Union Pearson Express wins Global AirRail award

Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief

A panel of international transportation experts has named Canada’s Union Pearson Express as Project of the Year at the Global AirRail Awards in Frankfurt, Germany.

UP Express “will provide fast, reliable, and convenient shuttle service between Canada’s two busiest transportation hubs—Union Station in downtown Toronto and Toronto Pearson International Airport—when it launches in spring 2015,” say project officials . “It will address a significant gap in airport-to-downtown travel in Toronto. Each year an estimated five million people travel between the two hubs. With this number expected to grow to nine million by 2020, UP Express is expected to remove 1.2 million car trips annually while offering a critical transit alternative for quick and easy access to Toronto’s downtown core and Toronto Pearson. Each one-way trip will take approximately 25 minutes. With vehicles departing every 15 minutes, UP Express will be the fastest and most reliable means to the airport.”

info union to pearson-940x511 Union Pearson Express is a division of Metrolinx, an agency of the Government of Ontario. It is being built by AirLINX Transit Partners Inc., a consortium of Aecon Construction and Materials Limited and Dufferin Construction Company, overseen by Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario. The system will share the upgraded GO Transit Kitchener (formerly Georgetown) regional rail corridor. A new, 1.9-mile airport connection, also known as the “spur,” is under construction between the Kitchener line at Highway 427 to Terminal 1 at Toronto Pearson. The system’s 18 vehicles will be Tier-4 diesel multiple units (DMUs) supplied by Sumitomo. The vehicles can be converted to electric propulsion if a decision is made to move forward with electrifying the UP Express. Construction of UP Express is scheduled to be completed on time for the 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games in Toronto.