My, my, aren't we a grumpy lot. The new airport express train finally began operation in June, and ever since Torontonians have been complaining loudly and bitterly: the fares are too expensive; there aren't enough stations; the locomotives are diesel; the noise walls are ugly; the trains are mostly empty ...

Judging from the tone of the debate, you'd think the Union Pearson Express is a complete flop, another sad example of how municipal and provincial governments never manage to get it right.

But this time, it may be the critics who are wrong, or at the very least, somewhat premature in their verdict.

It will take more than three months for Torontonians and travellers to warm to the new regional transit landscape and take advantage of the much-maligned UPX. As it is, the express remains an unknown quantity for most, and the media response has been largely negative. For most, that's all they need to know. It's enough to convince them to continue getting to the airport as they always have — by car.

In a city as uncomfortable with change as Toronto, any deviation from the norm is greeted with doubt. What's wrong with the way things are, anyway? Yet the status quo grows increasingly unsustainable and available to fewer.

Looking ahead a few years to a time when road tolls, HOT lanes, parking levies and higher vehicle registration fees are all implemented, the UPX will be one of the alternatives to driving we're always complaining we lack. The express brings the city, the airport and the Greater Toronto Area one line closer to a comprehensive, fully connected network.

And let's not forget; if UPX fares are too high — which they are — it's because passengers must pay a disproportionally larger share of operating costs. Until drivers do the same, the playing field will never be level. As long as public transit runs at a disadvantage, it will never be competitive.

Though we like to complain about the cost of transit, it's drivers who most enjoy the benefits of public subsidies. We're happy to spend billions rebuilding an infrastructural relic from the 1950s — the Gardiner Expressway — but balk at constructing a top-of-the-line airport express.

No question, the UPX could have been built more intelligently. Electrification, for instance, will cost more for being done retroactively. Adding stations will be horribly expensive. But we got what we paid for; anything more would have required a bigger commitment than we were willing to make.

Still, the express is as much a symbol as a service, however flawed, another sign the 21st century has reached Toronto. Despite the scepticism, the UPX has a role to play. That role will evolve as conditions change and usage patterns come clear.

As we are frequently told, this is a city in transition, one unfolding as a dizzying pace. Union Station is a good example; it began as a grand national railroad terminal and became a commuter hub/shopping mall, the busiest in Canada. The metamorphosis has been slow, difficult and costly, but entirely necessary.

The UPX forms part of an unrealized network, a work-in-progress that is the great project of our era. We have experience building transit to nowhere — think of the Sheppard subway — but this isn't one of them. The express might well end up a predominantly commuter route. Fares will determine that, although not having a station at Eglinton and the coming Crosstown line hampers the connectivity essential to effective public transit.

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UPX has a long way to go. But the main thing is that the trip has started. As we all know, the longest journey still begins with a single schlep.