GO Transit
GO Transit, officially known as the
Greater Toronto Transit Authority (
GTTA), is
Canada's first, and
Ontario's only, interregional public transit system, established to link
Toronto with the surrounding regions of the
Greater Toronto Area (GTA). GO carries 47 million passengers a year in an extensive network of
train and
bus services. Since it began regular passenger service in May
1967, more than three-quarters of a billion people have taken GO trains and buses.
GO trains are easily identifiable; they are double-decked, green and white, and the cars are shaped like elongated octagons. These
Bombardier BiLevel carriages were originally designed for GO in the
1970s, and are now used by a number of other
commuter railways across the continent. GO buses are not double-decked (although a
BC Transit bus was used in an experiment during May
2002), but they are also characterised by a green and white colour scheme. Most GO buses are inter-city coaches (see directory below).
Although it owns its locomotives and carriages, GO contracts out the operation of its trains to the
Canadian Pacific Railway on the Milton line, and to
CN on all others. As a result, GO service is sometimes disrupted by labour disputes in which it is not a direct participant.
 |
A GO Train F59PH, currently the standard power on GO Transit's rail lines. |
GO trains and buses serve a population of six million in a 8,000
km² area (3,000
sq.mi.) radiating from downtown
Toronto to
Hamilton and
Guelph in the west;
Orangeville,
Barrie, and
Beaverton to the north; and
Port Perry,
Oshawa, and
Newcastle in the east. The buses extend GO's service as far as over 100 km (about 60 miles) from downtown Toronto. GO connects with every municipal transit system in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas, including the
Toronto Transit Commission (TTC).
The Greater Toronto Area consists of the City of Toronto and the surrounding Regions of
Halton,
Peel,
York, and
Durham. GO Transit also serves the neighbouring City of
Hamilton, and reaches into
Simcoe,
Dufferin, and
Wellington Counties.
The GO system map shows seven train routes, all departing from Toronto's
Union Station and mostly named respectively after the outer terminus of train service:
 |
All GO trains are now composed of the agency's distinctive bi-level railway cars. |
However, GO's timetables show a single Lakeshore line, which is perhaps a more appropriate nomenclature since many trains provide through service between stations east and west of Toronto.
Most of the GO Train route network operates only in peak
rush-hour periods and then only in the primary direction of travel. For example, as of February 2006, the Milton line service consists of six trains leaving Milton each weekday between 6:25 and 8:00 a.m., and six trains leaving Toronto each weekday between 4:30 and 7:00 p.m.
There is off-peak train service on parts of the Lakeshore and Georgetown lines. Hourly trains operate on weekdays between Oshawa and
Burlington; on weekends this is shortened to a
Pickeringâ€"
Oakville service.The Georgetown line has a more limited off-peak train service between Toronto and
Bramalea.
Each train route has a corresponding GO Bus service for the times (and directions) when the trains are not operating. These accept the same tickets as the trains and in many cases serve the same stations. For example, buses operate from Toronto to Milton, and from Burlington (on weekends Oakville) to Hamilton, at all times except the weekday evening peak when trains are available. Some train routes are similarly extended by buses at all times, as noted in the list of routes, with through buses when the trains do not run. Thus buses to
Barrie operate from Bradford in the evening peak, and from Toronto at other times.
Still other GO Buses are independent of rail services. Some parts of the route network use expressways (such as the frequent Torontoâ€"Hamilton express bus via the
Queen Elizabeth Way) while others are more local in character.
Toronto Pearson International Airport is served by a route from
Brampton to
Yorkdale and
York Mills subway stations. Buses serving downtown Toronto operate to a terminal adjacent to
Union Station.
Many municipal transit systems connect with GO Trains. 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
subway trains. Immediately adjacent to the GO concourse at
Union Station is the
Union station 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.
Four stations on the TTC's
Bloor-Danforth subway line and one on the
Sheppard line are close to GO Train stations;
*
TTC Kipling has a direct connection to
GO Kipling (on GO's
Milton line),
*
TTC Dundas West is near
GO Bloor (
Georgetown line),
*
TTC Main Street is near
GO Danforth (on the
Lakeshore East line), and
*
TTC Kennedy has a direct connection to the
GO Kennedy (on the
Stouffville Line).
* The
TTC Leslie station does not currently connect with the nearby
GO Oriole station on the
Richmond Hill line, but there has lately been consideration of moving GO Oriole next to TTC Leslie Station in the future.
All GO Train stations within the City of Toronto except
GO Exhibition are adjacent to TTC bus routes, and
GO Danforth,
GO Exhibition,
GO Bloor, and
GO Long Branch are also on
streetcar routes.
GO runs 180 train trips and 1,430 bus trips daily, carrying about 190,000 passengers on a typical weekday â€" 160,000 on the trains and 30,000 by bus. GO says that their ridership growth has continually exceeded expectations. In the first year of operation, 2.5 million passengers were carried. The combined rail and bus system today handles more than 47 million riders annually.
At least 96% of the train ridership is to and from Union Station in downtown Toronto, while about 70% of all bus passengers travel to and from the City of Toronto.
GO Transit was created and funded by the provincial government in 1967 as
Government of Ontario Transit (hence the acronym 'GO') 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. Responsibility for the system was then transferred to the Toronto Area Transportation Operating Authority (TATOA) and later to the Greater Toronto Services Board as part of the province's 'downloading' initiative, before finally returning to the province as a Crown Agency under Greater Toronto Transit Authority (GTTA).
GO began as a three-year experiment in May
1967 running single-deck
diesel multiple units on a single rail line along
Lake Ontario's shoreline. All day GO Train service ran from Oakville to Pickering with limited rush hour train service to Hamilton. 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 do not reach.
Expansion continued in the 1970s with the introduction of the Georgetown line in 1974 and the Richmond Hill line in 1978. Also in 1978 the GO Transit bi-level railcars were introduced, although many of the bi-level trains had to run with a single level cab car at first. Finally in 1979 the current GO Train concourse at Union Station was built.
The 1980s proved to be the most exciting time for GO Transit as in 1981 the Milton GO Train line opened. Then just one year later in 1982 the Bradford line and Stouffville line opened after the newly created VIA Rail Canada cut passenger rail service to these corridors. Towards the end of 1982 came GO Transit's moment of truth, as the Ontario Minister of Transportation and Communications, James Snow, announced the launching
GO ALRT, an interregional rapid transit program. This is a transit system that would have allowed computer controlled trains to run at a maximum frequency of two minutes instead of the usual twenty minutes during rush hour. One line would have replaced the Lakeshore GO Train line and would have run from Hamilton to Oshawa. The other would have connected Oakville with downtown Mississauga, Pearson Airport, downtown North York and downtown Scarborough before finally terminating at Pickering. A short lived third line would have run north-south connecting Brampton with Mississauga. The rail cars (designed by The Urban Transportation Development Corporation) started out as a ICTS train similar to the Scarborough RT later evolved in 1983 to the length of roughly a Toronto subway train. Further redesign in 1984/85 indicated that greater carrying capacity was going to be required resulting in cars similar in length to VIA's LRC coach car. Meanwhile Hamilton residents were strongly opposed to the plan which caused the proposal to go under in 1985 which was also a result of long time Ontario PC premier Bill Davis being replaced by the late Ontario PC leader Frank Miller who served only a few months in office.
With the end of GO ALRT and the creation of a coalition provincial government between the Ontario NDP and Ontario Liberals, it was decided that certain parts of the GO ALRT proposal would live on, in the form of a GO Train extension of all-day GO Train service to Whitby and Burlington. The tracks between Pickering and Whitby were originally built for the GO ALRT system but were soon converted to handle conventional GO Trains. All day GO Train service was brought to Whitby in 1988.
Enter the 90s, the decade that saw an end to the neverending growth of GO Transit. Ridership shrank as a result of the early 90s recession. In spite of this GO extended limited rush hour GO Train service to Barrie, Guelph, Acton and Oshawa in 1990. In May, 1992, while GO Transit celebrated its 25th birthday, all-day GO Train service was extended to Burlington with the building of a new station at Aldershot. However in 1993 former Ontario premier Bob Rae announced the Social Contract, which would see a "Temporary" reduction in spending on services. Consequentially GO Train service to Barrie, Guelph and Acton was eliminated. All day GO Train service to Whitby and Burlington was reduced to rush hours only (while limited Rush Hour train service to Oshawa and Hamilton remained in place. All day lakeshore train service existed only between Pickering and Oakville. In 1995 a new set of tracks and a station were built in Oshawa, allowing for frequent rush hour GO Train service to Oshawa.
With the election of former Ontario premier Mike Harris in June, 1995, plans for expanding GO Transit were put on hold in order to gain control of provincial spending and deliver its policy of lower taxes, balanced budgets and more jobs.
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
1 January 2001). In exchange, the province would assume certain other funding responsibilities from municipal governments.
A year later, on
1 January 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
1 January 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.
In 2000 all day GO Train service was restored from Burlington to Whitby and finally brought to Oshawa (although weekend Lakeshore GO Train service would still only see service between Pickering and Oakville).
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.
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) continues, but the station has been open for service since February
2005.
* Expanding the
Highway 407 bus service to
York University; other academic institutions served on the 407 routing include:
McMaster University in
Hamilton, Ontario,
Sheridan College in
Oakville, Ontario,
Centennial College and
University of Toronto at Scarborough in eastern Toronto, and
Durham College and
UOIT in
Oshawa, Ontario.
* Increasing available parking spaces at Bradford and Milton stations, along with multi-deck parking at several stations.
* Moved the
Milliken (GO Station) south of
Steeles Avenue into
Toronto from
York Region on
6 September 2005.
* 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) that opened for service on
2 June 2005.
* Improved overnight train storage facilities at Milton, Hamilton and Mount Pleasant; permitting GO Transit to operate longer trains, improve train schedule reliability and add new train trips.
* Installation of railway crossing protection arms at various roads.
* Improving accessibility to GO Transit's services for the physically challenged.
* Fleet expansion, including buses and Bombardier Bi-Level Rail Cars, and the replacement of old locomotives with more reliable and powerful models; permitting more train and bus trips, along with longer trainsets.
* Extending platforms at several Lakeshore and Milton Corridor stations to permit 12-car train sets by 2008.
* Adding a new station on the Milton Corridor, located near
Highway 401 and Winston Churchill Boulevard in
Mississauga, named Lisgar, which will open in
2007.
* A third track from Burlington to Bayview Junction (between Aldershot and Hamilton) 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
* Rail to rail grade separation started in
Markham, Ontario, on the Stouffville Line (see below).
* Improvements to Union Station to increase passenger access and capacity-handling.
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 on the Georgetown line under the
CP tracks so that more trains can run more reliably--constuction on the Stouffville Line began in May 2006.
* Increased track capacity on the Georgetown line's busy section between Brampton and northwest Toronto to allow more frequent train movements, and a new train layover facility near Mount Pleasant station.
* Track upgrades on the Milton line to run more peak and off-peak trains.
* The controversial proposal for the
Blue22 high-speed train service between the
Pearson Airport and Union Station via the Georgetown line using
Bombardier diesel cars. So named for the numbers of minutes the trip would take between Pearson and Downtown (
one-way distance around 30km). Because the Airport is located some 5km from the line, a proposed spur line would need to be constructed to connect the trains to the APM monrail currently serving the terminal facilites. It is uncertain how this service would be coordinated with GO Transit, which uses the same Georgetown Line and extensive track uprages along this line would be required. The project was announced as a transportation priority by the previous federal Liberal government in 2000 and a contract to build the diesel cars was awarded in 2003, with the expectation of project completion by 2008. At the current pace, this is unlikely, and is opposed by residents in places like
Weston.
Expansions beyond GO's present service area â€" initiatives 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, Ontario area, using track corridor owned by the City of Barrie (who acquired the right of way following CN's abandonment, after GO Trains last ran there)
* Introducing commuter bus services to
Peterborough, to
Niagara Region, and to
Guelph and
Waterloo Region to build the market for train service.
Theoretically, GO Transit can serve any region in Ontario and set up service in other areas as well, as it is a provincial agency; however, there is no real market for inter-regional service in other regions (such as in/near the larger cities in
Southwestern Ontario and in the
National Capital Region) that is not provided by private agencies.
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.
The former provincial Minister of Transportation announced plans in 2005 to introduce the
GTA Farecard, an unified
smartcard-based payment system for the entire
Greater Toronto Area similar to the
Octopus Card used in
Hong Kong.
Vehicle: 288 buses, 45 locomotives, 392 coaches (2006)Employees: 1,193 (1991)
Source:
Toronto Region, Ontario http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~wyatt/alltime/toronto-suburbs-on.html
Locomotives
The GM loco were manufactured at the Diesel Division in
London, Ontario:
*
General Motors Diesel Division EMD FP7A & F7B locomotives (used as power cars)
*
General Motors Diesel Division F59PH I locomotive
*
General Motors Diesel Division F59PH II locomotive
*
General Motors Diesel Division F59PH III locomotive
*
General Motors Diesel Division F59PH IV locomotive
*
General Motors Diesel Division
GP40TC locomotive
*
General Motors Diesel Division GP40-2L locomotive
*
General Motors Division F40PH locomotive
*
General Motors Diesel Division
GP40U locomotive
*
General Motors Diesel Division F59PH locomotiveThe only locos in use now (as of 2006) are the F59PH I, II, III and IV type locos. However, GO is ordering new, more powerful locomotives for delivery by 2007.
Multiple units
The HS MU were manufactured at the HS transit shops in
Thunder Bay, Ontario, now owned by
Bombardier Transportation Limited:
*
Hawker-Siddeley RTC-85/85C SP (Single-level self-propel unit) - retired
Coaches
*
HSC Bi-Level I coach
*
HSC Bi-Level II coach
*
UTDC Bi-Level III coach
*
UTDC Bi-Level IV coach
*
UTDC Bi-Level V coach
*
UTDC/
Bombardier Bi-Level VI coach
*
Bombardier Transportation Bi-Level VII coach
*
Bombardier Transportation Bi-Level VIII coach
*
Bombardier Transportation Tri-Rail Bi-Level coach - leased
*
Bombardier Transportation West Coast Express Bi-Level coach - leased
*
Pullman-Standard Bi-level coaches - leased from CPR Montreal commuter rail service (1974) and CN&W (1976)
Buses
GM buses were manufactured at the Diesel Division in
London, Ontario and Orion/Ontario Bus buses in
Mississauga, Ontario:
Retired
*
GMDD T8H-5307A
*
GMDD S8H-5304A
*
Ontario Bus Orion I 01.508
*
Motor Coach Industries MC-9
*
MCI 102A2
*
New Flyer D40S
Active
*
MCI 102A3
*
MCI 102C3
*
Orion Orion V 05.501
*
Prevost LeMirage XL40
*
MCI D4500
(Buses 2218-2267 Have 10 Speed Transmission)
*
MCI D4500CT
Denotes
wheelchair-
accessible vehicles.
Special Constables
GO Transit has
Special Constables patrolling the transit agencies' properties and vehicles. The rail components are also patrolled by either
CN Police or
Canadian Pacific Railway Police Service.
*
Gray Coach Lines - defunct
*
Travelways*
Charterways Transportation Limited*
Penetang-Midland Coach Lines (PMCL)
*
CN engineers and conductors operate all GO Trains excluding those operated on Milton line.
*
CP engineers and conductors operate GO Trains on Milton line only.
* Exclusive Advertising - Represents 3,950 interior poster faces and 790 digital displays throughout the GO Train fleet.
* Brampton Bus Terminal
*
GO Finch Bus Terminal - former GO York Region Terminal
* Newmarket Bus Terminal
* Oshawa Bus Terminal
* Scarborough Town Centre Bus Terminal
*
GO Union Station / Bus Terminal*
GO Yorkdale Bus Terminal*
York University GO Station (Bradford Line) - off campus
*
GO Transit Willowbrook Yard - ex-CNR car repair track and next to CNR Mimico Station - covering 17 hectares of land and 13,000 m2 of workshops
* North Bathurst Yard 1987 - formerly of
CN* Georgetown
* Guelph Junction (Milton)
* Steeprock Bus Garage 1979 - stores 130 buses, 70 bus staging areas, 20 bus repair bays
*
CNR MacMillian Yard* East Region Office - Middlefield Road and McCowan Road at
CPR Agincourt Marshalling Yard* GO Buses are also stored and serviced in Bramalea (Garage built at Bramalea GO station), Guelph, Beaverton, Milton, Oshawa, and Hamilton.
*
GO Transit*
FindTheWay.ca*
History of Regional Transit in Toronto*
GO Transit Significant Dates*
Building GO-Transit: The Rail Commuter Initiative of The Government of Ontario & Canadian National Railways, People in the project 1965-1969*
Exclusive Advertising (representing GO Train interior advertising)
