Metrolinx drafted plans last year to dramatically hike fares on the Union Pearson Express in order to raise revenue and deter local commuters from taking the airport train service, the Star has learned.Documents obtained through a freedom of information request suggest the agency considered raising the cost of a ride between Union Station and Pearson Airport to as much as $20, a price that would partially reverse an earlier fare reduction that was seen as crucial to making the service viable. The proposed fare increase hasn’t been implemented, and Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency for the GTHA, has since said it intends to change how the UP Express operates by replacing its infrastructure rather than raising fares.The report recommending the fare increase was “never actioned or followed up on as yet,” said Metrolinx spokesperson Fannie Sunshine in an email.“We regularly undertake ridership and revenue reviews to ensure fares encourage ridership and deliver best customer value.” The documents, which consist of more than 1,000 pages of emails, memos, and presentations related to an internal review of the airport rail link conducted in the first half of 2018, show Metrolinx officials came up with the fare increase proposal after concluding the business model for the $456-million line was broken. They believed that just months after the UP Express opened in 2015 it had stopped functioning as intended — it cost too much to operate, and wasn’t performing adequately as either a premium shuttle for airport travellers, or as a local service for commuters. “I’m fine with it being one or the other but in the past two years the service has struggled to be both,” Metrolinx’s then-chief customer experience officer Mary Proc told colleagues in a March 11, 2018 email. A February memo outlining the review said Metrolinx had two main choices: continue to operate the UP Express as “as a standalone servi ...
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