The Government of Ontario says it’s “making it more convenient and affordable for people to use transit across the Greater Golden Horseshoe” area. The province is eliminating the fare for most local transit when passengers connect with GO Transit as part of their trip.

Starting Monday, March 14, local transit is free of fare for riders connecting to and from GO on municipal transit systems with GO co-fare agreements. According to the province, “This means that a Mississauga adult who commutes back and forth using Miway and GO Transit three days a week could save $250 annually on transit expenses.”

In a post on its news blog, GO’s parent company, Metrolinx, cites a Durham Region example of how the new arrangement would work. “If you take a local Durham Region Transit bus to Oshawa GO Station, the fare you pay for your [DRT] trip will be reimbursed in full onto your PRESTO [fare] card…” if you connect with GO at the station.

GO Transit co-fare discounts apply to these agencies: Barrie Transit; Bradford West Gwillimbury Transit; Brampton Transit; Burlington Transit; Durham Region Transit; Grand River Transit; Guelph Transit; the Hamilton Street Railway; Milton Transit; MiWay, Oakville Transit; and York Region Transit.

For agencies that don’t use PRESTO, you can show your PRESTO card, a valid, single-ride paper ticket or day-pass GO ticket as proof that you paid a GO fare.

Ontario explains in a news release that, when Ontario and the Government of Canada contributed as much as $2.15 billion to help municipal transit systems address the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, they also asked municipalities to work with the province on ways to make sure that transit is safe, sustainable and affordable.

Unfortunately, the TTC doesn’t have a co-fare agreement with GO, so TTC riders must continue to pay full fare if their trips require them to transfer between the two systems.

In 2018, the previous Ontario Government developed the discounted double fare program, offering PRESTO users a $1.50 discount on their fares when transferring between GO or Union Pearson express and the TTC. It resulted from a three-year agreement between Metrolinx and the TTC. The agreement and the program ended Tuesday, March 31, 2020.

According to a Metrolinx news release at the time, Ontario funded the program and budgetted $18.4 million annually to compensate the transit agencies for lost fare revenue. The program was popular among passengers, however, and always exceeded the budget each year - by $2.6 million in 2018-2019 and by as much as $6.7 million in 2019-2020. Metrolinx covered the $9.3-million shortfall since it launched the program.

This chart illustrates the savings that transit riders in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area may realize, since Ontario is eliminating the local-fare portion of the cost of trips with local transit and GO. The government says it has based the weekly and annual passenger cost savings on a three-return trip weekly scenario.

Additional Co-Fare Subsidy /remaining 25% of local fare

• Source: Government of Ontario.