The GO train is part of a transit system by the same name that runs throughout southern Ontario, Canada, for anyone that doesn’t know.
A few weeks ago, I was telling my girl about how I love riding the train over any other kind of transportation, and she suggested we go for a free ride on the GO train one day - just hop on and go. This suggestion surprised me, mainly because she is the most timid and least daring person I know (a pussy, in other words) but also because it reminded me of my own thoughts on trying that one day.
The nearest GO train station to me is in Burlington, Ontario. I’ve used it about ten times in my life. The building where you buy tickets from is quite removed from the stairs that lead underground for a bit and then come back up at the platform where you stand and wait for the train. In the ten or so rides I’ve had on the GO train, many of them upwards of two or three hours long, not once have I ever been asked to show my ticket to anyone, or even seen anyone else being asked to show their ticket.
I’m just curious as to what exactly happens to you if someone finds you on the train without a ticket? I’ve always assumed they make you get off at the next stop, but I don’t know that for a fact. At the station we’d be getting on at, you’re quite free to just walk right past the ticket building and go stand on the platform if you want to - what happens if someone working at the ticket building suspects you haven’t bought a ticket? Do they come out and talk to you, or tell someone on the train to check tickets? People are walking back and forth out of that tunnel all the time (as you can’t smoke on the platform, only the parking lot, and the building has restaurants and stores), so unless someone working there made a point of watching you drive up to the station, hop out of your car and walk right past the building to the tunnel leading to the platform and completely gone out of their way to do that, I can’t see how they’d know if you hadn’t bought a ticket.
Anyone got any thoughts or stories or anything on the subject?
There are random patrols of the trains, checking everyone’s tickets. If they catch you without a valid ticket or pass, they issue a provincial citation, like a traffic ticket, right there on the spot. I’ve seen it happen.
Last time I was on the GO train, I’d used my Presto card, and the checker didn’t have a reader, so he just looked at it and nodded okay. Of course, if I hadn’t paid, he would have had a reader…
FWIW many other mass transit systems in Canada have a similar honour system - e.g., Vancouver’s Skytrain, Edmonton and Calgary’s LRT, and Montreal’s commuter train (not the metro, but the commuter train analogous to GO). In the random fluke department, I rode GO everyday for years and I believe got asked once to show my ticket; I rode the Montreal commuter train once, and got asked that time!
They’re talking about increasing the fines for fare evasion in Edmonton because unless you are unlucky it is cost effective NOT to ever pay fare on the LRT (our “subway”). Your ticket or pass is not checked when you get on and inspectors are sufficiently rare that in the long run paying the fine when you do get caught is cheaper than paying the fares. That works out the most in your favour if you only use the LRT, since the bus drivers do watch people getting on the buses (which use the same fare as the LRT).
That said, I wouldn’t call myself a particularly ethical person but I **do **pay to use the LRT; there is also the embarrassment factor to consider as well as the delay while you get written up if you get caught.
Scene: the Skytrain station in Vancouver across from Pacific Station, where the long-distance trains and buses pull in. I had just gotten off a bus from Banff: 15 hours across the mountains. I meet my friend and we walk across the park in the rain and to the station. We go up to the trains, and he’s explaining the intricacies of the ticket machine to me, when I hear another voice behind me. It’s a local television reporter. 'Sir, would you mind giving us your impression of the Skytrain and Translink’s service?"
I had to reply, “I’m sorry. I just got here five minutes ago, and this is the first time I’ve ever been on the Skytrain, so I really can’t help you. Nice station, though…”
Ten year old experience of riding the Vancouver skytrain: honour system as others have said, but sometimes the train would arrive in a station and there’d be transit police all over checking everyones ticket as they got off.
The tickets I was buying at the time were $1.50 each and good for hopping on and off the Skytrain and buses (and habour ferry from memory) for 90 minutes – which was to my mind pretty awesome value. A Canadian friend told me the fine for being caught without a ticket was $300.00
Loved the system… although I imagine that it would only work in some countries.
Here in Salt Lake we have the TRAX light rail system, which also mostly uses the honor code for fare payment. A single ride costs $2.25, and a monthly pass is $75. Most of the time you ride the train there is no one checking tickets, but at random times they have officers go through the cars and check everyone’s ticket/pass. If you are caught without one, the fine is twice the cost of a monthly pass, or $150. For second and subsequent offenses, the fine is 4 times the cost of a monthly pass. Most people opt to buy a ticket.
When I’m in Toronto and ride the GO Train, my ticket is always checked. Coincidence? I don’t know. I guess I just ride when the ticket inspectors are around. But after seeing a few people without tickets get tickets (as Sunspace noted), I’d rather just make sure that my fare is paid.
Since many London trains also have this I’m wondering if the rail companies figure they can collect more from fines than they lose from fare dodging? I suppose the cost of installing and manning ticket barriers is also factored in.
I ride the Montreal-Two Mountains train maybe 100 times a year and I get controlled less than once a year. The fine for the first offence is $150 and goes up. It might just pay until I get caught once. On the other hand the ticket machine at my local stop has not worked in months so if I took it from there, I would get away with it. But I usually walk downtown and take the train home, so that wouldn’t help.
For the Metro-North train they check tickets pretty regularly but it isn’t 100%. If they check your ticket and you don’t have one you pay a higher fare than you would have if you bought one before boarding. If you try to pretend you are sleeping or refuse to buy a ticket they have the police waiting at the next stop and you get hauled off the train and ticketed or arrested or something. I’ve never been on the train without a ticket so I don’t know what happens after you get taken off the train but I’ve seen a few people get escorted off by the police so I know they aren’t kidding about that.
