Oakville Transit and GO Transit fares are going up.Oakville Transit and GO Transit fares are going up.
Oakville Transit
Oakville’s transit fares will see an average increase of $0.05 per ride on almost all categories of rides. This translates into a price hike by Oakville Transit for the GO Transit co-fare price per ride of 7.7 percent. The GO Transit co-fare is the price a commuter pays after riding the GO train and transfers to Oakville Transit. Oakville Transit’s adult monthly passes will increase to $99 from $94, and regular single use Presto riders will see an increase from the current $2.65 to $2.70. The student monthly pass will also increase by $5 to $65. All the fare increases will take effect on January 1, 2013, along with the discontinuation of adult tickets sales. Adult tickets will be accepted until March 31, 2013. In order to receive any discounted fare adult riders will need to purchase a Presto Card – the $6 initial fee is currently waived. Presto cards can be purchased at Oakville Libraries, Town Hall, Oakville Transit Head Office, and GO Stations.
GO Transit
GO Transit fairs are also going up on February 1, 2013. For rides between $4.50 to $5.80 you need an addition $0.35, $5.81 to $7.35 the increase is $0.45, and for rides above $7.35 the increase is $0.55. The Oakville GO Station route to Union Station for an adult fare is $6.85 for a regular paper ticket and $6.34 for Presto Card riders. This same route will increase to $7.30 for a paper ticket and $6.66 for Presto. For the occasional traveller the price of the paper ticket to Union will have gone up 6.5%.
Canada’s current inflation rate is 1.2% as of the end of November 2012. So there is a large gap between1.2% and 6.5%. Commuters have to be wondering what is driving this price increase. The explanation from GO Transit is that it will improve the system: adding multi-level parking structures, upgrade existing systems such as tracks and signals – which as of yesterday caused commuters to suffer delays up to 40 minutes. It was during the numerous delay updates that GO Transit announced the fare increase. Not great timing unless they believed riders would be pleased to pay more to get rid of the delays.
However, shouldn’t the cost of ridership go down, since so many more people are taking public transit? For more information about the transit hikes call Oakville Transit at (905) 815-2020 or email GO Transit’s Customer Service Advisory Committee at: [email protected]. Remember your voice does count.