A train to yesterday: GO Transit celebrates 50 years of service
GO Transit operated 14 stations along the Lakeshore route when it opened
This morning marks 50 years since the first GO train pulled into Union Station, the one-storey car leaving Oakville at 5:50 a.m. filled mainly with politicians and journalists.
But the politicians of the day hoped that future cars would be filled with commuters, plucked from the bedroom communities around Toronto that began growing after the Second World War.
It was a major public investment at the time: $9.2 million to launch the service on May 23, 1967. At that point, passengers could travel from Pickering to Hamilton, with a total of 14 stations along Lake Ontario.
Then-premier John Robarts said he expected to expand the rail service if demand warranted.
"I think this will come, but we want to see how this goes first," he said during the inaugural ride along the Lakeshore West line. "I'm quite certain that as time goes on it will be extended."
When asked about the plans for a bar cart, however, he was far less definitive.
"I haven't any, anyway," Robarts told CBC at the time, smiling a little.
It cost nothing to ride the train that first day.
The second day, it jumped to $2 for anyone travelling the farthest distance — Hamilton to Pickering, Ont. — and a quarter for any children.
While that sounds like peanuts, it's actually not much cheaper than it would be today when adjusted for inflation. That fare would be roughly $14.57, compared to the current single ride of $16.25. (In fact, you could use Presto and pay less — $14.43.)
And for those climbing into a standing-room-only car for Tuesday's commute, consider this: GO Transit only requested that 94 seats be put in each train car when the service launched, even though they could hold 125 "to avoid the feeling of crowding."
Notable moments
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GO Transit used to offer something called Dial-A-Bus, which would pick commuters up from their front steps and take them to the subway or other major stations. It launched in October 1973, but was cancelled three years later, according to Metrolinx.
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Fondly nicknamed the "Wonder bus" by Greater Toronto Area teens in the late 90s, GO Transit launched a bus service to Canada's Wonderland the year the park opened in 1981.
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In June 1995, GO Transit made 10 of its stations wheelchair accessible.
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The Union-Pearson Express connected downtown Toronto with Pearson airport in 2015. The service showed poor ridership, hitting 2,300 people per day — less than half of its daily target — when it first opened. GO cut its one-way fares by more than 50 per cent, to $12 per one-way ride, the next year and by June 2016 had daily ridership of about 8,300, according to Metrolinx.
