One line in 1967, a whole region now
GO Transit
Where the TTC ends, GO Transit picks up — the regional rail and bus system that stitches Toronto to its surrounding commuter belt, running since a single experimental line in 1967.
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Our TTC guide covers getting around inside Toronto. GO Transit is the layer above that — the regional system that connects the city to the much larger commuter region surrounding it, formally called the Greater Golden Horseshoe.
A 1967 experiment that stuck
GO Transit launched on May 23, 1967 with a single rail line along the Lakeshore corridor between Pickering and Hamilton — one of the first modern regional commuter rail services anywhere in North America, and originally planned as a three-year pilot project. It proved popular enough that it never shut down, and instead kept expanding.
The network today
GO Transit now runs seven rail lines and an extensive bus network reaching well beyond the old Metro Toronto boundary, into Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Barrie and Niagara. It's paid for with the same PRESTO fare card used across most GTA transit systems, letting a single tap-in cover a trip that starts on a GO train and ends on a TTC streetcar.
The next big expansion: the Eglinton Crosstown
The Eglinton Crosstown LRT, a roughly 19-kilometre light rail line running largely underground across midtown Toronto, has been under construction since 2011 as one of the largest transit expansions in the city's history — intended to relieve pressure on the subway's east-west capacity, though its opening has faced repeated delays.
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Sources
- GO Transit — Union Station: History, Facts & Map
- Metrolinx — About GO Transit
- Wikipedia — Eglinton Crosstown