W
Wanker
Guest
Another waste of money for the taxpayers?.
The train Toronto loves to hate is back in the news: the Union Pearson Express, launched in June, is not bursting at the seams with passengers — there are about 2,500 a day on average, according to a UPX report submitted to its Metrolinx overlords last week.
But we are told that’s down since the launch in June; it’s at only half of the target ridership for the end of Year One; and it’s 4,500 daily bums in seats short of running unsubsidized.
“On one Saturday this month, only 1,144 people rode the new rail link … an average of barely seven passengers per train,” the Globe and Mail breathlessly reported. Out scurried the haters with their dusted-off complaints: it’s too expensive, it ought to have been built for the masses and not the “business elite,” it should have been built by the private sector, it doesn’t stop at my front door.
As ever with this bloody train, some perspective is in order. Have you ever been to an airport on a Saturday? Pretty quiet, right? Like it or not, this thing is aimed at business travellers.
Summer is not peak business travel season. And the supposedly “dwindling” ridership presents as follows: 2,753 average weekday riders in June; 149 fewer than that in July; 43 fewer than that in August; and three more than that in September up to the 20th. Not exactly fatal, you will agree.
More to the story:
The train Toronto loves to hate is back in the news: the Union Pearson Express, launched in June, is not bursting at the seams with passengers — there are about 2,500 a day on average, according to a UPX report submitted to its Metrolinx overlords last week.
But we are told that’s down since the launch in June; it’s at only half of the target ridership for the end of Year One; and it’s 4,500 daily bums in seats short of running unsubsidized.
“On one Saturday this month, only 1,144 people rode the new rail link … an average of barely seven passengers per train,” the Globe and Mail breathlessly reported. Out scurried the haters with their dusted-off complaints: it’s too expensive, it ought to have been built for the masses and not the “business elite,” it should have been built by the private sector, it doesn’t stop at my front door.
As ever with this bloody train, some perspective is in order. Have you ever been to an airport on a Saturday? Pretty quiet, right? Like it or not, this thing is aimed at business travellers.
Summer is not peak business travel season. And the supposedly “dwindling” ridership presents as follows: 2,753 average weekday riders in June; 149 fewer than that in July; 43 fewer than that in August; and three more than that in September up to the 20th. Not exactly fatal, you will agree.
More to the story:
