page_title: Union Pearson Express
section_title: SNC-Lavalin era
hierarchical_section_title: Union Pearson Express / History / SNC-Lavalin era
caption_attribution_description: English: A GO Transit train, serving the Georgetown line, travelling southeast to Union Station in Toronto, Canada. The pictured rail corridor is used by trains on the Georgetown, Barrie, and Milton lines. As the photo was taken, the train was between Queen Street and King Street.
context_page_description: The Union Pearson Express is an airport rail link connecting Union Station in Downtown Toronto to Toronto Pearson International Airport. The UP Express began operation on 6 June 2015, in time for the 2015 Pan American Games. The UP Express travels between Union and Pearson in 25 minutes departing every 15 minutes, seven days a week. At the launch announcement, it was stated that the UP Express was projected to carry 2.35 million passengers annually and eliminate approximately 1.2 million car trips in the first year.
  UP Express is operated as an independent division of Metrolinx, similarly to GO Transit. An airport rail link was one of the priority projects identified in Metrolinx's regional transportation plan, "The Big Move". Construction began in 2011 as part of the Georgetown South Project, which expanded the rail corridor the UP Express shares with GO Transit and Via Rail. UP Express uses diesel multiple unit trains that meet United States Environmental Protection Agency Tier 4 emission standards. The Kitchener line and UP Express will be electrified, although no date has been set.
context_section_description: Transport Canada made a request for proposal for an airport rail link in April 2001. In May 2003, the submissions were pared down to four pre-qualified private consortia, who were then invited to submit business cases. An SNC-Lavalin subsidiary named the Union Pearson AirLink Group was selected as the successful respondent to finance, design, construct, operate and maintain an airport rail link on 13 November 2003. The service was to be called Blue22, as a trip would take 22 minutes to or from Pearson with a stop at the Bloor GO/Dundas West TTC Station. Trains were to be refurbished Budd Rail Diesel Cars, and were expected to begin running between 2008 and 2010.
  By 2008, there had not been significant progress on the project because of failed consensus in negotiations, regulatory hurdles and community opposition. In June 2008, the Ontario government revised the environmental assessment process from a required three-year period to six months, and later that summer it resumed negotiations with Union Pearson AirLink Group on terms for a public-private partnership. Furthermore, the high-speed link received public statements of strong support from Premier of Ontario Dalton McGuinty, Toronto Mayor David Miller and the federal government.
  In November 2008, Metrolinx, the Ontario government agency for Greater Toronto and Hamilton transportation, released its regional transportation plan titled "The Big Move", outlining how an airport rail link was part of a strategy to establish multi-directional high-order transit connectivity to the Pearson Airport district, in addition to the Mississauga Transitway, rapid transit corridors along Highways 427 and 407, and light rail transit lines along Eglinton and Finch Avenues. In December 2008, Metrolinx became the proponent of new EA that would simultaneously assess a combination of both the UP Express and GO Transit's Georgetown South expansion. The final Environmental Project Report was released on 30 July 2009.
caption: A GO Train operating along the Kitchener line. The UP Express project is combined with the Georgetown South Project, which is improving the infrastructure along the line for future GO Train service and the UP Express.[5]
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