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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

Another example of stellar journalism getting it completely wrong?

From this article, blogTo claims setting a default trip saves money... Am I missing something, I thought it was only to save you time by not having to tap off, but it charges less too?

Screenshot_20231205_112243.jpg
 
Coolibop said:
Another example of stellar journalism getting it completely wrong?

From this article, blogTo claims setting a default trip saves money... Am I missing something, I thought it was only to save you time by not having to tap off, but it charges less too?
Click to expand...
I've seen a few oddities like this over the years, and they don't necessarily require a default trip setup.

One example I found (and I haven't tried this since 2019) was when you travel to Hamilton, but you exit the train at Aldershot and transfer to the GO bus for the remainder of the trip to Hamilton; if you tap off and exit the bus at any of the bus stops before the terminus of the route (McMaster or Hamilton GO station) there was zero additional cost to travel beyond Aldershot. The fare deducted when you tapped to board the bus was refunded in full when you tapped off as long as it wasn't at the final stop.

The same worked in reverse too. You could board a bus heading to Aldershot on King or Main Street in Hamilton and you would pay slightly less (I think it was 50 cents) than someone who boarded the bus at the terminal. This worked from literally the first stop on King Street out of the terminal and you got 50 cents off for not going one block up the street.
 
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Coolibop said:
Another example of stellar journalism getting it completely wrong?

From this article, blogTo claims setting a default trip saves money... Am I missing something, I thought it was only to save you time by not having to tap off, but it charges less too?

View attachment 524852
Click to expand...
Connor Mitchell deserves a savings simply for being subjected to the most pathetic GO route in service schedule wise.
 
Jonny5 said:
I've seen a few oddities like this over the years, and they don't necessarily require a default trip setup.

One example I found (and I haven't tried this since 2019) was when you travel to Hamilton, but you exit the train at Aldershot and transfer to the GO bus for the remainder of the trip to Hamilton; if you tap off and exit the bus at any of the bus stops before the terminus of the route (McMaster or Hamilton GO station) there was zero additional cost to travel beyond Aldershot. The fare deducted when you tapped to board the bus was refunded in full when you tapped off as long as it wasn't at the final stop.

The same worked in reverse too. You could board a bus heading to Aldershot on King or Main Street in Hamilton and you would pay slightly less (I think it was 50 cents) than someone who boarded the bus at the terminal. This worked from literally the first stop on King Street out of the terminal and you got 50 cents off for not going one block up the street.
Click to expand...
This reminds me of another simple trick. If you're taking local transit and transferring at a GO station (Bramalea, Mt Pleasant, Port Credit, etc), you could set a default trip to the next station from where you're at, and tap at a GO presto machine.

You'll get 3 additional hours on top of your already timed fare no matter if its just beginning or near ending. This saves a lot of money in the end.
 
There are also train trips that take more than the three hour presto window. I travel Guelph to Barrie often and the midday trains now make the entire trip so there's no need to even get off the train. My options are:

1. Set a default trip and get charged the correct fare.
2. Tap on and off, get charged for two "missed tap" trips, and have to fix it later.
3. Tap on but don't bother tapping off. You'll only get charged for the trip from the initial station to Union.

I've set a default trip, but it would save me money if I were to just not tap off.

Trips like this don't make a huge proportion of GO trips, but it would be nice if people didn't have to worry about this when making a valid GO trip.
 
RandomBusGuy said:
2. Tap on and off, get charged for two "missed tap" trips, and have to fix it later.
Click to expand...

To be clear, does this include the tap-off then tap-on during the transfer at Union? I don't think I've done a rail-rail transfer on GO, just rail-bus-bus. It's a lot of taps but even long duration trips don't seem to get confused if you tap-on/off for each vehicle.
 
rbt said:
To be clear, does this include the tap-off then tap-on during the transfer at Union? I don't think I've done a rail-rail transfer on GO, just rail-bus-bus. It's a lot of taps but even long duration trips don't seem to get confused if you tap-on/off for each vehicle.
Click to expand...

I have regularly transferred between trains at Union without tapping off and then on again. So long as you tap on at your originating station on the first route, and tap off at your final arriving station on the second route, the fare calc works fine. Have even been fare-checked and the fare inspector took no exception to my doing this.

- Paul
 
www.paullangan.com

GO Trains to Cambridge - Solving the 40-year Debacle

Canadian Paul Langan, Author, Historian, High Speed Rail Canada Founder,
www.paullangan.com www.paullangan.com

Great article about GO service to Cambridge. Pours some cold water on the Fergus Spur plan as there are some proposed developments on adjacent properties along the rail corridor which will prevent expanded rail use.

Unfortunately, it appears the only future this line has is as a trail since CN wants to abandon it.
 
C_Johnson_1995 said:
www.paullangan.com

GO Trains to Cambridge - Solving the 40-year Debacle

Canadian Paul Langan, Author, Historian, High Speed Rail Canada Founder,
www.paullangan.com www.paullangan.com

Great article about GO service to Cambridge. Pours some cold water on the Fergus Spur plan as there are some proposed developments on adjacent properties along the rail corridor which will prevent expanded rail use.

Unfortunately, it appears the only future this line has is as a trail since CN wants to abandon it.
Click to expand...
CN is not abandoning that line anytime soon. It's a vey popular for freight. Just because a blogpost says it doesn't mean it will happen.
 
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