We have seen that market conditions have frustrated both the success of competitive tenders and the financial closure of potentially profitable air-rail services in recent years: but is Canada not portrayed as a paragon of virtue in this increasingly illiquid world? And why do we go from one extreme of a full concession to a pure public transport solution? Surely this example has a hybrid PPP solution, or 3P’s as they say locally, written all over it? My concern is that politics has overtaken a logical compromise and that both the citizens of Toronto and its visitors will both be ultimately short changed.

History has shown that political transport interests and railways primarily built to serve airports are very unhappy bedfellows. Consequently, I suspect that the commercial acumen of the likes of Arlanda Express, Heathrow Express, KLIA Ekspres and Brisbane’s Airtrain will be lost on the political concerns of an essentially indigenous public transport agency.

This is not an insult of Metrolinx who are a competent city transport operator but more a viewpoint based on economics and incentive. City transport politics and the essential ingredients of a successful airport rail link are very different propositions. Priorities are inevitably governed by local politics and not by the needs of airport travellers; hence we are at risk of seeing a railway built to the airport that ultimately delivers a sub-optimal market share. North America is littered with them and private transport, like car and taxi, continues to dominate more than anywhere else in the world.

There are of course examples of successful public/semi-publicly owned air-rail services, such as Flytoget in Oslo, Aeoexpress in Moscow and Airport Express in Hong Kong but these are run as standalone businesses that have a vested interest in meeting the specific needs of people who need efficient access to the airport. It remains to be seen what approach the City of Toronto will take to operating its flagship ground access service.

It’s ironic that all of this occurs a week before serial industrial interventionist, ‘old European’ France did an apparent volte-face. At a time when the French state is busy taking stakes in toy manufacturers and video-sharing websites: public transport has become, well, private. In Lyon a ‘Super-Tram’ from Part-Dieu station to Saint Exupéry airport known as the Rhônexpress opened on 9th August. It was built and is operated by a private sector consortium involving quoted firms such as Veolia and Vinci.

I really do wish the citizens and visitors of Toronto all the best for their airport train. I’m sure this service will be patronised by the discretionary market but without the benefit of the invisible hand, or at least a carefully thought through proxy, I suspect the costs to the taxpayer will rise by more than would have been with a private operator. I expect mostly empty trains and little reduction in the cost of renewing the blacktop unless the city of Toronto learns lessons from Europe and the Far East.

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