Blue22 is a proposed airport link railway service in Toronto, Canada, that will run between the downtown Union Station and Toronto Pearson International Airport, about 30 km away. It is so named because of its planned 22-minute trip time and, presumably, the sky. The trains are to run every fifteen minutes, seven days a week, and are expected to eliminate 1.5 million car trips annually. Londons Heathrow Express runs non-stop from Paddington Station to Heathrow Airport. ... Template:Hide = Motto: Template:Unhide = Diversity Our Strength City of Toronto, Ontario, Canadas Location. ... Union Station is a major railway, subway, and streetcar station at 65 Front Street West between Bay Street and York Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ... Toronto Pearson International Airport, or Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International Airport (ICAO CYYZ, IATA YYZ), straddling Torontos western boundary with neighbouring Mississauga, is Canadas busiest airport and part of the National Airports System. ... A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer), symbol: km is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words χίλια (khilia) = thousand and μέτρο (metro) = count/measure). ...

The railway line is expected to be opened by 2008, and will be built, operated, and maintained by SNC-Lavalin subsidiary "Union Pearson AirLink Group". It is to use four refurbished Rail Diesel Cars, and will require the construction of a branch track to the airport from an existing Canadian National Railway railway corridor that passes near the airport, a station at the airport, and various upgrades to the existing track to handle the increased traffic. 2008 (MMVIII) is a Leap year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... SNC-Lavalin is a Canadian, engineering firm with interests in transportation, construction hydroelectricity,mining and metallurgy, oil and gas, Chemical engineering, petroleum engineering,aerospace engineering defence, environment, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications. ... Budd RDC-1 #407 of the Cape May Seashore Lines. ... Canadian National Railways logo or herald (used pre-1960) Network Map of Canadian National Railway The Canadian National Railway (CN; AAR reporting marks CN, CNA, CNIS), known as Canadian National Railways (CNR) between 1918 and 1960, and Canadian National/Canadien National (CN) from 1960 to present, is a Canadian Class...

It has been suggested that the trains will make flights to Toronto's island-based City Centre Airport unnecessary, as their main appeal is their quick and reliable access to the downtown core, although the island airport is already principally dedicated to general aviation and emergency services. The Toronto City Centre Airport in Toronto, Ontario is a regional airport located on the northwestern portion of Centre Island, one of the Toronto Islands. ... General aviation (abbr. ...

Alternatives

The Toronto Transit Commission's planned subway line under Eglinton Avenue West would have eventually connected with Pearson Airport, although it would not have provided an express connection to downtown as Blue22 is to do. The line's construction was halted by the provincial government in the mid-1990s, and it is no longer a priority for the TTC. The Toronto Transit Commission, or TTC, is a public transport authority that operates buses, streetcars, and rapid transit lines in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ... A subway train pulls into St. ... Eglinton Avenue is an east-west throughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ... The Province of Ontario is governed by a unicameral legislature, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, which operates in the Westminster system of government. ... The 1990s refers to the years 1990 to 1999; the last decade of the 20th Century, but in an economical sense The Nineties is often considered to span from the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 to the September 11 attacks in 2001. ...

The current project remains somewhat controversial. While downtown Toronto is a hub for regional railway and bus services, it is currently the destination of only 17% of the airport's users, and the regional services there are much less frequent than Blue22's trains, leading to fears that the new service will not appeal to most airport users. It has been suggested that this problem could be mitigated by having Blue22 trains also stop mid-route at GO Transit's Bloor station in west Toronto, which connects with the TTC's Dundas West station on the Toronto subway. GO Transit, officially known as the Greater Toronto Transit Authority (GTTA), is Canadas first, and Ontarios only, interregional public transit system, established to link Toronto with the surrounding regions of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). ... Bloor GO Station is a GO Transit train station along the Georgetown rail corridor. ... The Toronto Transit Commission, or TTC, is a public transport authority that operates buses, streetcars, and rapid transit lines in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ... Dundas West is a station on the Bloor-Danforth Line of the Toronto subway. ... A subway train pulls into St. ...

It has also been argued that better service could have been provided at a lower cost if the federal government had followed GO Transit's proposal to build a new station on its Georgetown commuter railway line next to Woodbine Racetrack, which could be connected to the airport's planned people mover, and then increase the service frequency on the Georgetown line. This would have cost significantly less than running Blue22's dedicated express trains and tracks, provided access to the airport from multiple locations in and around Toronto rather than just downtown, and improved service even for commuters not travelling to the airport; on the other hand, it would have meant a longer trip between Union Station and the airport. Georgetown is one of the seven train lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. ... Woodbine Racetrack in southwest Toronto, Ontario is the only horseracing track in North America which stages, or is capable of staging, thoroughbred and standardbred horseracing programs on the same day. ... A people mover is a fully-automated light rail or tram system. ...

Residents' complaints

Residents living along one section of the proposed route have objected about the alterations being made to accommodate the trains, which involve closing some level crossings and may make access to Weston Road from the surrounding neighbourhoods more difficult (although the removal of these crossings has been suggested for years because of the risks they pose for the already-operational GO Transit services). They are also concerned about the effects frequent trains running through their neighbourhoods may have on noise levels and property values. A level crossing at Chertsey, England, as the barriers rise The term level crossing (also called: railroad crossing or grade crossing) is a crossing on one level (or at grade) - without recourse to a bridge or tunnel - used to describe the crossing of a railway line by a road, path... Weston Road is a north-south street in west end Toronto. ...

See also

• Union Station (Toronto)
• Toronto Pearson International Airport

Union Station is a major railway, subway, and streetcar station at 65 Front Street West between Bay Street and York Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ... Toronto Pearson International Airport, or Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International Airport (ICAO CYYZ, IATA YYZ), straddling Torontos western boundary with neighbouring Mississauga, is Canadas busiest airport and part of the National Airports System. ...

External links

• Union-airport rail link on way (17 June 2000)
• Transport Minister Announces Winning Proposal for Toronto Air-Rail Link (13 November 2003)
• Weston Community Coalition