Shahroze Rauf | News Editor
Featured Image: Students can apply online to receive a GO Transit Student ID Card for fare discounts. | Fatema Ali, Excalibur Publications
GO Transit is offering full-time students a discount of up to 22.5% off the adult fare. Students can apply online to receive a GO Transit Student Identification Card.
GO Busses will operate from the terminal at the Highway 407 subway station. Students will receive a discounted double fare with the TTC when using the subway and pay $1.50 rather than the $3.00 when using a PRESTO card.
“This discount is available exclusively for PRESTO users who pay as they go with their card balance. The discount is not available if you use cash, paper tickets, tokens, or a monthly pass on your PRESTO card. Adults, post-secondary students/youth, and seniors are eligible for this discount,” states a description on the official PRESTO website.
Though this helps GO Transit users, students that take the YRT to get to York’s Keele Campus from Vaughan are still not being offered any fare discounts or integration.
Several changes to transit services occurred last year on the York Keele campus, causing an uproar and pushing the YFS to start the YU RIDE campaign.
“Allowing York University students, staff, faculty and community members to access our campuses in the most efficient and affordable methods is essential,” reads the official YU RIDE campaign statement.
The demands of the campaign targeted YRT/VIVA as well as GO Transit to return to on-campus terminals, on-campus bus routes, alongside pushing the government to improve fare integration between transit services in the GTA. The campaign collected more than 17,600 signatures.
Now, amidst the 2019 federal elections, members of the Big City Mayor’s Caucus (BCMC) met this past Sunday during the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) conference. They discussed transit issues and are calling on federal leaders to work on a permanent public transit funding system, according to a press release issued by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).
“One of the things we have not done much of in Canada is to get the mayors together to talk about traffic and transit issues,” Mayor John Tory said in an interview with CP24 reporters.
“So, we are going to be advocating to the federal parties to say they should all step up and fund transit to a greater extent than they do now and we’re also going to be swapping ideas. I think it is just great to collaborate and share ideas and that is what we are going to be doing.”
A ten-year plan currently in effect and set to end in 2027 is reportedly generating results in Quebec City’s transit system. The FCM is proposing an extension to this plan.
“We must continue to expand our transit systems to support that growth,” Tory adds. “The only way that transit expansion in cities can continue is with the certainty and stability of committed federal funding. Pledging to ensure the Government of Canada will continue to invest in transit infrastructure beyond 2027 is a commitment to the future prosperity of our cities and the economic wellbeing of our entire country.”
