Busses GO away

Matt Dionne | Editor-in-Chief

Featured Image: As of this passed Saturday, GO busses will no longer be servicing York campus. | Fatema Ali

Despite public outcry from students and faculty alike, Metrolinx refuses to budge on their decision to halt service to York campus.

On December 12, Metrolinx announced they would not be overturning their decision to end GO bus service to York campus effective January 5.

The news is frustrating to students and staff alike, as a petition to reinstate the transit service reached over 17,000 signatures as of January 2.

“What this really means is that students’ voices are not being heard on campus, whether it is from the administration or the transit providers that are supposed to be providing service to our students,” said Jordan Madeira, YFS’ vice president of operations.

“A lot of our students come from Brampton and Mississauga—these are areas that are not accessible through the TTC,” said Sebastian Lalonde, YFS’ vice president of campaigns and advocacy.

“The subway is a great addition and we’re happy to see it here, but that didn’t mean, to us, that we would also be losing out on all of these other transit providers. We thought that it would be easier to access the TTC on top of YRT, on top of GO,” he adds.

According to President Rhonda Lenton, the decision to alter service to campus was part of the decade-long deal that was finally reached which brought the subway extension to York campus. However, that deal also included fare integration.

“Regrettably, the recent decisions by YRT and Metrolinx were made in the absence of full fare integration,” said Lenton.

“We remain very disappointed that Metrolinx and YRT have opted not to reconsider their decisions,” she adds.

Marie Aikins, spokesperson for Metrolinx, said the decision is intended to increase accessibility for riders. “When you get to York, we didn’t have a place that we felt was accessible and fully safe in order to accommodate our buses. It was much safer at the 407 station,” adding that the change has “always been our plan. It was a temporary solution to go directly into York,” she said.

Now that the decision appears final, students attempting to take the GO bus to campus will be rerouted to the Highway 407 station, where they will have to take the subway the rest of the way, at an additional cost.

According to recent data collected over the past year, the stop at Highway 407 is one of the least used on the Yonge-University line. The average subway stop is used 34,000 times a day; the stop at Highway 407 sees just 10 percent of that volume; but with this relocation, it’s safe to say those numbers will increase.