No coat? No problem.

Toronto’s new $456 million airport train will be “a sun worshipper’s dream,” says the chief engineer for UP (Union Pearson) Express, scheduled to open in time for the Pan Am Games in summer 2015.

Snowbirds in downtown condos and offices will be able to walk the PATH in their shorts to Union Station, pull their bags along the Skywalk to the UP Express terminal, check in with their airline and board a train that leaves every 15 minutes. Twenty-five minutes later they will be inside the airport.

No need to step outdoors until there’s a sandy beach in sight.

David Ballantyne is talking up the convenience of the new air-rail shuttle during a frosty morning tour of the UP Express station taking shape at Pearson.

The airport train will appeal to all kinds of travelers. But escape is a theme. It is part of what president Kathy Haley calls the “value proposition.” Even travelers not looking to escape winter will appreciate avoiding the traffic that tangles the roads leading in and out of the airport.

“We want the train to be like an oasis because it’s a decompression zone. It’s 25 minutes people have to get their work done and take their time. They want it to be quiet and comfortable and serene,” she said.

Riders will enter one of 18 new “clean diesel” multiple units that Metrolinx has ordered for $53 million from Sumitomo of Japan, and enjoy some welcome breathing time.

From the terminal, travelers see the trains approaching the two platforms inside the UP Express station.

“You’ll see your train coming from at least a kilometre away if you look down the guideway,” said Ballantyne.

The UP Express will run on the Kitchener GO line from Union Station until a point near Highway 427 and Goreway Rd., where it will branch off onto a newly built 3-kilometre rail spur.

The elevated guideway into the airport is built atop 70 concrete piers about 35 metres apart, parallel to Highway 409. At its highest point, where it crosses over Airport Rd., the UP Express will ride about eight storeys above the ground.

“I don’t think there’s any other place in Toronto where you can get views like that in such a panoramic way,” said Haley.

“It will probably be the most inviting, impressive moment that people will have coming into Toronto,” she said.

Although it is closing in on completion, the UP Express station at Pearson still looks like a concrete shell. Inside, Y-shaped supporting beams reinforce the light, airy sense of place that is being created. But the interior finishes — wood slat ceilings and pops of colour inspired by Ontario forest and stone — have not yet been installed.

Last week’s site tour was just the latest for Haley. Among the VIPs who have accompanied her to the site since construction began in February 2012 was former Liberal transport minister David Collenette.

More than 20 years ago, he ushered in an era of studies and false starts on a direct connection between the airport and downtown Toronto. The idea finally took shape once the province put its own agency, Metrolinx, in charge in 2010.

Despite its appeal, the air-rail link has long been a source of controversy. It has been criticized as elitist, with plans to price and position it for business travelers willing to pay a premium to avoid driving or cabbing to the airport.

Ticket prices haven’t been announced, but they are expected to be more than $15 each way, too rich for the thousands of airport workers who travel to Pearson daily. With only two stops between the terminus points — one at GO’s Bloor Station near Dundas West and one in Weston — there are complaints the line doesn’t work as public transit.

There has also been political pressure to electrify the service. A series of concrete platforms have been built into the guideway, “future-proofing” it for a day when UP Express runs electric trains. The concrete boxes will eventually hold catenary poles to conduct power.

Critics have suggested the new shuttle’s ridership projections are unrealistic, given that many travelers won’t begin or end their trip at Union Station. But Haley says UP Express was never intended to carry every airport user. Of the 5 million trips a year to Pearson, the air-rail link is expected to carry about 5,000 people a day, taking 1.2 million cars off the road route over the course of a year.

Construction has barely begun on its terminal at Union Station. As well as flight check-in and baggage tags, it is expected to offer boutique shops and services.

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Much of the UP Express ticketing will be automated. In both terminals there will be flight landing and departure screens, wi-fi, and electronic charging stations — services and facilities culled from the best in the world, said Haley.

Some of it will emulate her favourite airport train service, the Arlanda Express, the high-speed, 20-minute service to downtown Stockholm: its “sense of place, the sense of comfort, the amenities that they included, the way they treated their guests.”

Will Toronto’s air-rail link turn a profit? At the very least it should pay for itself. Haley says UP Express has given itself three years to be fully cost-recoverable.

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