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.
New: conversational help
Tap Ask GO Live in the app to ask about GO Train and GO Bus schedules, upcoming departures, route planning and service alerts. You can also ask what GO Live features, buttons or service statuses mean, and how to use them. The assistant understands follow-up questions within the same conversation.
Try “When is my next train from Clarkson GO to Union?”, “Are there alerts on Lakeshore West?” or “What is the next departure for my saved commute?” The assistant requests Metrolinx data for travel facts. When verified results are available, interactive trip cards can open the planner, departures or trip details.
Try “What does Best option mean?”, “How do I use Current ride?”, “What is the difference between Current ride and Trip Watch?”, “Why does it say Scheduled?” or “What does Station progress unavailable mean?” You can follow with “How do I use that?”
Your messages and trip cards are saved in this browser so you can return to the chat. Tap the trash icon (Clear chat) in the assistant header to erase the conversation and start again. The ? icon opens this guide. Saved commute routes are separate and are not erased when chat is cleared.
To answer a question, the app sends the message and recent conversation to the OpenAI API. Live lookups use Metrolinx data; the GO Live server does not keep chat history. Do not enter sensitive information. A scheduled time is not confirmation that a service is on time; verify time-sensitive details on station boards and official alerts.
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. In the AI assistant, expand Saved commutes to select a route shortcut; it stays collapsed by default to give messages more room.
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, 6 or 12 hour search window. The last selected window is remembered on the device. GO Live first checks hourly schedule queries, then checks 30- and 15-minute intervals wherever API results may omit journeys. Verified journeys appear progressively as they are found, while GO Live checks the rest of the selected period. An early result is not necessarily the earliest departure. If a search stops early, the partial results are labelled incomplete. Service and Information notices that match either station or the rail corridor appear above the trip results when supplied by the Metrolinx alert feeds. Only journeys with verified departure and arrival stops and times are shown. 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.
On Home or in More, open Current ride. Select Find my train and allow location access to see nearby trains with recent vehicle updates. Confirm the trip and destination shown on board, then tap This is my train. A nearby train is only a suggestion: being close to a platform or another train does not confirm which service you are riding.
The app compares your position locally in the browser; it does not send or store your coordinates. Poor GPS accuracy, stale train positions, tunnels or several nearby trains can prevent a reliable match. Retry or open trip details or the live map and choose Follow this ride without using location. Manual following supports trains and buses when their data is available.
The station timeline uses the live current, previous and next station codes. Select your destination to see stops remaining. Station times are labelled estimated or scheduled; the app does not animate a guessed position between stations. Stale or missing data is labelled rather than presented as live progress.
The selected ride refreshes every 30 seconds while Current ride or Home is visible. It resumes after returning to the app. Your selection is kept for up to six hours in this browser session, including a PWA update, and can be removed with End ride. This feature does not provide background location tracking or arrival notifications.
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. Home keeps relevant service notices in one compact, collapsed row below your next trip. Tap the row to read two short notice previews; Show all reveals additional notices. Long notices have a Read full notice control. The counter matches the displayed notices after duplicate Service/Information messages are removed. The trip planner shows a compact, collapsed notice indicator when route- or line-related alerts are returned. Tap it to read the details; when no matching notices are returned, the indicator is hidden. If an alert feed cannot be checked, GO Live shows an unavailable warning rather than claiming no disruption. Notices may not describe all planned work or apply to a future search date; consult official GO Transit service updates before travelling. 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.
While online, GO Live checks for app updates on launch, when you return to the app and every minute while visible. A successfully installed new release refreshes open app windows. Saved routes are retained. Closed or suspended apps update when the browser next permits a check. Offline screens cannot refresh live transit times.
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.
Yes. Ask what a screen, status, button or feature means, or how to use it. The assistant also answers GO Train and GO Bus questions using available Metrolinx data. Open the assistant.
Chat history is stored in your current browser and restored when you return. Tap the trash icon (Clear chat) to remove it. Questions and relevant conversation context are sent to the AI provider when you ask a question; GO Live does not save chats on its server.
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.