Just four years after the Union Pearson Express started running, Metrolinx is planning an extensive and potentially costly overhaul of the airport rail link that could include major station renovations and scrapping the current fleet of trains, the Star has learned.

An unpublished Metrolinx document obtained by the Star shows the agency, which is the provincial Crown corporation in charge of transportation planning for the GTHA, has drawn up plans to relocate the UP Express platform at Union Station, which would require building a new pedestrian bridge at an estimated cost of about $80 million.

The agency has also looked into scrapping the existing UP Express vehicles and using the same unspecialized electrified trains it plans to use on the rest of the GO Transit network. Metrolinx believes that could allow it to serve the airport more frequently but could require changes to existing infrastructure.

The 36-page document is a presentation dated Feb. 22, 2019, and the proposals it describes were in their early stages. More work has been done on the project since then and no plans have been finalized.

However, if the changes are carried out they could lead to an almost complete overhaul of the UP Express, which opened in June 2015 at a cost of $456 million.

In an emailed statement, Metrolinx president and CEO Phil Verster framed the potential changes as improvements that would build on the growing popularity of the UP Express, which after a rocky initial launch is now used by about 4.5 million people a year. Ridership has increased 69 per cent over four years.

“The massive success of UP Express with our customers today is the starting point for what an even better service to the airport could look like,” Verster said.

“We are planning now for a future UP Express service that is more frequent and also has some journeys that are quicker than today. This will be a huge win for our customers.”

He didn’t respond to questions about why the proposed changes weren’t built into the original design of the service.

The Ontario NDP has long supported electrifying the service, but the party’s transit critic Jessica Bell called some of the proposed changes “pretty concerning.”

She accused the former Ontario Liberal government of rushing the project to open in time for the Pan Am Games in 2015 and not anticipating potential changes that would later be required.

“The previous government moved the Union Pearson Express project forward very quickly to meet the timeline for the Pan American Games, and maybe they made mistakes on the way,” said Bell, who is MPP for University-Rosedale.

“Metrolinx and the Ontario government should explain why all these changes are being made.”

A spokesperson for Liberal MPP Kathleen Wynne, who was premier when the UP Express opened, didn’t immediately return a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

According to the Metrolinx document, the UP Express platform at Union Station may have to be moved from its current location, which is easily accessible from the station’s west wing, to a position further south. That would place it in the middle of the rows of platforms serving the dozens of lines that run to the nation’s busiest rail hub.

The presentation doesn’t provide a timeline for the bridge project, but the document suggests the relocation would be required to accommodate increased GO traffic at Union, which Metrolinx is planning to institute as part of a major expansion of the regional rail network. That expansion is scheduled to start around 2025.

According to the document, the bridge and associated infrastructure required to connect the UP Express station entrance to the new platform location is expected to cost at least $77.4 million.

The Metrolinx document suggests the platform change would significantly worsen the customer experience at Union.

The current configuration allows for a “barrier-free ‘walk in and board’” experience for UP Express travellers, the document states, but under the proposed plan the “journey to the new platform will be extended with elevators, stairs, and a bridge.” That would cause pinch points and bottlenecks, and “create friction in the customer journey.”

Metrolinx expects the new arrangement could increase the time it takes passengers to get to the UP Express platform from the station entrance to as much as five minutes and 30 seconds, up from less than one minute today.

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Another, potentially separate change the agency has considered according to the document is scrapping the 18 “bespoke train cars” used on the UP Express and operating the airport rail link as “a merged GO service using a unified fleet.”

That would mean operating the airport rail service using GO trains that would also be used on the rest of the network, which would mark a major shift away from the refined UP Express experience Metrolinx originally marketed to business travellers.

Under the “merged service” scenario, for which the document provides no cost estimate or timeline, trains on the UP Express would be electrified, a change the Ontario NDP and transit advocates have pushed for since the service’s inception. Electrifying the line was officially part of the Liberal government’s plan but it was deferred.

Using standard GO trains would significantly alter the airport rail service. It could allow Metrolinx to serve Pearson from GO stations on its Lakeshore East and Stouffville GO corridors on the east end of Toronto.

It could also allow airport trains to use the same platforms as regular GO vehicles, which would eliminate the need for custom UP Express stations and the expensive pedestrian bridge at Union.

The trains would also run to the airport more frequently, at eight trains per hour instead of four. But at least some trains headed to Pearson would stop at additional stations along the way, potentially increasing the travel time between the airport and Union from the current 25 minutes. Other trains could operate as an express service between Pearson and the rail station, which could lead to faster trips.

While there would be benefits to using regular GO trains, the document states it’s not clear whether existing UP Express infrastructure could accommodate the larger GO vehicles, particularly an offshoot section of track that connects to Pearson’s Terminal 1.

According to the document, Metrolinx commissioned a study to determine the engineering constraints and potential “rehabilitation costs” on that section of the line.

Initially, the UP Express saw customers stay away from the line due to high fares, in 2016 Metrolinx slashed the cost of rides on the service. Since then the rail link has a proven popular, if highly subsidized, service.

One reason Metrolinx appears to be considering major changes to the project is that the agency expects the service to reach capacity as early as 2028.

Barbara Mottram, a spokesperson for Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney who oversees the transit agency, signalled the Ontario Progressive Conservative government’s support for Metrolinx’s approach.

“Our government is committed to getting Ontario moving, delivering a more connected region and reducing congestion in the GTHA. The UP Express service has enjoyed phenomenal growth since its inception. Therefore, it is not inconceivable that Metrolinx is planning for UP Express growth at Union Station,” said Mottram.

Ben Spurr is a Toronto-based reporter covering transportation. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr

Correction — Sept. 24, 2019: This article has been edited from a previous version that mistakenly said UP Express ridership has increased 65 per cent over two years, when in fact it was a 69-per-cent increase over four years.

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