Senior Metrolinx staff or board members will meet with angry airport workers, who weren’t permitted to speak Friday about their concerns over the still-unannounced price of the new train between Union Station and Pearson.

The workers say that the anticipated price will be unaffordable to most of the 40,000 people who work at Pearson.

Metrolinx chair Rob Prichard recognized the workers who showed up at the public portion of Friday’s board meeting. But he said the issue of fares wouldn’t be discussed. Unlike city committee meetings, Metrolinx doesn’t include deputations from the public at its quarterly board gatherings.

The angry workers said they would, therefore, invite Prichard to come to the airport to talk to them.

Although the UP Express ticket prices won’t be announced until later this year, it’s expected they will cost more than $20, significantly more than the GO trains that will share the tracks on the Kitchener line. The air-rail shuttle is supposed to begin running in the spring.

“We were really disappointed there wasn’t a public forum at a public meeting,” said Tracy Rowan, an Air Transat flight attendant, who says she is one of 10,000 airport employees, who commute from downtown.

“I live walking distance from Union Station and I won’t be able to use the service,” said Ole Harder a flight attendant, who spends up to two hours commuting on the TTC.

“We’re shareholders (of UP Express). Calling us customers is disrespectful. When it’s a public company, on public lands, using public funds, the public are the shareholders, not the customers. It’s our service and we’re being excluded from it,” he said.

While the UP Express prices might be comparable to some airport services in Europe and Asia, many North American cities have public transportation, said the workers.

Provincial NDP urban transportation critic Cheri DiNovo (Parkdale-High Park) issued a statement saying that December is too late to announce the fares.

“The public, as well as Toronto City Council, have been clear that they want the Union Pearson Express to function as true public transit, and not a boutique service for business travelers,” she said in a statement.

The airport train, which will run up the Kitchener GO corridor, is expected to be the first GO service to be electrified. Because it’s a relatively short trip of only 25-minutes with only two stops, the electrification is only expected to shave a minute off the time.

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But as part of the GO electrification program, Metrolinx will be considering infill stations on the line, said CEO Bruce McCuaig.

“For the UP Express we have stations at Weston and at Bloor. We’re protecting for a station at Mount Dennis to connect up with the Eglinton Crosstown and we’re protecting for a station at Woodbine as well,” he said.

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