Happy 40th, GO Transit!

They're officially over the hill. And you know they're old now, because GO Transit was created the year that the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup. 1967. GO transit is 40 years old.

And they celebrated yesterday in Union Station's Great Hall, cutting cake, handing out brownies and pins, and welcoming wrinkled faces who remember that the first GO ride from Oakville to Toronto was free.

Wouldn't that be nice, eh?

In 1965, the Commuter Rail Service launched its mission - to see if they could convince automobile commuters to hop a train instead. Two years of both support and critique later, GO was born. And has been tirelessly shuffling commuters back and forth every day.

I know that it's easy to look at GO now and continue being the critic - the size of parking lots, the traffic and what seems like inefficient scheduling... but forty years is a long time to be steadily growing. And I don't see today being any different from yesterday. The demand is still growing; there are new lines planned, new platforms. GO only leases Union Station, but its presence is everywhere. The amount of traffic through the downstairs concourse alone is enough to make your head spin.

So a billion passengers and forty years later... GO is still doing just what it set out to do. Give people an alternative to driving. Happy Birthday, GO! May there be many more.


From an early GO ad:

Every morning Mr. J.W. Dillworth likes to relax in a comfortable chair, enjoy a good cigar, read the market quotes, and still get to work on time. He does. Because J.W. is on the GO.

(can you believe the logo's exactly the same? ...yeah, me too.)