‘Almost no notice at all’: GO Transit changes frustrate commuters

Some commuters in southern Ontario are sounding the alarm about recent changes to a few busy GO Transit routes they say will drastically prolong travel times.

Metrolinx, which operates the regional transit provider, announced the changes late last month and implemented most of them Saturday.

The agency bolstered service levels on the busy routes connecting Toronto and Kitchener but also scrapped some train services and replaced them with bus routes.

Some bus schedules were also adjusted to eliminate a key connection point at Toronto’s Union Station, a hub linking the regional and local public transit systems.

Now, commuters like Siddhartha Batra will have to take a train to one of three GO Transit stations on the Lakeshore West line and connect with the bus they used to catch directly from Union.

An estimate from GO Transit’s online trip tracker projected the changes would nearly double the length of Batra’s commute from downtown Toronto to his office in Mississauga.

He’s now abandoned the commute entirely because of the changes and says he’ll be working from home from now on to avoid the hassle.

Batra and others are criticizing Metrolinx for both the changes themselves and the way they were rolled out with only a few weeks notice.

Metrolinx says the adjustments will lead to more predictable service levels.