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GO Transit fare strangeness

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TOareaFan

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Not sure how unique this is but this just struck me as strange.

In my wallet I have a 10 ride ticket from Brampton GO station to Union.

Tomorrow, I am going out of town for a few days and leaving Union by train. Since I don't want to leave my car at the Brampton station for that period of time (not even sure if that is allowed anyway) it is easier for me to get to Mount Pleasant by bus than Brampton (one bus from a 5 minute walk from my house as opposed to taking that bus and transfering to another) so I looked into taking GO from Mt Pleasant. I knew there would be an additional cost but I figured I would just buy a ticket from there to Brampton and then the 10 ride ticket would be "valid" for that portion of the trip from Brampton to Union.

Wow!

Single ride fare from Brampton to Union.....is $6.10.....single ride from Mt. Pleasant to Brampton $3.90! Total trip cost is $10! Single ride from Mt. Pleasant to Union is $7.45.

Are there anomolies like this all over the system? It would seem logical to me that the cost of a Mt. Pleasant to Brampton ticket should equal (+/-) the difference between a ticket to union from the respective stations.....no? In this case it is almost 3X the cost.

I also wonder if one of the reasons you can't get parking at Brampton is because the $1.35 difference in that trip cost to Union acts as an incentive for people between the stations to always go to Brampton rather than Mt. Pleasant.
 
TOareaFan said:
Is it $3.90? If it is, that might explain why "no one" ever gets on at Bloor in the morning for a quick(ish) ride to Union.
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$3.95, but yes, that's exactly why. If it weren't for this minimum, travel within a single zone would be free, and that doesn't make any sense.
 
DavidH said:
$3.95, but yes, that's exactly why. If it weren't for this minimum, travel within a single zone would be free, and that doesn't make any sense.
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Well, there are lots of jurisdictions that offer free travel within restricted areas....but even if we thought that was wrong:

1. Mt. Pleasant and Brampton are not (I do not believe) in the same zone
2. Maybe the minumum fare should be set at the local transit rate or something akin to that. Maybe if the ride on GO from Bloor to Union, was the same cost as a ttc token, then some people might use it (just using that example as I am somewhat familiar with it....there may be others)
 
TOareaFan said:
1. Mt. Pleasant and Brampton are not (I do not believe) in the same zone
2. Maybe the minumum fare should be set at the local transit rate or something akin to that. Maybe if the ride on GO from Bloor to Union, was the same cost as a ttc token, then some people might use it (just using that example as I am somewhat familiar with it....there may be others)
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Well, these are the larger "why" questions. GO is structured as a premium regional service that is NOT intended to take on transportation within municipalities, so the idea of matching TTC fares for minimum distances simply doesn't fit into that framework.

Having said that, GO's recent tendency to implement fare increases by increasing the "flat rate" portion of the fare instead of increasing the "distance" portion of the fare has gradually led to short-haul trips becoming relatively more expensive compared to long haul trips. It's a very good question indeed whether this is desirable. And actively discouraging local riders - where capacity exists - seems to work against the integration that Metrolinx, which GO is now a part of, has been trying to accomplish.

The reality is that GO's fare structure will go through changes when Presto goes live, which means we will have a better sense of where they are going with it next year.
 
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The reason is because GO has been raising its fares at a flat rate regardless of the distance travelled. So riders who travel short distances are punished the most.
 
The only type of local trip for which GO carries a reasonable cost is when you are traveling from just within the 905 area to just within the 416 area. If you're traveling from Markham to Scarborough on GO, the cost per trip is $3.85 with a 10 ride ticket. The same trip costs $4.85 with YRT and TTC tokens.

However, this is not so much a case of GO being inexpensive as it is YRT and the TTC failing to streamline their fares.
 
kettal said:
$1 would be a good ticket price for single-zone travel.
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A person travelling from Union to Exhibition takes up just as much space on the train as a person travelling from Union to Oakville due to the very low turnover GO has. I think increased service frequency (at all stops) would help this.
 
TOareaFan said:
Well, there are lots of jurisdictions that offer free travel within restricted areas....but even if we thought that was wrong:

1. Mt. Pleasant and Brampton are not (I do not believe) in the same zone
2. Maybe the minumum fare should be set at the local transit rate or something akin to that. Maybe if the ride on GO from Bloor to Union, was the same cost as a ttc token, then some people might use it (just using that example as I am somewhat familiar with it....there may be others)
Click to expand...

For an example of that I would look at Boston. The MBTA charges the same fare as the subway if you choose to take the train. The second you leave the subway's "territory" the fare jumps.
 
^ That's kind of true, but taking the commuter rail within zone 1A ("subway territory", but the outer ends of the rapid transit system are actually outside of this zone) is technically cheaper than taking the subway, because on the subway you can only pay that fare ($1.70) if you're using the smartcard; with cash or the magnetic ticket it's $2.
 
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