[TheTigerMaster]

no one gets a discounted GO fare in any of the agreements that I know of....the fare that is discounted/subsidized/"insert own terminology here" is the local transit fare.

So pass holders are unaffected as they would not be paying a fare when they transfer anyway.....what will be impacted is the decision about buying a pass or not.

eg. A worker at QP who lives in Oakville takes GO to Union every day and buys a monthly metropass to take the subway from Union to QP.....they do this because 5X2X$3X4.3 = $129 and a metropass is$134 (on the monthly pass) so buying that pass basically covers their "regular" commute usage and all/any other TTC use is covered at $5/mth. replace the $3 in that equation with $1.50 and the math changes enough that the person using GO to TTC as part of their regular commute probably does not buy the pass.

So just to be clear: if you take GO Transit and TTC on the same trip, all the customer will see is a $1.50 charge deducted from their cost of the trip, correct?

 

[Palma]

Commuters to get a half price discount to transfer to TTC from GO and UP Express and vice versa:

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tr...sit-users-to-get-half-price-fares-on-ttc.html

does it apply the other way - TTC commuters going onto GO get $1.50 off

 

[TOareaFan]

So just to be clear: if you take GO Transit and TTC on the same trip, all the customer will see is a $1.50 charge deducted from their cost of the trip, correct?

The way it works on the other systems I have used is this:

Local transit to GO......full fare charged on local transit on your Presto Card...once you tap on the GO (making the discount eligible) the appropriate amount discount is rebated on the local transit fare.

GO to local transit....if you tap onto local transit within the allowed time after a GO trip, the fare charged to your Presto card on the local trip is discounted at that tap (ie no need for a rebate later).

At no point have I seen the GO fare adjusted at all.

 

[muller877]

More people live near subway stations plus more bus and streetcar routes serve TTC stations because more people that live in Toronto use them. I don't think we will ever see people change how they commute inside of Toronto no matter how many extra go train stops that we don't need.

You can already see the change around Weston (walk up traffic). For those within 500m of the station it has changed their daily commute. And if the TTC can get their head out of the sand will allow people that have long bus trips quicker access to high order transit.

The $1.50 savings is part of the solution and a band-aid. The bigger risk now is that the Liberals are now in election mode. Will they shelve the fare integration study and keep this band-aid on until after the election? When it's dirty and the wound is infected.

 

[joet00]

The way it works on the other systems I have used is this:

Local transit to GO......full fare charged on local transit on your Presto Card...once you tap on the GO (making the discount eligible) the appropriate amount discount is rebated on the local transit fare.

GO to local transit....if you tap onto local transit within the allowed time after a GO trip, the fare charged to your Presto card on the local trip is discounted at that tap (ie no need for a rebate later).

At no point have I seen the GO fare adjusted at all.

I will sometimes take YRT ($1 co-fare) to Newmarket GO and then hop on the train to Union.

The YRT co-fare is $1, discounted from $3.63. The Newmarket-Union GO fare is $9.06.

This is how the Presto website presents the charges to my card:

YRT > GO
Tap on YRT: $3.63 full-fare
Tap on at Newmarket: $5.30 base fare
Tap off at Union: $1.13 (the balance of the $9.06 GO fare after the $5.30 at tap on at Newmarket AND the $2.63 co-fare rebate).

GO > YRT
Tap on at Union: $5.30 base fare
Tap off at Newmarket: $3.76 (the balance of the $9.06 GO fare)
Tap on YRT: $1 co-fare

Of course, we don't know if/how things are adjusted/paid-out in the back-end, but from the above it would appear that Presto credits the first agency with their full fare and the second agency is discounted.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Now to work on the Oriole GO Station to/from Leslie Subway Station connection.

The Dundas West Subway Station to/from Bloor GO/UPX Station is now a work in progress.

Maybe something can be improved between the Main Street Subway Station and the Danforth GO Station connection better in someway.

 

[ssiguy2]

This is nothing but great news and hopefully it will expand to 100% price decrease for transfers and not the 50%.

This is what will help make RER a real success. GO have so many potential Toronto riders that cannot use the service due to the price. It is not coincidence that GO fares are drastically higher on a per-km basis for Torontonians and Toronto has fewer GO Rail patrons than just Mississauga despite Toronto having much higher frequencies, all 7 lines, and home to Union.

To bad Toronto doesn't join QP in paying for the other $18 million {which is pennies in the Toronto budget} so there is 100% fare integration and watch GO rail ridership soar overnight.

 

[ssiguy2]

It's true that this will not cause the masses to switch to GO overnight but it is good for transit users and saves them real money. GO ridership will no doubt increase significantly and that will be all in Toronto which will prove to Metrolinx that there is huge latent demand for GO/RER service but it is not working under the current price regime as the fares are simply to high and most GO users get to their stations by the TTC. This will provide info to Metrolinx that people have been saying for decades, all the frequency and off-peak service improvements mean little if people can't afford to take it in the first place and that riders are very price sensitive.

As far as already having a Metropass or paid token, that is a non-issue in terms of integration. GO is a POP system and anyone with a Metropass who paid a lower fare due to it can simply be ignored by authorities as they know there was no intent for a free ride. When Presto is {finally} brought in 100% then they can start a stronger enforcement regime.

 

[nfitz]

no one gets a discounted GO fare in any of the agreements that I know of....the fare that is discounted/subsidized/"insert own terminology here" is the local transit fare.

Perhaps not per se, but if I was to go from Toronto to Mississauga normally, I would pay $3 to TTC and $3 to Miway. Total $6.

But if I was to take GO from Danforth to Port Credit, with TTC/Miway connections on each end, it then rises by the $8.17 (gosh - it's only one streetcar and one bus from the Beaches!). Total fare = $14.17.

Currently those with no passes using Miway to/from GO only pay 80¢ instead of $3, so the fare is really now $11.97. Now this addtional $1.50 discount on TTC drops it to $10.47.

Meanwhile if one goes from Danforth to say Woodine racetrack with TTC at both ends (I've done this sort of with alcohol involved so I didn't want to drive ... though the final leg was a rare twice-a-day GO bus from Etobicoke North) the GO fare is ... odd, only $4.71 plus $6 TTC. $10.71 ... which now drops to $7.71.

Hmm ... what if you go through Malton instead, which has better bus connections to Woodbine. Adds 6 km, so $4.71 becomes ... $7.06 (fare by distance my ass). And Google transit breaks .... https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Danf...6467!2m2!1d-79.6037071!2d43.7162192!3e3?hl=en

To hell with it ... I'm driving ...

 

[amnesiajune]

Now to work on the Oriole GO Station to/from Leslie Subway Station connection.

I don't think there's any point in this. The Richmond Hill Line will never amount to much more than a miniature commuter railway. It's never going to get all-day service because its inevitably going to be duplicated by a Yonge subway extension. Who will want to take the TTC to Leslie and then the Go Train to Union, when the time saved (assuming the destination is Union Station) is about the same as the time it takes to walk between the two stations even if there is a tunnel built, and you have to wait for the train to arrive?

For both the city and the province, it's a much better use of resources to expand the parking lot at Oriole so more people will take the train during rush hour rather than driving down the DVP. While they're at it, maybe add a direct entrance from the 401 eastbound off-ramp to the parking lot.

 

[nfitz]

For both the city and the province, it's a much better use of resources to expand the parking lot at Oriole so more people will take the train during rush hour rather than driving down the DVP. While they're at it, maybe add a direct entrance from the 401 eastbound off-ramp to the parking lot.

They could do both. The platform could easily have the parking lot at the south end, and a much better connection to Leslie at the north end. It doesn't even have to be a massive overblown extension. Just extend the platform over Esther Shiner towards Leslie Station, and build a short tunnel under the bus lane (and perhaps under the tracks too for a second platform - wasn't there a plan to do that for a new building anyway?) and then exits an outside pathway, that's a short walk to the north end of the 310-metre long GO platform. (it's about 290 metres from the north end of the existing platform, to the south end of the Leslie TTC parking lot).

 

[muller877]

They could do both. The platform could easily have the parking lot at the south end, and a much better connection to Leslie at the north end. It doesn't even have to be a massive overblown extension. Just extend the platform over Esther Shiner towards Leslie Station, and build a short tunnel under the bus lane (and perhaps under the tracks too for a second platform - wasn't there a plan to do that for a new building anyway?) and then exits an outside pathway, that's a short walk to the north end of the 310-metre long GO platform. (it's about 290 metres from the north end of the existing platform, to the south end of the Leslie TTC parking lot).

Oriole GO is still the old school station. A bit of paving and a small building. What would work better is for a land swap between the city, a developer and GO.

1. Fix the maze of streets and overpasses that exist right now at Sheppard/Leslie
2. Move about 1/2 of the Oriole Work Yard to where the GO parking is now (under the 401).
3. Replace 1/2 of the Oriole Yard (north end) with condos/retail (and have GO parking under the condo).
4. move the Oriole go so it is North of Esther Shiner and south of Sheppard

(#2 and #3 are optional)

 

[BMO]

Oriole GO is still the old school station. A bit of paving and a small building. What would work better is for a land swap between the city, a developer and GO.

1. Fix the maze of streets and overpasses that exist right now at Sheppard/Leslie
2. Move about 1/2 of the Oriole Work Yard to where the GO parking is now (under the 401).
3. Replace 1/2 of the Oriole Yard (north end) with condos/retail (and have GO parking under the condo).
4. move the Oriole go so it is North of Esther Shiner and south of Sheppard

(#2 and #3 are optional)

For people who work downtown it's a great opportunity to have express RER style access to downtown or rapid midtown access via the subway. Even if it will be a "miniature commuter railway" having a better connection will UNDOUBTEDLY lead to more transit use a a dispersion of traffic away from Yonge Subway South, whether it's thousands or hundreds it'll still be a benefit to the network as a whole. I also imagine it's got to be a fairly easy to make this into a quick win project for the Metrolinx. It doesn't seem like there will be a need for extensive construction to make this happen?

 

[mdrejhon]

Commuters to get a half price discount to transfer to TTC from GO and UP Express and vice versa:

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tr...sit-users-to-get-half-price-fares-on-ttc.html

About time. This will impact me too.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Official News Release, from this link:

Ontario Lowering the Cost of Transit
Province Cutting Cost to Ride the TTC in Half for People Paying to Ride GO Transit and UP Express

Ontario is lowering the cost of commuting for people in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) by introducing a 50 per cent discount for PRESTO card users who transfer between GO Transit or the Union Pearson Express (UP Express) and the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), in both directions.


Premier Kathleen Wynne was at Union Station in Toronto today to announce that adult, senior and youth/student TTC riders will pay a TTC fare of just $1.50 when they use a PRESTO card to transfer to or from GO Transit or the UP Express. The discount will launch in January 2018, shortly after the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension will begin service to six new stations. For people whose regular commute includes GO/UP Express-TTC transfers, this step towards regional fare integration and more affordable transit options will save about $720 per year.

The new discount builds on a number of recent actions the government has taken to save people money, including a tax credit for seniors who use public transit, steps to make buying or renting a home more affordable and reducing residential electricity bills by 25 per cent on average.

Making public transit more convenient, available and affordable is part of Ontario's plan to create fairness and opportunity during this period of rapid economic change. The plan includes a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, easier access to affordable child care, and free prescription drugs for everyone under 25 through the biggest expansion of medicare in a generation.

Quick Facts

• PRESTO adult, senior, student and youth riders will pay $1.50 for the TTC portion of their combined TTC and GO or UP Express journey.
• More than 50,000 daily trips include transfers between the TTC and GO Transit or UP Express.
• More than 3 million people have activated PRESTO cards, which can be used on 10 transit systems in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), plus OC Transpo in Ottawa.
• The subway extension from Sheppard West to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre will have six new stations, including York University.
• Eight other GTHA municipal transit systems offer discounts on GO Transit linked trips.

Now, what about a discount fare between the other transit agencies? IE. MiWay and TTC.