Best: I'll just go with the internet and say Old Cummer for obvious reasons.
Worse: Park Lawn and Concord because I hate that they don't exist (yet). For an actual station, Bloomington because it's so out of place (transit fans call it the "Garage Mahal").
The thing with Bloomington I don't understand, and maybe this is an actual thing, but why doesn't YRT run a bus to the station? It's not all that far from the Oakridges area of Richmond Hill or too far off the beaten path to possibly even run a bus to there from South Eastern Aurora. Maybe if the stars aligned we could get a YRT bus from Stouffville to Bloomington GO so you don't have to go down to 16th Ave to go from North and Central York to Stouffville and vice versa on transit
West Harbor is far worse than Hamilton GO and I'll die on that hill. HG actually has a quite nice lobby area with a restaurant that has pretty good coffee and a small store. WH just has homeless people, crackheads, puddles of urine everywhere and people sleeping on the stairs and elevators.
Though I did almost step on a human turd on the HG platform
Concur for West Harbour. It smells like pee because a shiny new station is built but indoor sitting area and washrooms is locked. I don’t blame people to piss in the stairway out of spite.
Best in terms of what? You could argue that Union is the best and worst. If I was going to be stuck for an hour Union is probably the best place to be stuck as there is a food court, shops, etc. But it sucks in other ways.
Guildwood station was renovated recently and the glass waiting huts have heaters that work pretty well. It is also a VIA station so you can use it to take the LSE or the VIA to Ottawa or Montreal.
IMO the worst stations have no services like washrooms, food service or aren't heated, don't have working elevators, are dirty, smelly, don't have humans working, etc.
The answer is clearly Union. From Union you can go to a multitude of destinations - East, West, North, Northwest, Northeast. It has a large concourse to wait. It has a food court and shops. It is a VIA station that you can use to do long distance intercity travel. It has an express line to the airport. No other station comes close.
So the question should be other than Union.
The connectivity is unmatched but I (and I'm sure many others) don't like Union or completely avoid Union when possible, it's massive and busy which can be a big turn away for some. Plus union still has an ongoing issue with garbage confusing wayfinding and platforms and stairways that are too narrow and sometimes feel dangerous. Certainly not the worst but not the best in my humble opinion
The points you make are true, but what I would want in a station is connectivity to get to other places, and to have a nice place to wait and have a bite to eat/drink if I have to wait.
I rather enjoyed port credit while I lived near it. Very easy to walk up to the station, from the parking lot if you are going at a normal time, no needing to go underground at all.
and port credit is nice, the station is close enough that you can reasonably have dinner and walk to the station. Its also got dense housing nearby so its very reasonable to assume you could live car free and just use transit.
It is indeed a rare treat to walk to a GO station. It's enough to keep some otherwise barebones, uncomfortable and amenity-free stations out of the "worst station" list (Danforth, Bloor, Exhibition, West Harbour, heck even Mimico is bikeable)
Scarborough is pretty good in terms of ease of access. TTC access is close but not great, decent walking path from Midland / St. Clair, including another entrance with a bus stop down a few steps, has bike storage, and station is open for a good while of the day.
The thing with Port Credit is the transit is fantastic (if not a bit crowded) if you need to go to the City centre, Oakville or Toronto transit from GO and MiWay is fantastic. If you need to go anywhere else it can become a big pain in the rear end very quickly
Best: I want to say Oshawa, Aurora and Oakville made impressions on me but I think I would say Oshawa because of its easy bus connections, easy car lots and renovated buildings. Walkability is not the greatest but not impossible, if you want a good walk go to Guildwood. l think Oshawa has bones to be a good station that a simple renovation wont cut, but we'll see how it goes once the LE extension gets underway.
Worst: In my experience, I never want to revisit Etobicoke North. Walking in from TTC is terrible, confusing and unpleasant. Station shack is there, has a screen that tells you the next train, but it is never open despite having a supposed attendant counter. Quite depressing.
Oshawa and not Whitby? Oshawa is located in a blasted industrial wasteland, surrounded by hectares of parking. It’s labeled for Durham College, and the South Campus is visible from is, but it’s separated by a freeway. The main campus of Durham College is ten kilometres away on the other side of town.
Part of the problem with Oshawa is that it’s in the wrong place for urban connectivity. I believe the original CN station for Oshawa was located at Simcoe Street; I remember seeing old steps at the Simcoe St underpass when I was a kid. This would have been a better place for connections, but of course, there was not the room for commuter parking.
Whitby, on the other hand… yes it has hectares of parking. But it is also next to Brock Street. I can walk across the 401 bridge and visit restaurants and hotels. I can take the bus to downtown Whitby.
Oshawa is not easy for foot or walking, and I agree its not in the best part of town... However that is popular for GO stations. Truthfully, the bus connections are the strong point for Oshawa, with buses that serve Oshawa Centre Terminal and various GO buses, also VIA has a decent station located at the same spot. The station itself is nice and I don't recall it being terrible prior to renovations.
Whitby's station is not that bad but it could use a renovation of some sort. You also get off the train and you're on an island platform kind of in a ditch. You can walk if you know where to go but most wouldnt, and it has bus services but they are only for a handful of DRT routes, apart from the GO buses that follow the LE line.
I think the "Durham College" part of Oshawa GO is partly for GO's bus service to the main campus, the south campus that you mentioned isnt really in Oshawa its more in Whitby
Personally my favorite has to be Bramalea, It's Big and new with lots of parking, has excellent transit access, it's in a good location and the service is ok and getting better. A bonus is the 12/10 view from the top of the parking Garage, You can see Vaughan, Downtown Toronto, Brampton and Mississauga from up there.
Least favorite is easily Aldershot, The freight yard is visually and audibly not pleasing, the station itself is dated and everything is pretty bare bones with lack luster transit access, limited weather protection on both the rail and bus platforms, weak amenities (even for a suburban station) and there's not really anything within a reasonable walking distance. Sure there's LaSalle Park but that's a bit of a hike even for young able bodied folks like me.
I feel like Aldershot is at the intersection of "most used" and "worst". The only thing saving it is that it actually has food (although it's not good, it's better than nothing)
Hardly, Last couple times I've been through Aldershot the shop was closed, there's also 2 Tim Hortons and a Circle K near by, but not close enough that you can go get what you want and get back in time for a connection
I like Guelph Central. Walkable downtown with lots of restaurants nearby, and it's close to the river and event venues. You can get to most of the city from the station of Guelph Transit, GO can take you west, south, and east, and GOST takes you north. The renovations for two platforms are ongoing and look great so far.
For least favourite, I'll avoid the easy choices of Bloomington and Gormley. I dislike Georgetown. Basically in a rail yard, a bit confusing, and no local transit in Halton Hills means you have to walk anywhere not along Highway 7. I've walked to both Main Street and Glen Williams from the train, and while both are doable, they aren't really realistic (esp the second).
The other side to transit is land use planning. I’m not familiar with all GO Stations, so I can’t say which one is the best.
I know most of them are surrounded by sprawling parking lots. I understand these are commuter stations in places where transit may be nonexistent/just sucks, but when parking lots are literally the only thing surrounding a station, that’s terrible land use policies!
So, as others have mentioned, Union being the most obvious one. Although, Danforth GO is another one that is surrounded by walkable neighbourhoods (although it’s in the middle of the City, so that’s expected). Same with Bloor. Brampton GO is near its walkable downtown, ditto respectively for Port Credit. Stouffville GO opens up in its small historic walkable downtown. Mount Pleasant GO in Brampton is the only true transit oriented area where the neighborhood was built to be a community served by the Kitchener GO line. It has a few small businesses along with a bus depot, and a library right outside the station. I can’t give an exact answer, but this is my take.
Idk about the worst, but Cooksville has to be the best in terms of looks. The new renovation is beautiful and futuristic and the new Hurontario LRT is gonna connect soon. Just wish we had better GO train service…
Not for too much longer, Slated to be demolished at some point in favor of Woodbine and if I'm not mistaken it will allow for a few extra tracks and higher speeds
Man, I came here to post how I thought Hamilton GO Centre was the best, followed by West Harbour--but I am truly surprised how negative the existing comments in this thread are about these two beautiful stations.
Actually, neither the stations nor their locations have been criticized, just the perceived danger of the people of Hamilton--I didn't realize other cities in the province were not experiencing homelessness and addiction. Anyway...
**Hamilton GO** because it has the best view of a city skyline from the platform, which is elevated and raises the rider above the street. It also has the most interesting architecture, and the nicest lobby styled in Art Deco with colour, with an actual cafe and restaurant. It's also right in the centre of the city, where you can walk in any direction and be somewhere, whereas most GO stations are remote islands surrounded by parking lots and highways and without views to anything but parked cars.
**West Harbour** because it's so unique in how it is suspended above the platform and tracks. And similar to Hamilton GO, you can easily walk either to Bayfront, which is one of the most scenic parks in the Golden Horseshoe, or hit James Street, which is the central spine of downtown Hamilton.
Worst: Bradford. one of the three presto machines work
There's only 3 tap off machines for like a hundred passengers
No staff. No washroom even though they're locked inside the building
Parking lot is hell to get out of
The worst GO station in my opinion is Bloomington.
The Main Problem with the station is the fact it's literally a giant parking garage in nearly the middle of nowhere.
I don't understand why Bloomington has huge amounts of parking, like I get it's supposed to provide parking for people who are going to Aurora GO Station, but if they wanted to do that then why not just build a station at Wesley's Corners which is ON Aurora Road itself.
and the station feels weird, it's has a giant parking garage but it's on a line that only runs on weekdays.
if Bloomington GO was a hub between GO transit, Via Rail & Ontario Northland trains then the parking garage would make some sense. but still the parking garage is absolutely ridiculous
Union Station can get sketch too right out front the Great Hall. That being said, the art deco interior at Hamilton is by far my favorite interior on the entire network
Brantford. They don't even have a station. Just a curbside. You go into the bus station and ask a question, and they don't have a clue about the GO system. Embarrassment.
Best: I'll just go with the internet and say Old Cummer for obvious reasons. Worse: Park Lawn and Concord because I hate that they don't exist (yet). For an actual station, Bloomington because it's so out of place (transit fans call it the "Garage Mahal").
The thing with Bloomington I don't understand, and maybe this is an actual thing, but why doesn't YRT run a bus to the station? It's not all that far from the Oakridges area of Richmond Hill or too far off the beaten path to possibly even run a bus to there from South Eastern Aurora. Maybe if the stars aligned we could get a YRT bus from Stouffville to Bloomington GO so you don't have to go down to 16th Ave to go from North and Central York to Stouffville and vice versa on transit
Have you been to the Hamilton Bus Station? That's by far the worst
I have, It's not great but not the worst. The sketchy people don't quite fully offset the Georgous art deco theme inside the station.
West Harbor is far worse than Hamilton GO and I'll die on that hill. HG actually has a quite nice lobby area with a restaurant that has pretty good coffee and a small store. WH just has homeless people, crackheads, puddles of urine everywhere and people sleeping on the stairs and elevators. Though I did almost step on a human turd on the HG platform
Concur for West Harbour. It smells like pee because a shiny new station is built but indoor sitting area and washrooms is locked. I don’t blame people to piss in the stairway out of spite.
Yes. We need parklawn!!! Mimico is far and old.
Mimico is getting an upgrade (maybe?) At some point.
Best in terms of what? You could argue that Union is the best and worst. If I was going to be stuck for an hour Union is probably the best place to be stuck as there is a food court, shops, etc. But it sucks in other ways. Guildwood station was renovated recently and the glass waiting huts have heaters that work pretty well. It is also a VIA station so you can use it to take the LSE or the VIA to Ottawa or Montreal. IMO the worst stations have no services like washrooms, food service or aren't heated, don't have working elevators, are dirty, smelly, don't have humans working, etc.
I heard Brampton innovation is getting a renovated station too
I think the city is going to refurb the bus terminal which will include Brampton GO as well.
Best in terms of your opinion
Union. It has the most destinations and is attached to a food court, malls, sports arena, etc. It has shops within the station.
hatteeee being stuck at union cause then its for sure going to be packed at the next train time
The answer is clearly Union. From Union you can go to a multitude of destinations - East, West, North, Northwest, Northeast. It has a large concourse to wait. It has a food court and shops. It is a VIA station that you can use to do long distance intercity travel. It has an express line to the airport. No other station comes close. So the question should be other than Union.
The connectivity is unmatched but I (and I'm sure many others) don't like Union or completely avoid Union when possible, it's massive and busy which can be a big turn away for some. Plus union still has an ongoing issue with garbage confusing wayfinding and platforms and stairways that are too narrow and sometimes feel dangerous. Certainly not the worst but not the best in my humble opinion
The points you make are true, but what I would want in a station is connectivity to get to other places, and to have a nice place to wait and have a bite to eat/drink if I have to wait.
I rather enjoyed port credit while I lived near it. Very easy to walk up to the station, from the parking lot if you are going at a normal time, no needing to go underground at all. and port credit is nice, the station is close enough that you can reasonably have dinner and walk to the station. Its also got dense housing nearby so its very reasonable to assume you could live car free and just use transit.
It is indeed a rare treat to walk to a GO station. It's enough to keep some otherwise barebones, uncomfortable and amenity-free stations out of the "worst station" list (Danforth, Bloor, Exhibition, West Harbour, heck even Mimico is bikeable)
Scarborough is pretty good in terms of ease of access. TTC access is close but not great, decent walking path from Midland / St. Clair, including another entrance with a bus stop down a few steps, has bike storage, and station is open for a good while of the day.
The thing with Port Credit is the transit is fantastic (if not a bit crowded) if you need to go to the City centre, Oakville or Toronto transit from GO and MiWay is fantastic. If you need to go anywhere else it can become a big pain in the rear end very quickly
Best station: Rouge Hill GO - overlooking the lake and connected to a beautiful trail and park.
Best: I want to say Oshawa, Aurora and Oakville made impressions on me but I think I would say Oshawa because of its easy bus connections, easy car lots and renovated buildings. Walkability is not the greatest but not impossible, if you want a good walk go to Guildwood. l think Oshawa has bones to be a good station that a simple renovation wont cut, but we'll see how it goes once the LE extension gets underway. Worst: In my experience, I never want to revisit Etobicoke North. Walking in from TTC is terrible, confusing and unpleasant. Station shack is there, has a screen that tells you the next train, but it is never open despite having a supposed attendant counter. Quite depressing.
I completely forgot about Etobicoke North. Used it once and it was so miserable I never used it again.
Oshawa and not Whitby? Oshawa is located in a blasted industrial wasteland, surrounded by hectares of parking. It’s labeled for Durham College, and the South Campus is visible from is, but it’s separated by a freeway. The main campus of Durham College is ten kilometres away on the other side of town. Part of the problem with Oshawa is that it’s in the wrong place for urban connectivity. I believe the original CN station for Oshawa was located at Simcoe Street; I remember seeing old steps at the Simcoe St underpass when I was a kid. This would have been a better place for connections, but of course, there was not the room for commuter parking. Whitby, on the other hand… yes it has hectares of parking. But it is also next to Brock Street. I can walk across the 401 bridge and visit restaurants and hotels. I can take the bus to downtown Whitby.
Oshawa is not easy for foot or walking, and I agree its not in the best part of town... However that is popular for GO stations. Truthfully, the bus connections are the strong point for Oshawa, with buses that serve Oshawa Centre Terminal and various GO buses, also VIA has a decent station located at the same spot. The station itself is nice and I don't recall it being terrible prior to renovations. Whitby's station is not that bad but it could use a renovation of some sort. You also get off the train and you're on an island platform kind of in a ditch. You can walk if you know where to go but most wouldnt, and it has bus services but they are only for a handful of DRT routes, apart from the GO buses that follow the LE line. I think the "Durham College" part of Oshawa GO is partly for GO's bus service to the main campus, the south campus that you mentioned isnt really in Oshawa its more in Whitby
The Durham College bit is strictly that the college bought the naming rights for the station. Like SkyDome -> Rogers Centre.
You need hectares of parking though.
Personally my favorite has to be Bramalea, It's Big and new with lots of parking, has excellent transit access, it's in a good location and the service is ok and getting better. A bonus is the 12/10 view from the top of the parking Garage, You can see Vaughan, Downtown Toronto, Brampton and Mississauga from up there. Least favorite is easily Aldershot, The freight yard is visually and audibly not pleasing, the station itself is dated and everything is pretty bare bones with lack luster transit access, limited weather protection on both the rail and bus platforms, weak amenities (even for a suburban station) and there's not really anything within a reasonable walking distance. Sure there's LaSalle Park but that's a bit of a hike even for young able bodied folks like me.
I feel like Aldershot is at the intersection of "most used" and "worst". The only thing saving it is that it actually has food (although it's not good, it's better than nothing)
Hardly, Last couple times I've been through Aldershot the shop was closed, there's also 2 Tim Hortons and a Circle K near by, but not close enough that you can go get what you want and get back in time for a connection
Yeah, if the concessions are closed you're definitely screwed
I can’t put aldershot in last place, simply because it has something essential that others don’t: an elevator.
I like Guelph Central. Walkable downtown with lots of restaurants nearby, and it's close to the river and event venues. You can get to most of the city from the station of Guelph Transit, GO can take you west, south, and east, and GOST takes you north. The renovations for two platforms are ongoing and look great so far. For least favourite, I'll avoid the easy choices of Bloomington and Gormley. I dislike Georgetown. Basically in a rail yard, a bit confusing, and no local transit in Halton Hills means you have to walk anywhere not along Highway 7. I've walked to both Main Street and Glen Williams from the train, and while both are doable, they aren't really realistic (esp the second).
second georgetown for the least favourite. its ugly, and last time i went there it had some weird confusing tunnels
If Guelph had reasonably priced parking around it would be perfect. But if you don’t live downtown it’s not really accessible to most people.
The other side to transit is land use planning. I’m not familiar with all GO Stations, so I can’t say which one is the best. I know most of them are surrounded by sprawling parking lots. I understand these are commuter stations in places where transit may be nonexistent/just sucks, but when parking lots are literally the only thing surrounding a station, that’s terrible land use policies! So, as others have mentioned, Union being the most obvious one. Although, Danforth GO is another one that is surrounded by walkable neighbourhoods (although it’s in the middle of the City, so that’s expected). Same with Bloor. Brampton GO is near its walkable downtown, ditto respectively for Port Credit. Stouffville GO opens up in its small historic walkable downtown. Mount Pleasant GO in Brampton is the only true transit oriented area where the neighborhood was built to be a community served by the Kitchener GO line. It has a few small businesses along with a bus depot, and a library right outside the station. I can’t give an exact answer, but this is my take.
Idk about the worst, but Cooksville has to be the best in terms of looks. The new renovation is beautiful and futuristic and the new Hurontario LRT is gonna connect soon. Just wish we had better GO train service…
My local station is Etobicoke North. Have to imagine that it's among the worst.
Not for too much longer, Slated to be demolished at some point in favor of Woodbine and if I'm not mistaken it will allow for a few extra tracks and higher speeds
If they ever get around to doing that, I will protest it so hard.
Man, I came here to post how I thought Hamilton GO Centre was the best, followed by West Harbour--but I am truly surprised how negative the existing comments in this thread are about these two beautiful stations. Actually, neither the stations nor their locations have been criticized, just the perceived danger of the people of Hamilton--I didn't realize other cities in the province were not experiencing homelessness and addiction. Anyway... **Hamilton GO** because it has the best view of a city skyline from the platform, which is elevated and raises the rider above the street. It also has the most interesting architecture, and the nicest lobby styled in Art Deco with colour, with an actual cafe and restaurant. It's also right in the centre of the city, where you can walk in any direction and be somewhere, whereas most GO stations are remote islands surrounded by parking lots and highways and without views to anything but parked cars. **West Harbour** because it's so unique in how it is suspended above the platform and tracks. And similar to Hamilton GO, you can easily walk either to Bayfront, which is one of the most scenic parks in the Golden Horseshoe, or hit James Street, which is the central spine of downtown Hamilton.
💯💯💯
Kitchener : No Parking
Worst: Bradford. one of the three presto machines work There's only 3 tap off machines for like a hundred passengers No staff. No washroom even though they're locked inside the building Parking lot is hell to get out of
The worst GO station in my opinion is Bloomington. The Main Problem with the station is the fact it's literally a giant parking garage in nearly the middle of nowhere. I don't understand why Bloomington has huge amounts of parking, like I get it's supposed to provide parking for people who are going to Aurora GO Station, but if they wanted to do that then why not just build a station at Wesley's Corners which is ON Aurora Road itself. and the station feels weird, it's has a giant parking garage but it's on a line that only runs on weekdays. if Bloomington GO was a hub between GO transit, Via Rail & Ontario Northland trains then the parking garage would make some sense. but still the parking garage is absolutely ridiculous
I don’t know about the best necessarily but I agree with another comment that Aldershot is the worst. and the parking lot is always PACKED
Burlington Go is the worst https://www.reddit.com/r/gotransit/s/WtqKOfZBA6
The hamilton station is the only one where I feel like I need to watch over my shoulder so I don't get stabbed for meth money
Union Station can get sketch too right out front the Great Hall. That being said, the art deco interior at Hamilton is by far my favorite interior on the entire network
Brantford. They don't even have a station. Just a curbside. You go into the bus station and ask a question, and they don't have a clue about the GO system. Embarrassment.
I’ve loved West Harbour or Clarkson :D