Give it more time and more marketing. That’s what transit officials counselled when the first test of an
integrated TTC-GO fare got off to a slow start last winter.
But it hasn’t worked. Apparently $60 a month — the cost of access to the GO trains at Danforth and Exhibition stations for TTC Metropass holders — is too much even if it does give commuters a more comfortable, faster ride to Union Station.
In the five months between the pilot project’s launch Feb. 1 and the end of June, only 338 commuters bought the special Metropass stickers giving them GO privileges. Of those, 134 were sold in the first month of the fare integration experiment.
Since then, Metrolinx has launched its $50,000 marketing effort for the co-fare program, including a TTC station platform video, billboards, posters, social media and in-station announcements.
However, only 18 of the stickers have been sold at the Exhibition station, where Councillor Mike Layton
(open Mike Layton's policard) had argued GO was a needed alternative to west-end commuters vexed by the
over-crowded King streetcar. By comparison, 271 stickers sold at the Danforth GO station and 70 at Union.
Metrolinx wouldn’t comment on the sales.