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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

T3G said:
The death spiral of Milton service continues.


www.gotransit.com

Service Related Updates

Check this page to see if there are any current delays on GO Transit.
www.gotransit.com

The fact that the Gardiner is not going anywhere is a VERY good thing.
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People are staying away from poor service? Who would have thought?
 
afransen said:
Shouldn't we just have fare discounts outside of peak travel times? Mid-day and evenings on weekdays plus weekends.
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Absolutely. The $10/day weekend pass has been great at boosting ridership on weekends. If Metrolinx is concerned about the potential lost revenue by subsidizing super long trips (to Niagara Falls for example, as was mentioned on the previous page), then they should look at setting weekend fares such that a mid-distance trip on GO (Burlington-Union, Oshawa-Union, Newmarket-Union, etc) is roughly $5 ($10 round trip), and price everything else accordingly. That would still leave GO's distance-based model intact, just with significant discounts that would be equivalent to the weekend pass for a lot of people.

Or if you want an even simpler way of communicating it:
Weekday Peak (6AM-10AM, 3PM-7PM) = 100% of your current fare (maybe 110% if you really need to offset revenue)
Weekday Shoulder Peak (SOS-6AM, 7PM-10PM) = 80% of your current fare
Weekday Evening (10PM-EOS) & Weekend = 50% of your current fare

Not only would this pricing structure attract more people to GO in those off-peak times, but it may even help distribute the load of some existing customers into the shoulder peak times in order to get a bit of a discount. Setting it at 10PM would also help spread out the post-event crowds, since most of those on weekdays let out around 9:30. Right now everyone rushes for the first couple trains, but if there was incentive to hang around a little longer for a cheaper fare, people may opt for that.
 
reaperexpress said:
The remainder of the difference is attributable to the high cost of riding GO Transit, especially when you need to connect to the TTC for your last mile. On those trips, taking the GO train is more than double the cost of taking the subway.
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No, it's not. The cost factor is minor.

For better or for worse, the perception of GO for a lot of people is that it is meant primarily to get people downtown at rush hours. When they then look at taking GO outside of those peak times, they get told that if they miss their train (or bus), that they will have an hour wait. And in that hour, they can easily drive (most of the way) to their destination.

Until such time that the trains run so frequently that people can just turn up at a station and not have to wait an unbearable amount of time - something that sort of exists at rush hour but not any other times - GO will be unable to shake that perception.

Dan
 
smallspy said:
No, it's not. The cost factor is minor.

For better or for worse, the perception of GO for a lot of people is that it is meant primarily to get people downtown at rush hours. When they then look at taking GO outside of those peak times, they get told that if they miss their train (or bus), that they will have an hour wait. And in that hour, they can easily drive (most of the way) to their destination.

Until such time that the trains run so frequently that people can just turn up at a station and not have to wait an unbearable amount of time - something that sort of exists at rush hour but not any other times - GO will be unable to shake that perception.

Dan
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I think this will really depend on one's trip type; and origin-destination.

I live relatively close to Main Station and spend a fair bit of time downtown.

My travel time from Union to Danforth (Main) on GO is substantially faster (as little as 1/4 of TTC travel time and unquestionably less than 1/2 at all times).

However, if I'm traveling with packages/parcels/groceries, or its been a long day or the weather inclement, I'm likely to want a bus from Main Stn for my final leg.

The accretive cost (an extra $3.30) is material. I mean sure, I can afford it, but it feels foolish to spend that for an extra few blocks at end of my trip, when if I took TTC the entire way that bus is free.

So more often than not, I take TTC back from downtown; unless I'm unencumbered, and the weather is nice, in which case I take GO alone and walk from Danforth Stn.

****

I imagine there are many similar'ish profiles; these would particularly apply to off-peak, discretionary trips, where one can plan to be back at Union at 'x' time and the missed train scenario is unlikely.
 
asey20 said:
Car drivers still pay for operational costs. Transit riders should pay a reasonable amount to subsidize operational costs.
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do you have any objective metrics to back up that car drivers pay for all operational costs? i don't own a car yet my taxes go towards paying for car infrastructure

i don't know why people have this simplistic idea that budgets on a municipal, state, and federal level are supposed to balanced like your personal chequing account; there's way more nuance and complexities to this..
 
r3d0c said:
do you have any objective metrics to back up that car drivers pay for all operational costs? i don't own a car yet my taxes go towards paying for car infrastructure

i don't know why people have this simplistic idea that budgets on a municipal, state, and federal level are supposed to balanced like your personal chequing account; there's way more nuance and complexities to this..
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I wouldn't call the entirety of car infrastructure as operational costs. Yes, there is a proportion of taxes that go towards car/road infrastructure, but not all of these are operational costs. The construction and maintenance of roads is not an operational costs, the same as how the construction and maintenance of tracks and stations is not operational costs. To be clear, I am specifically speaking of the operational costs of running a motor vehicle in comparison to the operational costs of running a train. Drivers pay majority of the costs for their own vehicle. There should be a fair proportion that passengers pay for running a train route. Paying cents on the dollar for a train route is not a great way of ensuring the longevity of that train route.

I never was trying to come across this being a simplistic idea. There is a lot of ambiguity in the amount that a passenger should have to subsidize operational costs of running a train in my statement. The keyword here is that it should be "reasonable". A loophole where passengers could use a weekend pass for a service that it was not meant for is not reasonable or fair. There is a balancing act to achieve here.
 
asey20 said:
I wouldn't call the entirety of car infrastructure as operational costs. Yes, there is a proportion of taxes that go towards car/road infrastructure, but not all of these are operational costs. The construction and maintenance of roads is not an operational costs, the same as how the construction and maintenance of tracks and stations is not operational costs. To be clear, I am specifically speaking of the operational costs of running a motor vehicle in comparison to the operational costs of running a train. Drivers pay majority of the costs for their own vehicle. There should be a fair proportion that passengers pay for running a train route. Paying cents on the dollar for a train route is not a great way of ensuring the longevity of that train route.

I never was trying to come across this being a simplistic idea. There is a lot of ambiguity in the amount that a passenger should have to subsidize operational costs of running a train in my statement. The keyword here is that it should be "reasonable". A loophole where passengers could use a weekend pass for a service that it was not meant for is not reasonable or fair. There is a balancing act to achieve here.
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I think this point does not recognize that driving has far more negative externalities than passengers riding a train. We must consider that when we do the calculations, and in that case, auto drivers often do not cover the operational costs of what they use.
 
adys123 said:
I think this point does not recognize that driving has far more negative externalities than passengers riding a train. We must consider that when we do the calculations, and in that case, auto drivers often do not cover the operational costs of what they use.
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I am completely fine with those considerations. That is not the problem I have here. If a GO train costs $20 dollars to Niagara Falls, and then $20 back to Toronto, but it is possible to go there and back with a $10 weekend pass then there is something wrong here. Either the standard fare is too high, and should be reduced, or the pass was not meant to be used for trips to Niagara Falls.

Consider if we only have a limited number of trains going to Niagara Falls and they are overcrowded but provide very little revenue, they are a huge loss and must be subsidized by the budget set for GO transit. This subsidy is not free and comes out of money that could be used to increase service frequency or expand service within the GO network. It is difficult to increase service if it will only lead to larger losses on that route.

On that note, I will leave it at that.
 
LNahid2000 said:
They literally advertised it as a 4 day pass in 2021:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1473669957972111364
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I think they removed the full weekend pass this year because they literally got too big in ridership on weekends.

Guessing they didn't want people to buy this and overstuff every corridor when service still isn't there, and for people to take full advantage of this with their families/friends.
 
I did my own little year-end summery thing, for someone that doesn’t commute to Toronto every weekday like a regular office worker, I personally think riding 756 services in a year is a lot:

You_Doodle+_2023-12-04T02_03_00Z.jpeg


(That last one also killed me when I calculated it)
 
LNahid2000 said:
GO has sneakily removed the $15 weekend pass from their website. That's too bad...sometimes I'd get the weekend pass even though I only needed a day pass, so that I could go to more places on the 2nd/3rd day.

www.gotransit.com

Weekend Passes with GO

Travelling on a weekend? Buy your $10 One-Day Weekend travel pass now!
www.gotransit.com
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Gaah, noticed this on the weekend. Too bad. I wonder how much longer the $10 day pass will remain?
 
I think the $10 and $15 weekend passes were a good idea as a post covid way to rebuild ridership, however they should have always been just a one or two month promotion at most.
 
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