To those asking, I suggest phoning GO and UPX to find out before travelling. It may be the case that the changes have not yet been published, but this has been an ongoing misunderstanding since Metrolinx claimed they are "the same fare". Same price per distance between same points does not mean "same fare". The conditions of travel are very different.
...In my mind, a properly designed user-experience would be a system that only requires a tap whenever you go through a faregate (entry/exit to your entire total trip), and the software of the system should be clever enough to figure out what the fare should be. Requiring all this mid-point tapping is so barbaric and just adds needless confusion.
I use GO regularly, have a Presto Card, but find the information offered by a number of posters contradictory. I've been looking at GO and UPX, and can find no confirmation of "booking through on a GO ticket or Presto Card" w/o being charged twice. From all the literature I read, UPX is still a separate and distinct fare albeit with a price that matches GO over the distance on the Weston Corridor that overlaps. Until I see otherwise in writing, and official, I won't believe UPX honours a GO ticket. There's been far too much emphasis on semantics, and not published detail. I thought to phone today to get an answer, but I want to see it in writing, as do most of us who've been burned many times with Presto (almost all finally ironed out but after hours of trying to figure out the massively unintuitive Presto on-line fare history, and then trying to explain to those who answer the phones, only demanding to speak with someone with authority...who usually finally get your point).
A case, that *continues* to recur every Summer (I'll be testing this again soon):
Getting on 29 bus in Guelph, tap on, get off at Cooksville Station, tap off, realizing that it is far faster (as recommended by a GO bus driver!) to get to Mimico, (Rather than the Union bus, a good twenty minute wait, to fight traffic by an undulating route for an hour, then wait to travel west again on a Lakeshore train) to take and tap-on the MiWay express from Cooksville, at a cost of $.85 as co-fare, to Port Credit, and then tap on GO train there, and then tap-off at Mimico. Other than the 85 cents extra, should be straight forward, right? Anything but...when you tap-on again at Port Credit, Presto logs that as a new fare. I got tired of having to call and spend an hour getting it straightened out every time: "Yes, what you are doing is recommended, and we've put that information in to have the glitch corrected". Except it never is. Maybe it has, this year, I'll find out, but it also happens elsewhere. Once you tap on/off/ride a few blocks (as in Milton, from the GO station to the #401 Park and Ride to catch the 29 bus) Presto, instead of crediting you for doing what GO doesn't do to link their routes together, charge you all over again.
So I have every sympathy for your frustrations.
Edit to Add: Btw! My answer, much to the chagrin of the middle-management at GO, to get the trip I was charged for, was to buy....wait for it...a *paper ticket* (and I love this part) *on my Presto card!
GO middle management were appalled, as if I had a duty to jump through their ridiculous hoops and bow to their Almighty Sword. I have a limited patience, and lost it more than a few times by stating (and I do have some sympathy for them, they were stuck with Presto's truly buggy system) "Then fix the damn thing and stop cheating people".
It's not just that these glitches happen at random, and they do claim to want to address problems, it's that *they're almost never fixed!* and happen *chronically*
So when in doubt, buy a paper ticket, and not play the Simon Says game of having to remember to tap-on, tap-off, tap-on, tap-off, tap-on, tap-off. I don't like rap music, but at least the rhythm makes more sense than the GO jingle. And yes, you can program the cards for one way tap-on, if you repeat that daily...but some of us have random travel patterns, and interesting lives, and better things to do than play Games with Go.
So you miss your 'loyalty option' when getting that paper ticket. Whoopee Doo...I can't be bothered with Air Miles every time I buy a chocolate bar either.
Edit two: Just checked the FAQ link posted by Wopchop:
[... if you have tapped on a GO machine and are headed to anywhere but the airport then you will be able to get onto the UP Express train with no worries. If you have tapped on a GO device and are headed to the airport however you will have to tap off at a GO device. If that happens a Guest Service Representative can provide you with assistance.]
That's the closest I can find to a written reference. I'll print that out and take it with me and try it this coming week.
[Each guest may bring a maximum of two dogs, cats, or other small animals on board free of charge. Dogs must be on a leash or in a carrier. Cats and other small animals must be in a pet carrier that allows room for the pet to stand or lie down with comfort.]
Now that's interesting! So here's a testing question. If you pay from Weston to Union with a GO ticket...are you subject to GO tariff rules, or UPX? Because you can't take a dog on a leash on GO unless it's a handicapped assist.
I just might have cause to test that as the weather warms. The TTC does allow it, but not in rush hours, and this shows no mention of rush-hour or GO fare to not being able to carry a dog.
