GO Live help
GO Live brings GO Transit trip planning, live departures, platforms, nearby stations, vehicle locations, service alerts, fare lookup, saved commutes, Trip Watch and observed reliability into one mobile-friendly web app. This guide explains what each feature does and how to use it.
The Today section chooses a useful direction from your saved commutes and shows the current best option, arrival time, platform or track when available, service status and route reliability. If both directions are saved, you can switch direction directly from the card.
Save several routes independently, including opposite directions such as Bronte GO → Union Station and Union Station → Bronte GO. Saved commute cards show upcoming choices so you do not need to rebuild the same trip every day.
The home screen can surface recent watched-trip changes such as platform assignments, platform changes, meaningful delays and cancellations. This is intended to answer what changed since you last checked rather than forcing you to inspect every feed.
Saved routes show multiple upcoming departures rather than only one result. This makes it easier to compare whether leaving a little later changes your arrival time.
GO Live remembers the station and routes you use most often. Home prioritizes your regular trip for the current part of the day, while Trips and Departures prefill familiar selections when possible.
Choose a From station, a To station, departure date/time and a 1, 2, 4 or 6 hour search window. The last selected window is remembered on the device. Use the swap button to reverse the route; GO Live immediately refreshes the results when both stations are selected.
The first departure is not always the best trip. GO Live compares returned journeys primarily by when they reach your destination and then by transfers. If a later train leaves after the next departure but arrives sooner, it can be labelled Best option and GO Live explains the time saved.
Open Details to see the trip stop sequence, scheduled and predicted times, platform or track information when available, delay information and live progress. While the details screen remains open for a live trip, GO Live refreshes it automatically.
Trip Watch lets you monitor a specific journey. When enabled, the server keeps checking the watched trip and can create updates for:
If Web Push is supported and notifications are permitted, GO Live can notify you even when the app is not currently open. Tapping a GO Live trip notification opens the app directly to that watched trip’s Trip Details screen.
When push is unavailable, the watch can still appear inside GO Live so you can review its status and recent changes when using the app.
Select a GO stop or station to see upcoming service. Results can include departure time, destination or service, train/bus type, platform or track when available, and delay or status information. You can filter the list to all service, trains or buses.
Departure pages update their URL and page metadata for the selected station, making commonly used station boards easy to bookmark.
Nearby uses browser geolocation to rank GO stations by distance. It shows the closest stations together with upcoming departure previews so you can see useful service without opening each station individually.
If location permission was already granted, opening Nearby automatically refreshes your position and results. If permission has not been granted, GO Live waits until you select Use my location before requesting it.
The Live screen displays currently available GO vehicle positions on an interactive map. You can filter between all vehicles, trains and buses, search the list, select a vehicle and review its current service information. The live vehicle data refreshes every 60 seconds while the Live screen is open.
The Alerts screen separates service alerts, information notices and schedule exceptions. Exception cards are designed to show useful route, stop and schedule-change details rather than emphasizing internal trip identifiers.
Use this screen when you want a network-wide view of disruptions beyond the trips you have personally saved or watched.
GO Live builds its own reliability history from trips observed by the application. It does not treat a single live prediction as long-term performance. As observations accumulate, route reliability can show:
Reliability can appear on saved commutes, planner results and Trip Details. Small sample sizes are treated cautiously and the interface indicates when there is not enough history yet.
Select From and To locations to request available GO fare information and ticket categories. The swap button reverses the route and immediately refreshes the fare result when both locations are selected.
GO Live is an installable Progressive Web App (PWA). On supported browsers, use the install control or the browser’s Add to Home Screen option. The installed app uses the GO Live app icon and opens in a standalone mobile layout.
The bottom navigation is optimized for touch with large tap targets. On smaller screens, Home, Trips, Departures and Nearby remain immediately available. Live Map, Alerts, Fares, Reliability, Help, Install and Appearance are organized under More. Pull down from the top of a loaded screen to refresh its current live data.
Notification availability depends on the operating system and browser. Permission is requested only as part of an explicit Trip Watch action rather than automatically on page load.
GO Live keeps important selections in the URL. Examples include:
/?tab=departures&stop=BO for Bronte GO departures;/?tab=plan&from=BO&to=UN for Bronte GO → Union Station trip planning;/?tab=fares&from=BO&to=UN for the same fare route;/?tab=live&type=train for the train-only live map;/?tab=alerts&type=exceptions for schedule exceptions.Links opened from a Trip Watch push notification also contain the watched trip information so GO Live can open the exact Trip Details screen.
A later departure can sometimes arrive earlier. GO Live compares arrival time and transfers instead of assuming that the first train or bus to leave is always the best choice.
Reliability is built from trips GO Live has actually observed. New routes or lightly used routes may need more observations before a meaningful percentage or average can be shown.
Platform or track information is shown when it is available in the live trip/departure data. It may not be assigned or published yet for some departures.
No. If permission has already been granted, GO Live can refresh automatically. Otherwise it waits for you to choose Use my location before requesting permission.
GO Live opens the watched route and then opens the exact trip’s Trip Details screen using the trip information attached to the notification.