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GO Transit: Service thread (including extensions)

ShonTron said:
I like how the bright minds at GO Transit provide weekend service on the Barrie Line, but never thought of putting a ticket vending machine at the Newmarket Station, and the agency is left closed and locked up Saturdays and Sundays. How is one supposed to buy a ticket?
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Why would they not simply buy one at the station? The GO Website says that ticket sales at Newmarket GO Station are from 10:25-18:00 on weekends.

ShonTron said:
The official answer is to go to the Newmarket bus terminal (I presume drive there) and go back to the station.
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Do you have a URL for this "official answer"?

ShonTron said:
Some things at GO Transit never change.
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Really?
 
I arrived at Newmarket after 6PM. The sign on the door had only weekday peak hours open (no notice of weekend hours). The doors were locked. There was no TVM. There were three more northbound trains and two more southbound trains. I called afterwards, and got the official answer from a GO operator, who said that you simply go to the ticket agency at Newmarket Bus Terminal.

My Presto card was not working that day. I got harassed by the GO-PO even though I showed my previous tickets from that day and explained myself. I was accused of lying by the power-trippers and lied to by them saying every station has a TVM.

Yes, really.
 
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ShonTron said:
I arrived at Newmarket after 6PM. The sign on the door had only weekday peak hours open. The doors were locked. There was no TVM. There were three more northbound trains and two more southbound trains. I called afterwards, and got the official answer from a GO operator, who said that you simply go to the ticket agency at Newmarket Bus Terminal.
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Presumably they haven't changed the sign on the door for the temporary weekend service. The hours and lack of a TVM seem very clear on the GO website. Presumably a TVM will be added if service other than peak service is maintained.

It's a 5-minute drive to the GO Terminal, if one really needs a ticket. Presumably most will simply use Presto though.

I'm surprised you insist that some things never change at GO. Surely the recent extension of ticketing hours at many locations that haven't seen signficant changes to the schedule in over 40 years suggests otherwise. As would the recent addition of weekend rail service to Newmarket.
 
nfitz said:
Presumably they haven't changed the sign on the door for the temporary weekend service. The hours and lack of a TVM seem very clear on the GO website. Presumably a TVM will be added if service other than peak service is maintained.

It's a 5-minute drive to the GO Terminal, if one really needs a ticket. Presumably most will simply use Presto though.
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Yes, drive! How else would a casual user arrive at a GO Station? That's one of the things that hasn't changed at GO.

Not to mention if you were a car driver (given that assumption), it's a five minute drive there, five minute drive back, and who knows how long to buy the ticket if there's a line. (Of course, East Gwillimbury, a five minute drive, has a TVM, so that's a silly suggestion)
 
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ShonTron said:
Not to mention if you were a car driver (given that assumption), it's a five minute drive there, five minute drive back, and who knows how long to buy the ticket if there's a line.
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I can't imagine anyone is going to arrive blind at a GO station without figuring out in advance how to get a ticket. How many people were boarding at Newmarket on a weekend evening?
 
ShonTron said:
There were at least 15 boarding that train there that evening. Still does not excuse the situation no matter how much you want argue about it.
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I didn't say it excuses the situation; it should be fixed. I'm just surprised you'd maintain that nothing changes, given how much has changed on the ticketing front in the last few months. With the switch-over to Presto almost complete, I'd be surprised that they'd be keen to drop a lot of the old ticket vending machines in new locations.

They seem light-years ahead of TTC on similar issues, where you can't even use a credit or debit card at most locations, and are required to show up with massive quantities of cash for most purchases, and vending machines are a rare thing at even busy stations.

GO seems relatively responsive to official complaints; hopefully you made one.
 
nfitz said:
I can't imagine anyone is going to arrive blind at a GO station without figuring out in advance how to get a ticket. How many people were boarding at Newmarket on a weekend evening?
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I would think the opposite for new weekend service. Would it not (and is the intention not) to attract more casual/recreational users to the train. Having heard there is new weekend service would it not be a logical assumption for people that "if they put on trains there must be a way to buy tickets"?
 
nfitz said:
I'm surprised you insist that some things never change at GO. Surely the recent extension of ticketing hours at many locations that haven't seen signficant changes to the schedule in over 40 years suggests otherwise. As would the recent addition of weekend rail service to Newmarket.
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Yes, he said SOME things never change (like providing service without providing ticket-selling facilities). He didn't say that NOTHING changes.

You can't actually be that obtuse! Do we need to make a venn diagram for you? Combined with the lack of simple empathy I think it's clear that you are creating needless arguments.
 
nfitz said:
I can't imagine anyone is going to arrive blind at a GO station without figuring out in advance how to get a ticket.
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Really? Isn't there a general assumption that at stations you can buy tickets? Even at a bus stop there is a way to use cash to board, with a station you would certainly expect a method to use cash.
 
I didn't realize there was a GO station without a TVM?

Oh wait, Square One doesn't have one either, which is also ridiculous. But Square One is just a bus station. A train station not having a TVM is inexcusable.
 
ShonTron said:
And of course, every train trip appears to have the oh-so-friendly GO-PO to nab you. Good luck if you have a Presto snafu.
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From what I understand the weekend Barrie trains are heavily enforced by the "GO-PO". I suppose the thinking is to curtail new users from abusing the system or to contradict the thought that because its a lightly used weekend service, it won't be heavily enforced.
 
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