Ontario Boosting Train and Bus Service Across the GO Network

News 100 redBy Staff

August 16, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

The province is increasing GO train and bus service across the network to help manage congestion and provide convenient and frequent service for commuters and families.

Effective Sept. 2, the province will also increase GO bus service on some of the most in-demand routes that serve customers in Burlington, St. Catharines, Guelph, Mississauga, Oakville, Hamilton and Richmond Hill.

These improvements will help commuters and families in communities across the region connect to jobs, school and recreational activities with a modern, integrated transit system. The service changes include:

Six new weekday bus trips on Route 12 Burlington-Niagara, increasing bus service to every half hour between Burlington and St. Catharines, including an earlier morning trip from Burlington to Niagara College that will arrive in time for morning classes

These service changes are part of the GO Regional Express Rail (RER) program. GO RER includes electrifying core segments and expanding the rail network, and bringing more two-way, all-day service to commuters and families, increasing the number of weekly trips from about 1,500 to nearly 6,000 by 2025. It will provide faster and more frequent service across the GO rail network and is the largest commuter rail project in Canada.

For those wondering what the province did with the proceeds of th sale of a potion of Hydro One – look no further than this:

The province is investing $21.3 billion to transform the GO network from a commuter transit system to a regional rapid transit system.

The GO RER program involves more than 500 separate projects across 40 municipalities.

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3 comments to Ontario Boosting Train and Bus Service Across the GO Network

  • Stephen White

    As a GO patron for nearly forty years here is what is wrong with this strategy.

    The entire network is premised on commuters from outlying areas travelling to downtown Toronto. However, a significant number of commuters don’t work downtown anymore. Many work in neighbouring hubs such as Meadowvale, Square One, Rexdale (near the airport), Brampton, Concord, Vaughan, etc. Moreover, many companies (e.g. RBC, Scotiabank, TD, Sobeys, Bell Canada, etc.) are moving significant numbers of their staff to outlying locations. RBC has offices in Mississauga. Scotiabank has shifted a number of their staff from downtown to Mississauga too, as well as their IT facility in Scarborough. Bell Canada has a massive new complex on Matheson Boulevard not far from the airport.

    Why this shift? Because: 1) office lease rates in downtown Toronto are too expensive; 2) an increasing number of their employees can no longer afford to live in downtown Toronto; 3) traffic congestion is becoming a huge problem for businesses; and 4) GO Transit commuting costs for many workers earning less than $100K per annum are astronomical. I was spending $320 a month when I left Scotiabank in 2015. Projected monthly costs for GO Train commuters from NIagara are expected to be $500-600 per month. Moreover, Prime Minister Trudeau’s decision to eliminate the tax credit for users of public transit did nothing to help beleaguered commuters using public transit. So much for environmental sustainability and concern for the middle class!

    If Metrolinx wants to take over the whole transportation network in this province it might help if they spent more time and resources better understanding transportation/demographic patterns and actually identifying the needs of consumers and businesses. That includes better train connections to business/commercial/industrial hubs outside of downtown Toronto and not just increasing the number of trains during non-rush hour periods.

  • Roger

    Fantasy – electioneering – please see failure and the 20 plus million dollars on the Burlington GO station that is still not finished as an example of why this will fail

  • John F

    Great news!
    But what about the snail’s-pace progress toward the opening of Burlington’s GO station????