Metrolinx

**Metrolinx** is a Crown agency that manages and integrates road and public transport in the Golden Horseshoe region, which includes the cities of Toronto and Hamilton, in the province of Ontario in Canada. Headquartered in Union Station in Toronto, the organization was created by the Government of Ontario as the *Greater Toronto Transportation Authority* on April 24, 2006. It adopted the public name, Metrolinx, in 2007.

The agency operates GO Transit, which operates regional commuter rail and coach services in the region, the Pearson-Union-Pickering Express (PUPi Express), the airport rail link connecting the two international airports in the region to Downtown Toronto, and the Southern Ontario Link (SOL), a high speed intercity rail connection between Toronto and Windsor. Some of its current transit expansion projects include the construction of Line 12 Queen and the Line 4 Sheppard extension in Toronto, Viva Green in York Region and the new Orangeville Line for the GO Transit train network.

## Operating divisions

### GO Transit

GO Transit is the inter-regional public transit system serving the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and the Greater Golden Horseshoe. GO carries over 228 million passengers a year using an extensive network of train and bus services; rail service is provided by bi-level electric multiple unit sets, while most bus service is provided by inter-city coaches.

Canada's first such public system, GO Transit began regular passenger service on May 23, 1967, under the auspices of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. Over time it has been constituted in a variety of public-sector configurations, but it became an operating division of Metrolinx in 2009.

#### Rail

   GO Transit operates on over 900 kilometres of tracks divided into 12 train lines (or corridors), the majority of which terminate at Toronto's Union Station and are mostly named respectively after the outer terminus of train service. Although colours are assigned in a consistent fashion to each line in all official media, in colloquial parlance lines are only ever referred to by their names.

* Brantford
* Cambridge
* Kitchener
* New Tecumseth
* Collingwood
* Mt. Albert
* Uxbridge
* Peterborough
* Bowmanville
* Niagara
* Midtown
* Uptown

GO trains provide all-day, two-way service every day of the year. Corridors operate with a peak wait time of between 5 to 10 minutes and an off-peak wait time of 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the line. On an average weekday, GO Trains carry over 850 thousand passengers, constituting a vast majority of the ridership of GO Transit.

#### Bus

   GO Bus service consists of a combination of routes, many of which extend the reach of train service to communities beyond their termini. Other GO buses are independent of rail services, providing rapid transit-like service for certain municipalities. There are also routes that serve airports, seasonal destinations such as Canada's Wonderland, and several colleges and universities. The vast majority of GO train stations have connecting GO bus service, of which almost all the exceptions are situated within Toronto proper.

Today, GO Transit operates a combination of single-level coach buses and commuter-type double-decker buses. All buses are equipped with bike racks and Wi-Fi and are wheelchair accessible.

### Pearson-Union-Pickering (PUPi) Express

    The Pearson-Union-Pickering Express, better known as the PUPi Express, is an airport rail link running between Toronto Pearson International Airport and Pickering International Airport, passing through Union Station in Downtown Toronto. The PUPi Express began operation on June 6, 2015 as the Union Pearson Express, in time for the 2015 Pan American Games. Trains run every 8 minutes during peak hours, and every 12 during off-peak hours. The PUP Express travels between Pearson and Pickering airports in 90 minutes, and has a daily ridership of 75 thousand. The line is 74.4 kilometers long, and consists of 14 stops, which all connect to either Toronto Transit Commission or GO Transit routes.

In the west, the line uses a Metrolinx-owned railway rail corridor now used by GO Transit, sharing the same path as trains on the Kitchener line, before splitting off onto a separate spur just north of the Etobicoke North Station. To the east, the line uses another Metrolinx-owned rail corridor, sharing the same path as trains on the Peterborough line. The line uses 24 4-car Bombardier electric multiple unit train sets.

### Southern Ontario Link

    The Southern Ontario Link, or SOL, is a high speed intercity rail service in Southern Ontario, operating between Toronto and Windsor. SOL began operation in 2025, with the extension to Windsor completed in 2032, and serves 10 million passengers annually.

Trains run every 30 minutes all-day, with a trip from Windsor to Toronto taking about 2 hours. The route is about 350 kilometers long and consists of 7 stops. The line employs Bombardier Zefiro 300 trains which operate at an average top speed of 250 km/h.

### Presto

    The Presto card, originally known as the GTA Farecard, is a smartcard-based fare payment system for public transit systems in Ontario. The Presto system is designed to support the use of one common farecard for fare payment on various public transit systems, through electronic readers that calculate the correct fare and deduct it from a preloaded balance.

The Presto card has also grown to be used for payment in many retail shops in Toronto, from convenience stores, supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, on-street parking meters, parking lots, to other point-of-sale applications such as service stations and vending machines.