRT might be the answer if we're dreaming in technicolour.
Using an expensive tunnel for light rail seems like a bad idea. Tunnels go under runways all over the world.
@@RMTransitthink of it as a Stadtbahn then, which is what LRT should mean but sadly doesn't
Airport was never designed transit friendly or even car/passenger friendly. Hate having to drive from Hamilton to use it. Being stuck in traffic on a bus is no better than in a car.
I find the DC subway very convenient in going to both Dulles and National. DC had the best subway in America.
Meanwhile NYC subway does not connect to any airports
I love your videos. Your should work as a consultant for Metrolinx as you truly have a great vision for transit planning.
Topic Suggestion: An update on the KW Ion light rail line. I read an interesting article comparing the ridership numbers with Ottawa. As a resident of Cambridge I would also like to get your thought on the proposed extension. There's some really interesting documents they have posted online outlining the proposed route.
Great video on the airport, I wish the people who end up designing transit thought about it as deeply as you do
3:15 VIA’s new fleet are bidirectional, so there will be no need to turn them around.
Until I was 3.5hrs early for a flight from Nice to Madrid (only operated by Iberia, and their only route there), I thought landside options seemed illogical, but now I’m more on board with the idea
Airports are hubs, not everyone is travelling right this minute!
You should look into the St. Catharines GO station, I think you’d have fun with it. Tons of land around the station ready to be built on, but they have no plan. There’s opportunity to make it a great transit city, with connecting transit lines to the go station from across the city. The Niagara GO line is full of potential is crazy, you’d have a lot of fun with it. The region has zero vision and a video like yours will most defiantly be taken seriously by them.
I visited YYZ a few weeks ago and it was crazy to me how it is even possible to run an Airport that size with just one, not even proper, rail connection (the UP Express DMU's are tiny). Even smaller Airports like ARN, BER or FUK would probably cause the surrounding road network to collapse, if all passengers were about to arrive by car or Taxi/Uber.
Also the transit at Bloor is a mess. Why do I have to walk ~5 minutes at the street, if the Subway stops just under the UP Express platform?
I really wish this would get built one day
It amazing that the Go Bus 91 ffrom Finch Subway Stn only stops at Terminal one so you have to spend 30 minutes with luggage to get there if you fly with anybody but AC FROM OVERSEAS. It would only take 5 minutes to go to 3. Why Go and Metrolinx is the worse
Please speak about the lack of washrooms on TTC Subway stations.
Honestly, the TTC is one of the better systems in Canada for this
I used to transit through Pearson from UP to a MiWay Bus and visa versa. It was a journey and a headache on a good day.
Sacramento added a new airport terminal awhile back, and has more capacity than needed. Now a light rail connection is being added to their existing small metro area rail network. It seems the rail connection should have been in place long before the new airport terminal was added.
You should take a look at BC Ferries sometime, as well as land based transit connections to their terminals.
I just traveled for the first time to Toronto last month, and I understand you're advocating for more of a transit hub for the surrounding area instead of strictly a train station from the city core, but I must say, I was a little confused about this vid. I flew into Bishop but flew out of Pearson, and maybe this is just me speaking as someone who lives in Chicago and LA before that, but I was VERY impressed with the UP Express. I understand you have issues with it being diesel, which is fair, but I didn't notice the winding viaduct at all. Frankly, as a bit of an avgeek I loved being up high enough to see all the planes/airlines on the ramp. And I didn't find it to be very slow.
I got on UP at Bloor and honestly, I wished I could have spend MORE time on the train. Plenty of luggage storage, USB ports for every seat, and a smooth ride. Didn't even take 20 minutes for me to get to Pearson. All that for the cost of like $6 CAD (even cheaper for a Yank like me)? I'll take all of that you got. UP Express was one of the unexpected highlights of a fun trip. Loved Toronto's transit. So much better than Chicago's, which has major gaps. Obviously LA's too, and to get to ORD or LAX is a huge pain. Not possible by rail in LA, but the Blue Line to ORD is only convenient from downtown or the west side. Really not practical via train from from the northside. So I was enamored with the UP Express, and I'm surprised to hear you diss it.
My main thrust is that your airport link from the downtown area and western neighborhoods is amazing and you shouldn't take it for granted. It's 1000x better than sitting on the slow ass Blue Line making stops at a half dozen stations in highway medians.
Totally agree with your recommendations. I don't think, however, that the average transit rider will care about the spur line for the UP from Pearson to the main Kitchener line tracks. I think it's too short of a section to notice it's slow. And the elevated view is so great.
All hail the 192. Long live the king! Down with the 900!
I want the UP express to be rebuilt into just a straight up through-running electrified GO line at the same time as a Lawrence Subway that goes out to Scarborough, as the Crosstown is a potato that I can already tell will be slow and inefficient.
Two thoughts from a current employee of an Airport Operator. Otherwise great video bud!
1. Eliminate shops, restaurants and stores on the public side of terminals to prevent unnecessary loiter time in your ticketing and pre-screening areas.
Offer a gate pass system so that customers who’ve come to shop and not fly are able to pass through screening to access the secure side.
2. Electric Busses are more of a hassle than they’re worth. We bought two. Up-time for those assets were about 38% with the rest of which being spent charging or undergoing routine mx. Diesel or Biodiesel are still the most effective option for vehicles that are used to run a 24 hour service.
keep on pushing, someone may actually take note of your suggestions.
This was a great video. You highlighted an issue we know in the US all too well. I've traveled through a lot of US airports and if you're lucky you even get any public transportation/connections at all. They love to do the people movers and air trains connecting terminals and maybe parking lots, but it's not often enough that we get a true downtown connection by rail from our airports.
I was thinking about this the other day. Maybe an LRT going up and down hwy 27 to connect humber (and finch lrt) to the eglington crosstown west extension (and I guess also the race track), then run it down the hydro coridor to kipling station. It would connect a lot of the convention centres together with transit, and also the bloor subway to the airport.
You could go further and use the campa subdivision to get down to long branch or mimico, or even the ex
Verry Good Video. I like your idea.
Visited Toronto and Montreal this summer. Was appalled at the slow speed of the UP coming out of the airport, but happy to have a train. Then went to Montreal and was even more appalled to be squeezed into a bus (although the name, 747, was humorous). As someone from Vancouver, it's shocking that the larger cities of Toronto and Montreal have such mediocre transit to and from their airports.
Montreal will be connected to the REM in 2026
@@TheTroyc1982more so proabable 2027-28
I have often seen people without luggage take the Vancouver skytrain either to the airport or the station before the airport. Do you know the purpose of these trips? Are these people going to the airport to rent a car? Or because they are out-of-towners and the airport has cheap parking? Or are these people all flying on Flair/Lynx with just an under-seat bag? The Vancouver skytrain to the airport is pretty good. It is however a pretty long walk to the sky train station from the arrivals lounge. Transit at Toronto Pearson could be improved but its a lot better than it was 10 years ago.
@@pmycro They could be going to greet someone arriving, or take a quick flight themselves. Some may also work at the airport, it's quite a large building/entity with lots of employees. Renting a car may be an option as well. The station before the airport is Sea Island Centre, primarily parking but also some offices. And then of course Templeton, the 2nd stop after/before the airport, is the outlet mall.
GO Transit is now offering airport transport from Pickering. It makes around two or three stops along the way, Scarborough Town Center, Yorkdale Mall and I believe one other stop. This is nice but a nice high speed train would be better.
Long time Ontario residents will tell you that GTAA has been doing nothing for transit but collecting parking fees until Metrolinx brought the money for the UP. Without the UP Pearson has, like, nothing but parking lots and long walks in the snow. It's an airport ruined by MBAs despite the better intentions of architects. Generally a Toronto vibe, really.
Honestly, you can find articles from the 1980s on Pearson being a usurious car hell-hole.
Pearson will have to do better or they will have their lunch eaten!
There are some airports close to my hometown that dont have a rail connection or a very bad one and i dont even consider flying from there. The different realities are crazy sometimes.
Germany's airports of Frankfurt and Düsseldorf already have 200mph high-speed train stations, and ofc they also provide local and regional public transit (trains, light rail aka "S-Bahn", and buses). From December 2025 onwards, high-speed trains can directly reach both Berlin-Brandenburg airport (thanks to a new link called "Dresdner Bahn" which halves travel time from Berlin city center to 20 minutes) and Stuttgart airport (after the completion of the massive 10bn "Stuttgart 21"-project). The airports of Cologne-Bonn and Leipzig-Halle are worthwhile mentioning, too.
Sadly, this form of intermodality is a thing that's often completely missing in other countries like Spain (e.g. Madrid, Barcelona airports), France (e.g. Paris-Orly, Marseille airports); but Italy's Rome Fiumicino “Leonardo Da Vinci” International Airport can be reached directly with high-speed trains from other Italian city centers with no need to change trains.
Hey, it's still a lot better than it was a few years ago. Last time I visited Toronto in 2011, the UP Express didn't exist, and the only way to get to my uncle's house in Mississauga without an expensive taxi was him picking me up from the airport!
As a Londoner who flies to Pearson twice a year and travels on to Brantford, I like your plan, but I have 1 issue with it and 1 suggestion. My issue is the site you propose it's pretty far from the terminals, which would be quite annoying. I honestly think the road spaghetti ought to be massively simplified first, and then build the station in the space left. There's just a totally unnecessary number of spurs and slip roads. If you improve transit connectivity, there should be less road traffic, so it shouldn't be an issue. My suggestion would be to take that extra rail spur you mentioned and build a new rail line from Pearson to Hamilton (and maybe beyond), that would go under the airport, then pop up next to the Mississauga Transitway and follow the 403 and hydro corridors down to Hamilton. I reckon it would be quite cheap to build apart from the tunnel under the airport, and it would massively improve rail connections to the west of Toronto.
if we have decent high speed rails, we don't need domestic flights. In the meantime, Extend UPX to Kennedy Station to serve the East End. Move the bus stop closer to the terminal entrance, with clear signage and dedicated bus shelters, move kiss and fly drop offs to Viscount.
I wanna live in your world. this sounds great
Was at Pearson a few months ago, drove from north of the city. What a nightmare. Signage was poor with little warning. Used to exit 409, find your terminal on sign and drive straight to it. Not any more. The UP train has to be better than the Kipling bus was.
I just wanted to mention Oshawa has recently released more updates for their potential rapid transit plans in the future if you wanted to look into it for a potential video!
I visited Toronto in 2007, long before the UP Express. Had to wait for the Airport Rocket, which only went as far as Kipling station. My hotel was around the corner from St. Andrew station, so that meant changing trains at St. George station. Not exactly a short trip. So the UP Express would have been more convenient, despite its flaws.
Meanwhile Chicago: Metra NCS line run 6 trains a day on the weekdays and there's no weekend service...
I'd be really curious to hear what you would suggest to improve Square One as a transit hub. The fact that there is no direct route to Union Station makes getting into the city from the suburbs unnecessarily cumbersome
Lots of ideas
Re: Parking around the airport, height limitations will keep any buildings below a few storeys and noise will make residential and some commercial unfeasible.
There are already 15 story hotels very close to YYZ and the better transit connections will mean that less spaces are needed
I'm on exchange at Brock University and have been travelling through person a couple of times. It's very annoying because I don't have a car. I either have to take the Megabus to Toronto Union Station and take the train from there or take an Uber or the Niagara Airbus, which is very expensive. There is a big lack of options for getting to Pearson. for context, I live in the northern part of Norway, and to get to my closest relatively big airport (Tromsø), there is a bus twice a day that takes three hours. Altough this is not great, there is about 170 000 people living in the whole county of Troms, and 65 000 of them live just in the city of Tromsø, and this compared to the massive size of Toronto and the fact that the GTA has more people than the whole of Norway, it is very surprising that the offerings are this bad.
I feel like especially for local bus routes that they should still go into the terminals, like the 52 Lawrence West. You get on/off the bus right at the terminal with little walking and no train required and its very convenient rather than walking 10 minutes/get that train
I've lived in Toronto my entire life, and i recently go back from a trip. I wanted to meet my ride at the Viscount car park, but the signage was absolutely DISMAL. I had to ask 3 different employees, because the signage and way finding was so insanely bad.
When I was in Toronto in 2009, the only option was the bus. It was the most comfortable airport bus I have ever seen though. Air condition, leather seats and tinted glass. It had a few stops in the city center. Most rail connections from an airport only have a single stop in the city center. If a train went to Union Station for example, I would have had to switch to a bus or a taxi there. I still prefer trains though, because they do not require interaction with the driver.
Recently I was in Istanbul. They have a shiny new airport, which is planned to be the busiest airport in the world one day. They also have a rail connection. The station is quite large and impressive, but you have to walk a few hundred metres to get there and they have columns preventing you to use a baggage cart on the travelators. The problem is that the columns are so close together that a two wheel bag will not fit through them unless you rotate it by 90 degrees and then drag it through the columns. I am still young and strong, but for elderly people that is not optimal. I wondered why they did not manage to build a station directly under the terminals, as the airport was built from scratch. I think I know the answer. They are afraid of a terrorist attack and therefore built the station far enough from the terminal that a bomb in a train would not cause a closure of the terminal. Those are the times we live in.
UP express is great yo and it was super expensive to build - could extend service though
I heard that domestic travel within Canada is insanely expensive - is that true? A few fellow Aussies told me, and mentioned mobile phone planes (esp data) is bizarrely expensive.
There are more then 2 terminals at the airport. 1 & 3 being the main 2 and the other you to by airport bus after clearing customs
I am in th Buffalo NY area. YYZ is my go to airport for international travel. Sure the Buffalo Airport has plenty of flights, but it is SO much nicer to get a direct flight say to Europe than to have to fly in many cases out of the way (Detroit, Chicago, or any major hub south), or worse go through the already congested and relay prone NYC regional airports such as JFK & Newark. It's also usually 20-35% less expensive to fly those direct routes. As we all know the traffic has gown incredibly since I first started going to YYZ when we moved to the Buffalo area in the mid 1980's. Back then there was easy/free flowing traffic between the international bridges and Burlington. Even then traffic was easy to Ford Drive and things really got busy close to downtown. Today anything east of Burlington is slow most of the time and a near parking lot during peak times. There is the 407 expressway and most of the time I'll pay th $18 each way to take that for all of 20 odd miles to save a lot of time and slow traffic. None the less, the last 15 miles to the airport are usually between busy and stop and go traffic. I would love to be dropped off at the Burlington Go Train station and have a smooth predictable ride to the airport. That would be so much easier for anyone dropping us off, or when I have to return the favor for others. I grew up in the Netherlands and remember the train station being built in front of the main terminal building at Schiphol. Over time the airport has grown so much that it expanded overtop of the station and now it's centrally integrated into the main public departure / arrival hall. It's a great example for Toronto to see how well it can integrate into regional rail. It would be interesting to see how easy it would be to convince people to not have to deal with modern heavy Toronto road traffic and just get on a train that gets you right to the heart of the Airport.
Not sure what the dig against Los Angeles was for, considering their new people mover isn't even open yet. Nobody really knows how good or bad a system it will be. The transit station that will be connected to the people mover will have two light rail lines leading to various parts of the area, with both featuring additional potential extensions, especially the K Line. Now neither leads directly downtown, but that matters less in Los Angeles than other major cities as LA is very decentralized, and you can get to downtown via one additional transfer. The people mover will also be used to get from one terminal to another as well as to the rental car facility and long term parking, in addition to connecting to the light rail.
I genuinely would love to see you become the Canadian Transportation Minister or something in Ottawa, able to make high level decisions country wide. You are the kind of visionary this country soo desperately needs.
Brilliant! It will be good that the Kitchener line should be running q 15 mins or so as part of the RER program. Amd electrified. So as to not stink up your pretty new station!
I had a conversation with my father regarding the idea of building an airport in Pickering. I have been referring to the topics and solutions suggested by you, NotJustBikes, CityBeautiful and other urban/transit design channels that could make getting to Pearson more digestible without the need to uproot farmland and natural spaces in the proposed Pickering airport site.
This video will surely help in making that point!
Keep doing these cool videos! I will certainly be coming back for more!
Then there is O'Hares connection to the Blue Line CTA at ORD which, itself, is a long tunnel walk. But unlike the tunnel connecting Kipling TTC to the Kipling Intercity Terminal, you got cell-service.
What about the Metra NCS?
@@maas1208 Never got to ride the Metra, so I can't comment on that.
When I was studying downtown at UofT I would always just talk a short trip down line 1 to Union station and hop on the UP-Express to the airport during the holidays to travel back home. Had I not lived in that area and been pretty much anywhere else in the city it's obvious how lacking service into the Airport really is.
You are a lowkey hero. It's so common for TO'ians to claim TO is a world-class city and mnh, I guess in some specific ways, but we are woefully mid in other ways. I've been slushed before waiting for that airport express TTC bus and it's experiences like that which come to mind when I doubt our status in the world. Who knows, maybe you calling it out will have a ripple effect in the future.
Thanks for watching, Toronto has good features and bad features, I'd love to see it continue to improve!
Restrooms with showers would be amazing at an airport! Why is this not a more widespread thing!?
They should look into building a high speed rail that connects Pearson Airport to other cities like KW, London, and Kingston. It's gonna open up so many possibilities and make traveling to and from Pearson much, much easy.
Very interesting ideas.. time to update my hypothetical maps!