Initial thoughts on riding the UP Express
A transit lover’s take on the new Toronto air rail link.
On my way back from convocation in Waterloo a couple weekends ago, I got into Toronto at about 2:30, and went through my usual ritual of walking up Bay Street looking for a hot dog stand and devouring a spicy Italian sausage before taking my next bus or train. (Note: The one at Bay and Queen is highly worth the walk for street meat lovers like myself.) I had a lot of time left afterwards and was in no rush to get back home to Barrie, so I did something I’ve been looking forward to trying for a couple months: taking a ride on the rail link from Union Station to Pearson Airport, officially the Union Pearson Express, or the UP Express. I originally was going to write these thoughts down for myself, but ended up having enough to share that it warranted more than telling others “I liked it.” Apologies if it’s a little repetitive or rough.
Union Station
Starting from the Bay Concourse, getting to the UP station requires a fair bit of time, but luckily the signage for the most part is straightforward*. Once you’re in the station it’s quite nice and I assume it’s intended to provide inspiration from Ontario forests given the use of wood and plants in the station decor. Unfortunately, I didn’t consider taking photos of it until after I left Toronto. There are some little shops on the side opposing the train platform that sell coffee, souvenirs and the like. There are plenty of station attendants ready to greet and help you, and the arrival time display is pretty clear to understand. It’s nice how flush the train is with the building, which is more like the rail service at Pearson versus the open-platform model GO and VIA typically use.
The little display above the platform indicates when the next train is coming, and when I arrived it first indicated 5 minutes, then counted down accurately to when it was arriving, then said 18 minutes, which confused anyone who was on the platform. An attendant noted that they were undergoing some signalling issues which led to the weird timing, and reassured us that the train was coming in under 5 minutes. Sure enough, it arrived and we all filed in.
The Train
Inside the train, it was really clean and comfortable. There’s a lot of space at each chair so that you have room for any of your belongings that you would presumably be bringing on or off the plane, and a luggage rack next to each door. There’s a screen visible from each seat that displays ads, flight delays and route information. Above the screens are maps of the route with relevant connections, and below are spaces for coats and suits to hang. There are some power plugs at each seat to charge your devices, and free Wi-Fi that was a good speed for me, but may be stressed under the load of a full train.
I decided to time how long it took to get to each stop on the trip, since there is heavy marketing throughout the stations that you can make it “from Union Station to Toronto Pearson in 25 minutes, every 15 minutes”. I included an example of the posters here, which comes from their website, where it’s the first thing that you see on their home page. With this in mind, I wanted to test whether this holds true. I took a time measurement each time there was something of note.
Union to Pearson Milestones
- 3:29: Union Station — doors close
- 3:33: Wait for train to pass
- 3:39: Bloor Station — arrive
- 3:41: Bloor Station — leave
- 3:46: Weston Station — arrive
- 3:48: Weston Station — leave
- 3:52: Momentary Wi-Fi and cellular service knockout
- 3:57: Pearson Airport — arrive
There were a few points along the trip I found interesting to note apart from the regularly scheduled stops. About four minutes in, we had to stop for a bit on a side track for what I assume was letting a train use the main track to head back towards Union before we could continue towards Pearson. Also, about five minutes before we arrived at Pearson, the Wi-Fi on the train and my personal cellular service went out. I use Wind, so it’s not the most surprising thing for me to hit a couple dead spots, but I wonder if Metrolinx uses Wind for the network since it went out simultaneously.
At both Union and Pearson it spends a weird minute or two making sure it’s lined up to the proper doors, which is a bit jarring. At Pearson, for example we all got up and gathered at the door only for the train to burst forward twice before stopping.
Pearson Airport
Upon arrival at Pearson, there’s a cleaning crew under Bombardier’s employment that does a quick scrub down of all the surfaces and checks for garbage, which is pretty impressive. I imagine this is how the train has been keeping itself looking so pristine, and it will be interesting to see if they can keep up when the train gets busier.
The station also looks more minimalist than the Union Station one. If you access it from the Pearson side, you would start at Terminal 1 and head up the escalator to the LINK Train area, then you see a pretty obvious sign that the UP is ahead, with the ticket booths and giant sign.
On the way back from Pearson, I figured I could record milestones up to the second, particularly for when I hit Weston and Bloor so I could see how short the wait is at each station.
Pearson to Union Milestones
- 4:13: Pearson Airport—leave
- 4:22: Weston Station — arrive (10 min, 12 sec)
- 4:23: Weston Station — arrive (10 min, 44 sec)
- 4:26: Wait for train to pass
- 4:31: Bloor Station — arrive (19 minutes, 59 seconds)
- 4:32: Bloor Station — leave (20 minutes, 29 seconds)
- 4:41: Union Station — arrive
Again, there was a point where the train had to wait for a train heading the other direction. I’m not sure if this is a common occurrence or just happened on the trips I took, but it was an interesting point of note. The stops at each station lasted about thirty seconds heading towards Union, and while I didn’t measure the exact timing heading towards Pearson, it lasted about a minute to a minute and a half. The shorter time towards Union is likely because most people at Bloor and Weston stations would have taken the TTC to get to Union, so they probably had less people to pick up.
The View
Along the route, you get an interesting look at what the first impression of Toronto will be to many of the people who will be taking the train route. This is especially true in the Pearson to Union direction. It starts out looking pretty modern, with the airport train zooming around on its segregated elevated rail over the endless roads heading into the airport. You then get a look at part of the meeting of four major Ontario highways and a couple huge roads that intersect to form a kilometre of multi-level concrete overpasses.
You also get a nice sense of height from these sorts of views. You slowly lower down the closer you get to Union, but for a good part of the ride toward Pearson it’s very elevated. You also see a lot more graffiti once you get closer, which is an interesting impression that at some times looks artistic but at other times looks downtrodden. Once you ride up to the station, you naturally get the pretty CN Tower view from below.
Final Thoughts
My trip time recording experiment showed that it took about 28 minutes each way, with about a minute spent on average at each station. This is longer than their advertised 25 minutes, which makes me wonder why they didn’t just say “30 minutes”, since that’s still an impressive feat if you’re leaving from downtown Toronto. Other than that little nitpick, I was impressed at how fast it felt. The amenities on the train make it easier to pass the time, and the low number of stations adds to the impression of speed. It honestly didn’t feel like it was even half an hour long.
If you’re into public transit and want to check it out, it’s pretty easy to hop on and you can just pay with your Presto card. Otherwise, if you’re taking a trip from Pearson anytime soon, it’s a pretty quick and convenient way to go. You are able to check out the station for free and wander about, so consider that if you’re hesistant to take a ride. If you change your mind, the train will be a tap and five steps away.
