2 Connections

Many municipal transit systems connect with GO Trains. Indeed, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) provides the most connections with GO Trains and convenient connections can be made between the trains and TTC buses, streetcars, and subways. Immediately adjacent to the GO concourse at Union Station is the Union stop on the TTC's Yonge-University-Spadina subway line. Connections at Union Station with the TTC's Harbourfront (509) and Spadina (510) streetcar lines are also possible.

Three stations on the TTC's Bloor-Danforth subway line are close to GO Train stations. TTC Kipling has a direct connection to GO Kipling (Milton line), TTC Dundas West is near GO Bloor (Georgetown line), and TTC Main Street near GO Danforth (Lakeshore line). All GO Train stations within the City of Toronto (except Exhibition) are adjacent to TTC bus routes, and Danforth, Exhibition, Bloor, and Long Branch are also on streetcar routes.

3 Ridership

GO runs 178 train trips and 1,166 bus trips daily, carrying about 170,000 passengers on a typical weekday — 145,000 on the trains and 25,000 by bus. GO says that their ridership growth has continually exceeded expectations. In the first year of operations, 2.5 million passengers were carried. The combined rail and bus system today handles more than 44 million riders annually.

4 History

GO Transit (GO being an acronym for Government of Ontario) was created and funded by the provincial government and was financed entirely by the Province of Ontario until the end of 1997. The Province subsidized any operating costs that were not recovered through revenue, as well as all capital costs.

GO began as a three-year experiment in May 1967 as a single rail line along Lake Ontario's shoreline. Lakeshore GO Trains carried 2.5 million riders that first year and was considered to be a success. GO Bus service, which started out as an extension of the original Lakeshore train line, has since become a full-fledged network in its own right. It feeds the rail service and serves communities that trains cannot reach.

In January 1997, the province announced it would hand over funding responsibility for GO Transit to the Greater Toronto Area municipalities (which consist of the City of Toronto, and the Regions of Halton, Peel, York, and Durham) as well as the neighbouring Region of Hamilton-Wentworth (which became the new City of Hamilton on January 1, 2001). In exchange, the province would assume certain other funding responsibilities from municipal governments.

A year later, on January 1, 1998, the GTA municipalities and Hamilton-Wentworth (now the city of Hamilton) began to fund GO Transit, cost-sharing all of GO's capital expenses and any operating costs that are not recovered through passenger fares and other revenue. On January 1, 1999, a new municipal agency created by the province came into being: the Greater Toronto Services Board (GTSB), composed of regional chairs, municipal mayors, and local councillors from the GTSB's service area. GO Transit transferred over to the municipal sector as an arm of the GTSB on August 7, 1999, thus completing the process that had begun with the funding change of 1998.

On September 27, 2001, Ontario Premier Mike Harris announced that the Provincial government would be taking back responsibility for GO Transit, and putting $3 billion into public transit in Ontario. For the practically impoverished GO, it was a welcome funding commitment.

The GO Transit Act, 2001 was passed by the Ontario Legislature on December 5, 2001. As of January 1, 2002, GO Transit is no longer the responsibility of the municipalities of the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton. GO has returned to Provincial responsibility as a Crown Corporation, and the Greater Toronto Services Board no longer exists.

5 Future Expansion

GO Transit has a ten-year plan in place, which includes provisions for new train stations, more parking spaces at existing stations, and increasing service on some (or all) existing train lines. While no new train lines are being planned, here are some of the improvements being planned, or in the process of completion:

• Construction of the Mount Pleasant Station on the Georgetown line (Highway 7 and Creditview Road) slated to be open for service in early 2005.
• Expanding the Highway 407 bus service to York University
• Increasing available parking spaces at Bradford, Milliken, Stouffville, Ajax, Bramalea and Mimico stations.
• Construction of a new Kennedy station, which will allow for transfers to/from the TTC ( Bloor-Danforth Line, Scarborough RT or connecting TTC bus services) slated to open for service by September, 2005.
• Improved overnight train storage facilities at Bradford, Milton, Richmond Hill and Stouffville; permitting GO Transit to operate longer trains and add new train trips.
• Installation of railroad crossing protection arms at various roads.
• Improving accessibility to GO Transit's services for the physically challenged.

Larger-scale infrastructure improvements are also being planned, including:

• Rail-to-rail grade separations where the Bradford and Stouffville lines cross CN's east-west freight line, to allow for increased service, and at the "West Toronto diamond," to take the CN tracks under the CP tracks so that more trains can run more reliably
• Increased track capacity on the Georgetown line's busy section between Brampton and northwest Toronto to allow more frequent train movements
• Track upgrades on the Milton line to run more peak and off-peak trains
• A third track from Mississauga to Burlington on the Lakeshore West line, and one from downtown Toronto to Scarborough on the Lakeshore East, to facilitate improved schedule reliability and increased service on the Lakeshore and Stouffville corridors
• Improvements to Union Station to increase passenger access and capacity-handling

Expansions beyond GO's present service area--initatives that are part of the project funding announcements made by the Ontario and the Canadian federal governments, including:

• Extending the Bradford line train service to the Barrie area, using track corridor owned by the City of Barrie
• Introducing commuter bus services to Peterborough, to Niagara Region, and to Guelph and Waterloo Region to build the market for train service

GO is also developing a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system that will provide extensive east-to-west express service across the GTA, using transit priority measures and park-and-ride stations with links to local transit. GO's already popular Highway 407 Express buses are the BRT's precursor, showing that demand for such service is already there.

6 GO Train Station List

6.1 Lakeshore West

• Union Station
• Exhibition
• Mimico
• Long Branch
• Port Credit
• Clarkson
• Oakville
• Bronte
• Appleby
• Burlington
• Aldershot
• Hamilton

6.2 Milton

• Union Station
• Kipling
• Dixie
• Cooksville
• Erindale
• Streetsville
• Meadowvale
• Milton

6.3 Georgetown

• Union Station
• Bloor
• Weston
• Etobicoke North
• Malton
• Bramalea
• Brampton
• Mount Pleasant (under construction)
• Georgetown

6.4 Bradford

• Union Station
• York University
• Rutherford
• Maple
• King City
• Aurora
• Newmarket
• East Gwillimbury
• Bradford

6.5 Richmond Hill

• Union Station
• Oriole
• Old Cummer
• Langstaff
• Richmond Hill

6.6 Stouffville

• Union Station
• Kennedy (under construction)
• Agincourt
• Milliken
• Unionville
• Centennial
• Markham
• Mount Joy
• Stouffville

6.7 Lakeshore East

• Union Station
• Danforth
• Scarborough
• Eglinton
• Guildwood
• Rouge Hill
• Pickering
• Ajax
• Whitby
• Oshawa

7 External links

• GO Transit
• FindTheWay.ca

Toronto Regional rail systems Transportation in Ontario

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