Getting from the airport to the city in Canada

Take the UP Express, and tap a contactless card rather than buying a ticket.

• CAD 12.35 buys a standard adult ticket. Tapping a contactless credit or debit card, or a PRESTO card, costs CAD 9.25 for the identical seat. There is no reason to queue for the machine.
• 25 minutes to Union Station, every 15 minutes, from about 04:55 to 01:00. Children under 12 travel free.
• The cheap alternative is the TTC, at CAD 3.30 tapping PRESTO or contactless and CAD 3.35 in cash. The 900 Airport Express to Kipling and the 52A both serve Pearson at ordinary city fare, with no airport surcharge. It is slower and involves a transfer, but it is a third of the price.

The Canada Line runs from inside the terminal, and the airport charges extra to leave.

• The YVR AddFare rose from CAD 5.00 to CAD 6.50 on 1 July 2026 - the first rise in its seventeen years, and from 2027 it goes up 2 per cent a year. It applies only when you tap on at an airport station, so leaving the airport costs more than arriving at it. Going the other way you pay the plain zone fare.
• How you tap changes the price. Contactless credit or debit is charged at the cash rate of CAD 3.50 for one zone; the same trip on Compass stored value is CAD 2.85. Over a week that gap is worth the few minutes it takes to buy a Compass card.
• Roughly 25 minutes to downtown, and the train is a normal part of the network rather than an airport premium service.

There is no train to Montreal-Trudeau, whatever a route map implies.

• The REM does not serve the airport yet. The airport station is scheduled for 2027. Until then, anyone telling you to take the light rail from YUL is describing a station that is not open.
• Bus 747 costs CAD 11.25 and is the sensible choice. The ticket is not a single ride: it is a 24-hour Zone A pass, so it covers your metro and bus travel for the rest of the day. The downtown terminus moved on 26 January 2026, so check the current stop rather than an old blog.
• Taxis run on a fixed price, CAD 49.45 by day and CAD 56.70 at night, so there is nothing to negotiate and no meter to watch.

• Route 300 is now just a bus fare, CAD 4.00. The old airport premium of about CAD 11.25 is gone, and guides still quoting it are years out of date.
• Route 100 also serves the airport and now runs to Saddletowne, which is the useful connection for the northeast of the city.