Toronto's Weston Community Coalition, which opposes a $500-million privately owned surface train to Pearson International Airport, wants a public subway through the heart of the west Toronto community to connect the airport with Union Station.

More than 2,500 Weston residents organized by the Weston Community Coalition (WCC) jammed a public meeting last April and forced GO Transit, the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA), SNC-Lavalin, VIA Rail, Canadian National Railway, Transport Canada and other government agencies to delay and possibly cancel a surface air-rail link to the airport. The link is known as Blue 22.

This month, GO Transit, the provincially owned transportation company, is expected to select the consultant who will conduct an environmental assessment of the proposed plan to expand commuter rail services in its Georgetown and Weston subdivision corridor as well as rapid transit to the airport.

The WCC wants a 10-stop rapid-transit subway line built between Pearson Airport and Union Station to provide public transportation for the hundreds of thousands of residents in the western part of the city. The line would run underground in all residential areas.

Airport Line Subway Proposal: Airport Line Subway stops proposed by the Weston Community Coalition 1. Pearson Airport 2. Woodbine (Hwy. 27) 3. Rexdale (Kipling) 4. Weston Village (Lawrence) 5. Trethewey (Jane) 6. Mount Dennis (Eglinton) 7. Carleton Village (St. Clair) 8. Junction (Dupont) 9. Brockton Village (Bloor) 10. Parkdale (Queen/King) 11. Fort York (Strachan) 12. Union Station

"Unless the environment assessment deals with the concerns of this community and the needs for public transit in Toronto, the project will continue to run into serious opposition, " says WCC chair Mike Sullivan. "We don't know what other transit options are out there.

"The enormous amount of public money proposed for the private elite Blue 22 express train should go into a rapid-transit system that everyone could use for the price of a token," he says.

Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is proceeding with its proposed above-ground rapid-transit train, says Gillan MacCormack, the company's vice-president of public affairs. "We're still going through an environmental assessment. We will revaluate after. Nothing has changed. We're still working under the original proposal from the federal government."

Imants Hausmanis, corridor manager for GO Transit, says the consultant's report is expected at the end of 2006.

The proposed link, which was originally expected to be ready between 2008 and 2010, has been delayed for at least one more year, says Helena Borges, acting director general, surface policy for Transport Canada. "We're looking at different ways of doing the project in response to the residents' concerns."

Transport Canada selected the Union Pearson AirLink Group to build and operate a high-speed rail link using two to three diesel-powered railcars between the airport and the downtown rail station. SNC-Lavalin Engineers & Constructors Inc., which is part of the SNC-Lavalin group of companies, owns Union Pearson.

Under the current proposal, Blue 22 will share the corridor tracks with GO and VIA passenger trains and CN freight trains. While Blue 22 will be privately financed and owned, the largest cost for the project - infrastructure upgrades to the existing rail corridor - will be publicly funded. The federal government has committed more than $400 million, according to Transport Canada.

It will take 22 minutes for passengers to travel on the proposed Air Rail Link (ARL) between Union Station and the airport. The link would operate seven days a week for 19 hours a day and depart every 15 minutes. A one-way fare is expected to cost $20.

Former federal transport minister David Collenette announced the proposed ARL in November 2003. More train tracks are needed in the existing railroad corridor to accommodate increased GO Train service, future capacity for CN, CP and VIA trains, as well as the ARL.

Brampton's population is projected to be 600,000 in 2012, GO Transit says, a 65-per-cent increase from the 2003 level of 362,500.

The GTAA says that within 15 years, the number of passengers using Pearson airport is expected to reach 50 million. Pearson is already the busiest airport in Canada.

In 2004, the airport had 28.6 million passengers. It ranks 28th in the world in passenger and cargo traffic, according to the Airports Council International, the association which represents the world's airports.

The initial proposal by GO Transit and Union Pearson AirLink Group took Weston residents by surprise, Sullivan says. "It closed streets, ignored the schools and businesses, (it) ignored this community.

"The more we looked at it, the more we had concerns," he says. "No other kind of rapid transit to the airport seems to have been looked at.

"The potential negative impact on Weston is immense," Sullivan says. "Where we normally have a few trains moving through here everyday at about 35 miles an hour, what is proposed is 140 trains every day, many moving at 80 miles per hour. And it wasn't going to even stop in Weston."

The Blue 22 link is designed to rapidly move business people and tourists between the airport and downtown Toronto, Transport Canada said in the news release announcing the project. It will make one stop at the Toronto Transit Commission's Dundas West/GO's Bloor Station.

"The Air Rail Link doesn't do anything for this community. And it doesn't do anything to reduce the cars on the roads used by thousands of people who drive to the airport and park," WCC's Sullivan says, and adds "the GTAA needs the parking revenues."

Pearson airport will collect $90 million in fees from car parking and ground transportation in 2005. Revenue from parking and transportation is expected to grow to $157 million in 2009, according to the GTAA 2004 annual report.

Blue 22 is similar to London's Heathrow Express, a non-stop train between Heathrow Airport and Paddington Station. The cost of a one-way first-class ticket is roughly $50, express class is $30.

The Heathrow Express was built long after the airport was linked to downtown by the city's underground public transit system.

"Toronto should have a subway to the airport first before building a express train for business people," Sullivan says.

GO Transit and Transport Canada admit the level of public opposition to Blue 22 from the residents of Weston was unexpected.

GO Transit conducts public meetings about its proposed changes and improvements to its system regularly and at most, a few hundred people attend, GO Transit's Hausmanis says.

Transport Canada's Borges agrees. "The level of public reaction was not foreseen. There had already been public meetings in two other locations without much reaction."

While the public reaction was not expected, the purpose of the public meetings is to involve the residents in the decision-making process, Hausmanis says.

Sullivan sees it slightly differently, however. In the other two locations where GO Transit is expanding the rail system, the public meetings were not widely advertised and people didn't know, he says. "In Weston, we went door to door announcing the meeting. Weston is also a community with a strongly held identity, where people really care. It's infectious."

The WCC expects to present its recommendations to the yet-to-be-appointed consultant later this year.

But even with an expanded environmental report, Sullivan says the proposed Blue 22 train is likely in for a rough ride.

(Charles Wyatt can be reached at wyatt@businessedge.ca)