Ontario scrapping local transit fares for most GO Transit riders, but TTC not included

With three months to go until the Ontario election, the Ford government is eliminating double fares for some GO Transit riders in the Greater Toronto Area and increasing discounts for young people and students.

As of March 14, local transit fares will be free for riders who use the following transit systems to connect to and from GO Transit in several Golden Horseshoe municipalities.

• Barrie Transit
• Bradford West Gwillimbury Transit
• Brampton Transit
• Burlington Transit
• Durham Region Transit
• Grand River Transit
• Guelph Transit
• Hamilton Street Railway
• Milton Transit
• MiWay
• Oakville Transit
• York Region Transit

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie spoke in support of the announcement during a news conference Tuesday morning.

“Any efforts that encourage more people to get on public transit will undoubtedly help us with our recovery. We also know these new initiatives will help spur regional economic recovery as well,” she told reporters.

“The elimination of the double fare, in particular, will make it easier for people to move across Mississauga and beyond to explore employment in neighbouring regions, helping both those looking for jobs and employers looking for workers.”

However, riders of the TTC who transfer to and from GO Transit will continue to pay double fares. Discounted fares of $1.50 for the TTC ended in March 2020 after the previous Liberal government put in place a three-year pilot project in 2018. The Ford government opted against renewing the program, but officials said negotiations on co-fares between the City of Toronto and the government are occurring.

RELATED: Discount on fare between TTC and GO to end on March 31

CityNews asked Stan Cho, Ontario’s associate minister of transportation, when Toronto residents could expect to see the same benefit now being extended across most of the GTA.

“A project of this size and the changes we’re making do take a little bit of time, so the discussions with the TTC will be ongoing. The ultimate goal of course is to make sure we connect the entire grid,” he said, noting government staff will monitor progress on this “first step” and that more information on next steps will be available “in the very near future.”

TTC chair Jaye Robinson confirmed negotiations are ongoing and praised the province for helping the agency deal with fare losses during the pandemic. However, she said extending the program to Toronto would help the local economy and residents who live near the city’s borders.

“Certainly exciting for the region and beyond, but we need this in Toronto. We had a pilot, I think it worked very well, they cancelled the pilot and we would like that to resume,” she told CityNews on Tuesday.

“Scarborough and Etobicoke play a big role in them getting back and forth to work. We want to support frontline workers, we want to support all workers, we want people back in the downtown core working so things can really recover as quickly as possible.”

Shelagh Pizey-Allen, the spokesperson for the advocacy group TTCriders, called Tuesday’s news “disappointing.”

“We think it’s really unfair TTC users have been left out of getting free transfers with GO,” she said.

“The Province of Ontario should fund free transfers between GO and TTC. This will actually create more rapid transit options in Toronto overnight.”

Meanwhile, the provincial government will also increase Presto fare card discounts on GO Transit and UP Express for youth aged 13 to 19 and post-secondary students. Cho said the discount is being expanded to 40 per cent of a regular adult fare, up from 22 per cent. GO Transit will continue to be free for riders under 12.

Cho also said the government will phase in a pilot project for low-income riders where 50 per cent of the Presto fare will be reimbursed to eligible riders. The affordable transit program will begin on March 14 in Peel Region and will be rolled out to other transit systems over time.

A spokesperson for Cho told CityNews depending on GO Transit ridership for the next year, the cost of the youth program is expected to be around $3 million while the new co-fare policy will cost approximately $1.5 million.

Tuesday’s announcement came a week after Premier Doug Ford confirmed his government licence plate renewal fees and stickers and offer refunds for eligible Ontario drivers. The move will take effect on March 13.

Ontario also recently announced it would be removing tolls on Highways 412 and 418 in Durham Region as of April 5.

Matti Siemiatycki, the director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto who is also a professor in geography, said the announcement as a whole is a bit of good news.

“This move is one step to try and start attracting people back to transit as our city starts to reopen and is also important from an affordability perspective as more people are struggling financially coming out of the pandemic. So it has affordability dimensions and plays a role in attracting people back to public transit,” he told CityNews.

Siemiatycki said with affordability issues front of mind for many Ontario residents, the recent announcements are going to form a key theme in the months ahead.

“These types of interventions are highly noticeable and a place where political gain can be sought and so these types of announcements are not surprising in the lead up to an election,” he said.

“These types of announcements are very high profile and you’ll note that a lot of them are targeted at the suburb communities in the ‘905 belt.’ That’s where elections are won and lost in Ontario and so you’re seeing a lot of the policy announcements of late being targeted at commuters in those regions, in those municipalities to give them both pocketbook improvements and to try to target down the line improvements to their mobility.”