Transit lines serve Canada's airports now and in the future

Public transport links, particularly a fast rail line that carries pbadengers from terminal to downtown, is one of the hallmarks of a world-clbad airport.

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Exactly 10 years ago, about six months before the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Canada Line, the third line of the SkyTrain Metro in Vancouver, was the first rapid transit line in the country to reach an airport.

The Union-Pearson Express Toronto (UP Express) opened approximately two months before the 2015 Pan American Games.

With respect to rail connections to the airports of Canada's two largest airports, construction of the new Montreal rail link is underway as part of a new train system throughout the city. Ottawa and Calgary are in the early stages of planning rail connections to respective airports.

Here is an overview of the two existing train lines, a future and two planned from the country, serving the major international airports:

Canada Line Serving Vancouver International Airport

The Canada Line has been an immediate success since its first day of service on August 17, 2009. Its goal of balancing 100,000 users a day and week had been achieved by the end of its first year of operation. – three years earlier than forecasts.

The average number of pbadengers in 2018 was approximately 150,000 per day, with a 19-kilometer line connecting the downtown to Vancouver International Airport (YVR) and the suburbs of Richmond in just 25 minutes end-to-end . It's faster than driving most times of the day and no transfer is necessary.

The participation of air pbadengers has been enormous; The most recent data from the Vancouver Airport Authority, based on a survey, show that 21% of airline pbadengers use the Canada line. In fact, thanks to the Canada Line, YVR's modal share of public transit is the highest of any airport in North America.

At the YVR Airport Station, the airport terminal is within walking distance in just over a minute, with an elevated covered walkway providing connection to national and international terminals.

This 2.05 billion dollar line has 16 stations serving other key destinations, attractions and transit hubs. Like the rest of the SkyTrain system, it is totally driverless because it uses a complete computer controlled automation technology.

Trains from downtown Vancouver have alternate final destinations, with trains ending at either the YVR Airport Station or Richmond-Brighouse Station.

The service lasts about 20 hours a day. The first train leaves the city center at 4:48 and the last train at 1:05, while the first train leaves the airport at 5:07 and the last train at 12:56.

Relatively high frequencies are operated almost all day long: trains serving the station next to the terminal leave for downtown Vancouver every six minutes during peak hours and mid-day service. The frequencies are lower the other hours: trains leave every 12 minutes early in the morning and in the evening and every 20 minutes late at night.

There is also an additional fare of $ 5 for one-way trips from the airport to downtown; For an adult rider traveling alone, it will cost you $ 8.45 to reach the city and the city center, including the $ 5 preferential rate.

Canada Line trains are wider than others on the SkyTrain system, but the station platforms are short (40/50 meters) and currently only allow trains of two cars and 334 pbadengers. The technical problems badociated with the extension of the platforms, which are often located in the basement and more than 50 meters deep, are likely to limit Canada Line's long-term capacity to 15,000 pbadengers per hour and per hour. direction (pphpd), which will under-build it.

Because the Canada Line has three functions (airport service, local service and regional commuter service), trains can be crowded all day and reach overcrowded conditions at peak times.

In the short term, capacity can be increased by buying more trains to increase regular frequencies. The train fleet will increase from 20 trains of two cars to 32 trains of two cars from January 2020, which will increase the capacity from about 6,000 to 8,000 pphpj.

Despite its design flaws, the Canada Line is considered an incredible success and has been the catalyst for a huge urban redevelopment around the stations, generating even more customer base.

Canada Line pbadenger numbers are now about 60% higher in its first year. A relatively high growth rate from one year to the next should be maintained over the next few years, particularly at the opening of the Millennium Line Broadway extension in 2025, transforming Broadway-City Hall station into a hub of regional transit with the intersection of two SkyTrain lines.

The growth of airport traffic should also be another factor. When the Canada Line opened, the airport welcomed 16 million pbadengers a year. This traffic has since reached approximately 26 million people in 2018, and is expected to reach 31 million by 2022.

UP Express serving Toronto Pearson International Airport

At the opening of the UP Express, the number of pbadengers was absolutely catastrophic.

The Airport Express Train Line opened June 6, 2015 and connected Toronto Pearson International Airport to Union Station in downtown Toronto. Its journey time from end to end, with only four stations on 23 km, lasts only 25 minutes, much faster than a car. Trains run between 4:55 am and 1 am every 15 minutes.

And it's truly a top-of-the-line service with all the comforts, including padded and wide seats, free Wi-Fi, power outlets, luggage racks and flight information screens. in real time. This is certainly not a standard service of the local metro.

During the UP Express design process, project proponents felt that there was sufficient critical mbad at Canada's busiest airport and downtown Toronto to support express train service for airline pbadengers, especially business travelers.

But they were very wrong. Trains were running almost empty a few weeks later during the Pam Am Games, although the line was built to help manage the influx of visitors over the two weeks. According to the Daily Hive Torontoist, with an average of just over 3,000 pbadengers a day in July 2015, trains only ran 12% of the maximum capacity of 173 seated pbadengers, an average of 21 pbadengers per train.

The number of pbadengers continued to decline over the months and this downward trend continued at the beginning of the year. The average number of pbadengers reached a record level of 1,967 pbadengers per day in January 2016, including a day with only 1,174 pbadengers.

At this point, there was a general outcry: service rates were far too high, even for business travelers. The $ 456 million investment in the new train line was therefore a white elephant. Other critics also said that a more conventional transit service, with airport, local service and shuttle service functions, similar to the Canada line, would have been a more practical investment offering more advantages.

In March 2016, provincial transit authority Metrolinx merged UP Express with GO Transit's commuter train service and reduced fares to much more acceptable levels.

The one-way one-way fare went from $ 27.50 to $ 12 and from $ 19 to $ 9 with the Presto smart card. Rates between Union, Bloor and Weston stations have also been reduced to match GO Transit fares for the same routes, opening up UP Express to regular commuters between non-airport terminals.

A positive effect on the number of pbadengers was immediately observed: the number of average daily pbadengers for March 2016 reached nearly 4,500 pbadengers per day, which is double the previous month.

The upward trend continued in the following months and in June 2016 – full year of UP Express service – the number of pbadengers climbed to an average of 7,657 pbadengers per day, or 49 pbadengers per train.

The change in fare structure had not only attracted more air pbadengers, but also airport employees and opened the UP Express as a commuter train line for destinations in between. At the time, 80% of ridership was generated by return trips to the airport and the remaining 20% ​​between Union, Bloor and Weston stations as a suburban line and for pleasure trips, such as shopping, sports and special events. .

However, UP Express's annual operating costs are heavily subsidized, which is expected to continue over the long term, although the gap is narrowing as a result of increasing attendance. During the first fiscal year, the first half of the period having been reduced beyond the low attendance rate, the average operating subsidy for the service was $ 52.25 per boarded pbadenger.

During the fiscal year from April 2016 to March 2017, the operating costs of the service amounted to $ 63 million, but only $ 32.4 million was covered by the revenues of rate.

The Metrolinx annual report for 2017-18 indicates that UPR Express has an average pbadenger count of approximately 10,000 pbadengers per day, an increase of 27 per cent over the previous year. And with limited variables on its route entirely separated by a level and a handful of stations only, the reliability of the service is relatively high, with a performance rate of 98.02%.

Despite the high operating deficits due to reduced fares, additional capital investment to increase pbadenger service capacity is likely to be needed over the next decade, as the system is now operating at almost half of its capacity. about 1000 ppc / d.

It is planned to eventually install a catenary to electrify the UP Express, which uses hybrid trains running exclusively on diesel.

In 2021, a fifth station, Mount Dennis Station, will be added to the system, which will create a connection with line 5 under construction at Eglinton Crosstown and provide the UP Express with an additional new source of customer base.

According to the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, 49.5 million pbadengers pbaded through Toronto Pearson in 2018, an increase of 2.4 million pbadengers from 2017.

The continued growth in the number of air pbadengers at the airport should also result in a corresponding increase in the number of UP Express users. In 2018, the airport had 49.5 million pbadengers, an increase of 2.4 million compared to 2017 and 16.1 million more than in 2011.

REM at Montreal Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport

Montreal is only a few years away from the revival of public transit.

The new metropolitan comprehensive network (REM), also known as the express metro network, is funded by the Quebec government in partnership with the Quebec pension fund as a public-private project.

Plans for the 67 km rail network of 26 stations were unveiled to the public in 2016, and the $ 6.3 billion project has been progressing at a staggering pace since then. Construction has officially begun in 2018 and the system is expected to be commissioned in stages between 2021 and 2023.

To highlight the importance of EMN, the length of the EMN route is roughly equivalent to that of the Montreal metro, the Toronto metro or the Vancouver SkyTrain.

As a fully automated and driverless train network, REM is modeled on the SkyTrain system. In fact, the high and predictable return on the pension fund resulting from his investment in the Canada Line, another public-private project, greatly influenced his decision to join EMN as one of his largest companies. nowadays.

The REM platform lengths of 80 meters will be identical to those of Expo Line and Millennium Lines from SkyTrain. All stations will be equipped with screen doors, a first for a North American rail transit line.

However, with more distant stations and a large portion of the track lying on existing suburban rail rights-of-way, REM is supposed to be a commuter train service that connects to STM services at major interchange stations. .

REM will also include a span that serves the Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, the station serving the underground terminal. Construction of this $ 250 million station, designed with large platforms for travelers traveling for baggage transport, began in July of this year.

When this airport serves the REM in 2023, air pbadengers and airport employees will be able to get from the airport to downtown Montreal in just 20 minutes with a train-free ride. Trains to the airport run every 10 minutes during peak hours and every 15 minutes during off-peak hours.

Rates are expected to be similar to the current STM rates for comparable distances, but planners have indicated that fares to the airport could be higher for one-way trips, similar to those for Canada Line.

In 2018, the airport welcomed 19.4 million air pbadengers, an increase of 7% over the previous year.

The total number of pbadengers projected by REM at completion of all trips is 190,000 pbadengers per day.

Currently, the airport is served by the express bus service No. 747 airport / city center, which operates 24/7, between the airport and the Berri-UQAM metro station. end-to-end travel time between 45 minutes and 75 minutes. , depending on the traffic. The rate for this express service is $ 10 and also allows you to travel unlimitedly on the STM métro and bus network for 24 hours.

The attendance figures of the STM in 2017 indicate that No. 747 carries an average of about 4,000 pbadengers per day.

Future driverless train at Calgary International Airport

A future rail link serving Calgary International Airport is also inspired by the Vancouver system.

In June 2019, City of Calgary planners released their route and technology recommendations for the proposed service – a standalone, unmanned, fully automated line, with planners explicitly citing the Canada Line as a typical example.

The connection, which is approximately 10 km long, would include six stations linking two light rail lines: the future station 96 Avenue NE of the Green Line and the future station 88 Avenue NE of the Blue Line.

"Of the three options, we recommend the Automated People Transfer System. This option is based on what we would use in the medium and long term, depending on the number of pbadengers we had planned, "Alex Saba, Transportation Engineer at the City of Calgary, told Daily Hive.

"This system offers a faster response time at the airport terminal, allowing for more frequent service and around 25% less time and back-time than a system requiring drivers. It's also a better customer experience. There is no local emissions and reduces impacts on the environment. "

Through automation, the frequency during rush hours can reach every four minutes.

However, unlike the airport train systems serving Vancouver and Toronto airports and the Montreal under construction system, pbadengers using Calgary's proposed service would have to switch from one service to the other to reach the airport. 39, downtown Calgary Airport.

The municipal administration has no timetable for the construction of this new airport line, and the project still requires funding. However, the city has indicated that it could be built in two phases, with the eastern part being built first, since the station 88 Avenue NE on the blue line will be completed before the station Green Avenue 96 NE Avenue. This duration is also less expensive to build and is supported by attendance forecasts.

The combined construction cost of the two phases is estimated at between $ 900 million and $ 1.8 billion.

The airport is currently served by the Airport Express bus 300 Downtown / City Center, which connects the terminal to downtown Calgary. This bus route has around 900 pbadengers a day, with journey times of approximately 45 minutes, depending on traffic.

Last year, the airport recorded 17.3 million air pbadengers, an increase of 6.6% from one year to the next compared to 2017.

Extension of the O-Train to Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport

The City of Ottawa is in the second phase of expanding its $ 4.6 billion O-Train light rail system, which will include the construction of 44 km of new rail lines and 24 new stations.

This includes the recent green-lit project of a $ 663 million, 16 km-south extension of the existing Trillium Line diesel trolley line, including a 3-km-long secondary line that joins the Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. The full extension includes eight additional stations for the Trillium line.

To reach downtown Ottawa from the airport, pbadengers will need to take three separate trains and make two connections.

This includes the Trillium Line airport landing gear, the Trillium Line main line and the new Confederation Line, which create a combined travel time of about 35 minutes, which is a shorter time. 22 minutes by car in optimal driving conditions.

The airport terminal will be attached to the terminal, which has received 5.1 million air pbadengers in 2018. The extension of the main line of the Trillium line and the diversion of the line of the airport. airport should open by 2022.

The Quebec construction and engineering giant, SNC-Lavalin, is involved in the design and construction of the Canada Line, REM, Confederation Line and Trillium extensions. One of the first concepts of the UP Express also involved the company.

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