The Canadian Roadgeek Posted April 16, 2010 Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 I have a question about Ride to GO actually... say I'm taking Viva Orange from Downsview Stn to York U... and decide to transfer to one of the GO Transit buses... then get off somewhere else and transfer to a YRT bus... how does the fare work?? I never really tried the "Ride to GO" fare policy... I tried once... transferring from a YRT route to a GO route... but the bus driver had no idea what I was talking about "the ride to GO fare" and they didn't let me add 50 cents... they insisted I should buy a ticket... Usually I transfer from GO transit and then to a YRT bus... then I just add 50 cents showing my GO Transit ticket... Here's how I speculate it how it will work: 1) Pay the YRT / Viva fare on the Viva bus 2) Then, using the ticket from the Viva bus, present it to the GO transit bus driver and add 50 cents 3) Then somehow the transfer between the GO transit and the YRT bus has to be free... or should I add 50 cents?? Just generally I don't know how this works and the YRT website doesn't explain that well... besides, I don't have a pass for GO Transit... I use single ride tickets all the time since I take the GO every once in a while... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YRT-Guy Posted April 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 I have a question about Ride to GO actually...say I'm taking Viva Orange from Downsview Stn to York U... and decide to transfer to one of the GO Transit buses... then get off somewhere else and transfer to a YRT bus... how does the fare work?? I never really tried the "Ride to GO" fare policy... I tried once... transferring from a YRT route to a GO route... but the bus driver had no idea what I was talking about "the ride to GO fare" and they didn't let me add 50 cents... they insisted I should buy a ticket... Usually I transfer from GO transit and then to a YRT bus... then I just add 50 cents showing my GO Transit ticket... Here's how I speculate it how it will work: 1) Pay the YRT / Viva fare on the Viva bus 2) Then, using the ticket from the Viva bus, present it to the GO transit bus driver and add 50 cents 3) Then somehow the transfer between the GO transit and the YRT bus has to be free... or should I add 50 cents?? Just generally I don't know how this works and the YRT website doesn't explain that well... besides, I don't have a pass for GO Transit... I use single ride tickets all the time since I take the GO every once in a while... The Ride to GO is ONLY for going to/from a GO Train (located within york region only-excluding Milliken and York GO Train Station)station using YRT/Viva services. It's basically to avoid driving to/from a GO Train station so you pay 50 cents to ride the YRT/Viva bus. GO Transit has nothing to do with it in the sense you mention as you still have to pay for your GO fare as you usually would. Hope I understood your question. BTW: If you buy single ride tickets only just try explaining to the driver you are going to a GO train station, generally you should not have a problem but make sure you do get off at the station, otherwise be prepared to be questioned and pay the remaining full fare! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
York Transit Posted April 16, 2010 Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 The Ride to GO is ONLY for going to/from a GO Train (located within york region only-excluding Milliken and York GO Train Station)station using YRT/Viva services. It's basically to avoid driving to/from a GO Train station so you pay 50 cents to ride the YRT/Viva bus. GO Transit has nothing to do with it in the sense you mention as you still have to pay for your GO fare as you usually would. Hope I understood your question. BTW: If you buy single ride tickets only just try explaining to the driver you are going to a GO train station, generally you should not have a problem but make sure you do get off at the station, otherwise be prepared to be questioned and pay the remaining full fare! Speaking of that...have you personally ever caught Ride to GO cheats? And did you interrogate them? lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YRT-Guy Posted April 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 Speaking of that...have you personally ever caught Ride to GO cheats? And did you interrogate them? lol Only 1 about a year or so ago... telling me he's been using the same GO multiride ticket for the past year or so paying 50 cents to ride YRT.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyward Posted April 16, 2010 Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 i suppose when travelling to a go station you must be in possession of a 2-ride, 10-ride, daypass or month pass. as they have no idea whether you are genuinely going to purchase a single-ride at the station, i think they wont allow you to pay 50c without showing any go tickets mentioned above. one of the troubles i went into was, when buying a ride-to-go ticket at vivastation after the go trip, and transferring from viva to yrt, drivers usually question that ticket. one of them told me the co-fare ticket is only valid for the 1st connecting bus from the go station, any subsequent transfers require a normal yrt fare, thus when paying co-fare no transfers are issued. another driver claimed that the co-fare is only valid with go train trips, but not go bus trips. i would really appreciate some clarifications on this! by the way, again on yrt fare, say you have a 1-zone teared transfer and are transferring to 98 yonge north bus, as you may know it is a 2-zone bus so a $1 zone upgrade is required. they would give you a 2-zone transfer as proof, however would the drivers issue a new 2-hour time frame from the time i paid the upgrade or sticking back to old expiry time on the 1-zone transfer? if the latter, wouldnt it be contradictory to the upgrade tickets issued by the vivastations? the valid time for these zone upgrade tickets is 2 hours from the time of purchase, not the original expiry time. thanks so much for everyones help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
York Transit Posted April 16, 2010 Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 I'm always given a transfer when I flash my GO ticket+pay 50cents. I've had no troubles at all with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. DeLarge Posted April 16, 2010 Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 According to YRT's website, it seems as long as you're travelling to a GO Train Station you can use the $0.50+GO ticket fare. Drivers etc may be wary of people using the discount at off-peak (non-train) hours, but a lot of bus routes running out of GO's train stations off-peak are train substitutions so it should be a moot point. If you encounter any trouble, it might be worth it to call up YRT and ask for some specific clarification to their policy. http://www.yorkregiontransit.com/services/...york-region.asp Heck, the reason GO is doing this is to encourage people to take local transit to train stations rather than having them drive their cars and causing a parking shortage. What I find stupid is some routes that travel by the GO station but not into them may not accept the GO fare, even when you're trying to get home after arriving at the station off-peak. In Brampton, they accept GO fare at/outside the Bramalea GO station even if you're coming off a Hwy 407/York U GO bus at 10pm at night, when there's no train service. You can also get transfers when going to the GO station when paying GO fare and transferring to another bus with no troubles. The only issue I've ever had was one driver incorrectly stating I couldn't go past Hwy 410 if I was transferring from the train to a bus (which I probably should have filed a complaint about). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yrt+viva=1system Posted April 16, 2010 Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 i suppose when travelling to a go station you must be in possession of a 2-ride, 10-ride, daypass or month pass. as they have no idea whether you are genuinely going to purchase a single-ride at the station, i think they wont allow you to pay 50c without showing any go tickets mentioned above.one of the troubles i went into was, when buying a ride-to-go ticket at vivastation after the go trip, and transferring from viva to yrt, drivers usually question that ticket. one of them told me the co-fare ticket is only valid for the 1st connecting bus from the go station, any subsequent transfers require a normal yrt fare, thus when paying co-fare no transfers are issued. another driver claimed that the co-fare is only valid with go train trips, but not go bus trips. i would really appreciate some clarifications on this! by the way, again on yrt fare, say you have a 1-zone teared transfer and are transferring to 98 yonge north bus, as you may know it is a 2-zone bus so a $1 zone upgrade is required. they would give you a 2-zone transfer as proof, however would the drivers issue a new 2-hour time frame from the time i paid the upgrade or sticking back to old expiry time on the 1-zone transfer? if the latter, wouldnt it be contradictory to the upgrade tickets issued by the vivastations? the valid time for these zone upgrade tickets is 2 hours from the time of purchase, not the original expiry time. thanks so much for everyones help! (1) Get a transfer once you pay the 50c, that will cut out the hassle (2) Someone with more info can clarify the 2-zone policy, but I think if you travelling between zone 1 & 2 on YRT you will be issued the same time even after you pay the upgrade. Only on Viva I think you can get a valid trip say if your zone 1 ticket expires and your upgrade hasn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivablue5215 Posted April 16, 2010 Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 (2) Someone with more info can clarify the 2-zone policy, but I think if you travelling between zone 1 & 2 on YRT you will be issued the same time even after you pay the upgrade. Only on Viva I think you can get a valid trip say if your zone 1 ticket expires and your upgrade hasn't. From my experiences, you get a fresh 2 hours when you show a YRT or VIVA ticket, and the zone upgrade accompanied with it. It happened when I transferred from Viva Blue to the 33 at Wellington; I was given a fresh one zone transfer for 2 hours after I showed my validated ticket and zone upgrade (which I was told to dispose of). Apparently it is to "prevent people from repeatedly buying zone upgrades to cheat the fare system". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Posted April 16, 2010 Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 (1) Get a transfer once you pay the 50c, that will cut out the hassle(2) Someone with more info can clarify the 2-zone policy, but I think if you travelling between zone 1 & 2 on YRT you will be issued the same time even after you pay the upgrade. Only on Viva I think you can get a valid trip say if your zone 1 ticket expires and your upgrade hasn't. Out of curiousity, why would you need to cross into the second zone with the co-fare? Wouldn't you just take the train to a closer station? The only legitimate reasone for a 2-zone co-fare would be the East Gwillimbury GO Shuttle from Keswick which crosses from Zone 3 into Zone 2. I don't know how they handle that particular trip as most if not all of the passengers would have to pat $1.50 instead of just the $0.50 co-fare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skyward Posted April 16, 2010 Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 (1) Get a transfer once you pay the 50c, that will cut out the hassle(2) Someone with more info can clarify the 2-zone policy, but I think if you travelling between zone 1 & 2 on YRT you will be issued the same time even after you pay the upgrade. Only on Viva I think you can get a valid trip say if your zone 1 ticket expires and your upgrade hasn't. 1. like i said before some drivers wont issue transfers, as they claimed the 50c co-fare is only valid for the 1st trip to/from go station. 2. take a look of the fare faq of this issue of mytransit, does that imply drivers should issue fresh new 2-hour transfers upon upgrade payment? the problem is, many drivers still dont do that, instead they refer to the old transfer expiry time... http://yrt.ca/news/mytransit/MyTransit_OCT07_final.pdf Out of curiousity, why would you need to cross into the second zone with the co-fare? Wouldn't you just take the train to a closer station? The only legitimate reasone for a 2-zone co-fare would be the East Gwillimbury GO Shuttle from Keswick which crosses from Zone 3 into Zone 2. I don't know how they handle that particular trip as most if not all of the passengers would have to pat $1.50 instead of just the $0.50 co-fare. those were 2 separate questions i had in mind, sorry for the confusion... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YRT-Guy Posted April 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 http://www.yorkregion.com/news/local/artic...region-on-buses * By David Fleischer * | * Apr 16, 2010 - 2:17 PM * | * Recommended 0 Province stiffs region on buses York has to rethink its bus buying plans Thanks to provincial belt tightening, the region will have to pay more when it comes to replacing its buses. A plan to cut the Ontario Bus Replacement Program was included in last month’s Liberal budget. After a one-time payout of $174 million next year, the program will be discontinued. The region participated in a 16-agency purchase of buses from New Flyer at a cost of approximately $500,000 per bus last year January. The region purchased 68 buses, 14 of which were to replace buses at the end of their lifespan. Staff hoped the province would contribute $2 million to the replacement buses. Instead, it will now consider using gas tax funding. It was less than six months ago the region changed its policies, deciding to retire buses after 12 years rather than 18, based upon the presumption of continued provincial funding. However, it remains to be seen if the region will reconsider that move. Transportation staff will soon report to council on options. There are more than 300 YRT buses and 100 Viva buses in its fleet. The region also finalized a deal this week with Volvo’s Novabus in Quebec to produce 15 articulated buses for Viva, at a cost of a little less than $1 million each. There are options for up to 36 more buses until 2014. The 18.2-metre buses were selected, in part, because of the resemblance to the Van Hool buses Viva has used since its launch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pccstreetcar4549 Posted April 16, 2010 Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 i bet the decision to retire the d40hfs and classics is now biting yrts butt now....im guessing yrt will have to turn to the second hand market Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YRT-Guy Posted April 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 i bet the decision to retire the d40hfs and classics is now biting yrts butt now....im guessing yrt will have to turn to the second hand market Believe me.. they will NOT go that route... It's York Region after all. They have the money, they just need to find it from somewhere else Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
* Mr. Black * Posted April 16, 2010 Report Share Posted April 16, 2010 Believe me.. they will NOT go that route... It's York Region after all. They have the money, they just need to find it from somewhere else no more pecurement program would mean open tender process...... hmmm... could this mean NGs in YRT Livery?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ber Posted April 17, 2010 Report Share Posted April 17, 2010 well YRT up to 2006 was buying their own buses...so I dont think they will stray from standardization unless NFI is outrageously more expensive...NGs lost the bid to NFI in the province wide purchase anyways and about the whole classic/d40hf in your face thing...these buses are more than 19/20 yrs old so they were overdue for replacement regardless... and they were pretty high polluting in terms of todays diesel standards... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yrt+viva=1system Posted April 17, 2010 Report Share Posted April 17, 2010 well YRT up to 2006 was buying their own buses...so I dont think they will stray from standardization unless NFI is outrageously more expensive...NGs lost the bid to NFI in the province wide purchase anyways and about the whole classic/d40hf in your face thing...these buses are more than 19/20 yrs old so they were overdue for replacement regardless... and they were pretty high polluting in terms of todays diesel standards... Also a lot of them were from YRT-era Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YRT-Guy Posted April 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2010 Forgot to mention earlier... All the new navigators for the new board period (April 25) are now posted up online: http://yrt.ca/schedules/service-changes.asp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Canadian Roadgeek Posted April 17, 2010 Report Share Posted April 17, 2010 I just thought I can put this up here... I was experimenting with Adobe Illustrator CS4 the other day and thought I could make a transit system map (for one of my imaginary cities, information about this city here) that resembles YRT/Viva new system maps... So comment if you wish to... Thanks for everyone who attempted my GO integration question I was travelling from Downsview Station to the Unionville area. So I got a 50 cent Ride to GO ticket from the Viva machine in Downsview Station, then when I get to York U, I paid the full GO bus fare which was $4.80, then I used the Ride to GO ticket along with my full GO bus fare ticket when transferring to a YRT bus at Unionville Station. I could not attach the file for some reason. So here's the attachment link for my transit map if you want to take a look at it: Attachment Link - Donsley GRT Map.pdf (350 kB) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
* Mr. Black * Posted April 17, 2010 Report Share Posted April 17, 2010 Spring/Summer YRT maps are in the buses now.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
* Mr. Black * Posted April 18, 2010 Report Share Posted April 18, 2010 well YRT up to 2006 was buying their own buses...so I dont think they will stray from standardization unless NFI is outrageously more expensive...NGs lost the bid to NFI in the province wide purchase anyways and about the whole classic/d40hf in your face thing...these buses are more than 19/20 yrs old so they were overdue for replacement regardless... and they were pretty high polluting in terms of todays diesel standards... Maybe its time for YRT to revisit some other "options" in their next tender..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YRT-Guy Posted April 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2010 Maybe its time for YRT to revisit some other "options" in their next tender..... WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!??!! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO KEEP THAT INFORMATION INTERNAL!!! So much for YRT's new Express Buses being a surprise now! GOOD JOB ON THAT ONE!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAverageJoe Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 Maybe its time for YRT to revisit some other "options" in their next tender..... IIRC those buses were owned out right but Laidlaw (reason why the Laidlaw numbering on them) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D. DeLarge Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 IIRC those buses were owned out right but Laidlaw (reason why the Laidlaw numbering on them) They could call them "VIVALite", "vivaBUDGET", or even "vivaSCHOOLBUS"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion VIII Posted April 19, 2010 Report Share Posted April 19, 2010 "vivaSMART" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now