Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Fare increase for 2019 GO Transit passengers doesn't appear to be on the agenda for this Thursday's Metrolinx board meeting

This has been one of my biggest worries seeing as commuting by GO now carries the financial equivalent of making a third or second car payment for many commuters. I'm at $344 a month in fare for myself (using November as a reference point).

Generally it's around this time of year that GO Transit presents a case to Metrolinx for increasing fares. I went ahead and reviewed the agenda for the December 6th board meeting and this isn't on it. There is a discussion about fare policy with 10 minutes allotted to the speakers, so I think we're safe to assume we've been spared an increase come February 2019.

But, we've been shafted before. The last increase happened in the fall of 2017 when we were all hit with a 3% hike, so we may not be completely out of the woods!

5 comments:

  1. Skin ManDecember 4, 2018 at 1:31 PM

    Compared to the deal you get from the TTC - unlimited consumption across the entire system!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. SquigglesDecember 5, 2018 at 11:30 AM

    It is one of the many reasons I work from home more often. I pay $17 a day to go into the office (when driving, it is more if I take the bus). Hydro, water, food, gas, none of that comes close to that amount.

    Plus, it means working in sweatpants.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RobDecember 5, 2018 at 8:19 PM

    That 3% increase in the fall of 2017 was the salt in the wound that came after the public transportation tax credit was discontinued effective July of 2017. That meant that the grand total was an 18% fare increase last year!

    If it had been an 18% direct out of pocket fare increase, people would have been screaming bloody murder. Splitting it between the 3% out of pocket whenever you tap your Presto card or buy a ticket and 15% on the tax refund that you noticed you didn't get back in April only made it palatable but it didn't make the total increase any smaller.

    ReplyDelete
  4. CJ SmithDecember 7, 2018 at 11:19 AM

    Rob, that's an excellent point and one I did think about it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousDecember 10, 2018 at 4:39 PM

    The thing I found interesting about the agenda is that in the Customer Experience Committee report there is barely any customer experience reported. It all seems to be Metrolinx telling the committee what is happening. Shouldnt this committee be providing feedback to the board?

    http://www.metrolinx.com/en/docs/pdf/board_agenda/20181206/20181206_BoardMtg_Customer_Experience_Committee_Chair_Report.pdf

    ReplyDelete

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