The best way to travel between Vancouver International Airport and downtown Vancouver is to hop on a Canada Line train. It takes 25 minutes to go between the airport and Waterfront, the most-distant downtown station. You avoid traffic jams, it’s not that expensive, and there’s usually plenty of room for your luggage.
Vancouver is the only city in Canada with a rail link to its airport, and it will soon be joined by Toronto.
The Toronto version, costing almost $500 million, should be rolling by spring 2015, in time for the Pan-Am Games the city will host that summer. They’re calling it the Union Pearson Express (in marketing parlance, that’s UP). The train route will run between Union Station in downtown Toronto and Pearson International Airport, with two stops along the way. Promotional material says the trip will take 25 minutes from Union to Pearson, with trains departing every 15 minutes. Union Station will have airline check-in facilities and flight information boards.
Travelling from downtown to Pearson by car can also take about 25 minutes, but that’s in the early morning. Later in the day, as roads become congested, it can take a lot longer, the locals tell me.
I thought Toronto’s airport train would be received warmly. But there are plenty of naysayers and skeptics. There’s doubt that the train will be enticing enough to pull travellers out of cabs and limousines that can take them directly to where they want to go, rather than just Union Station.
There’s consternation that the new line isn’t part of the public transit system. It will be a separate entity, charging separate fares. The cost of a trip has not been announced; it will be “priced competitively and offer value to its guests,” the UP website says. A Toronto Star article, without attribution, speculates that a one-way fare will be more than $15, making it impractical for the daily commutes of airport workers.
Using public transit, you can currently travel from Union Station to Pearson airport by using the subway system, then the 192 Airport Rocket bus. The fare is around $3 (price varies depending on how many tokens you buy). It takes around 70 minutes if connections are going your way.
I’m mentioning the UP service because a lot of Victorians travel to Toronto. There’s enough traffic to justify year-round non-stop service between here and there.
The Union Pearson Express website is here.
- - -
At Vancouver International Airport, to go downtown or to the ferry terminal, it costs up to $9 to buy a Canada Line fare at a vending machine. That’s for peak time.
You can save money if you have a pre-purchased ticket. To get downtown or to Tsawwassen ferry terminal, you need a two-zone ticket worth $4 on weekdays, or $2.75 after 6:30 p.m. If you land at the airport and find yourself without tickets, you can buy a book of 10 one-zone tickets for $21 at the 7-Eleven store on the airport’s arrivals level. (Or $31.50 for a book of two-zone tickets.) Put the one-zone ticket into one of the vending machines and select a 2-zone addfare, which costs $1.25. A revised ticket will pop out. When it’s off-peak, you can use the one-zone ticket as is, after validating it at a machine. Complicated enough?
You don’t face the $9 fare if you are going to the airport; you pay the regular fare, depending on the time of day.
It’s unclear how Vancouver’s impending switch to the Compass card fare system will affect airport fare pricing. But I’m guessing there’ll be a lot of annoyed airport workers if they are forced to pay $9 to get home.
- - -
It’s possible to take public transit from downtown Victoria to Victoria International Airport, but it’s a pain. One way is to ride the No. 70 or 72 to McTavish interchange. Transfer there to No. 88 or No. 83. Plot your trip after a careful examination of schedules at the B.C. Transit website. Service on No. 88 and No. 83 is infrequent.
