Fines for riding GO Transit or the UP Express without a valid fare rose from $35 to $200 for a first offence on Tuesday, and the Metrolinx report that recommended the increase forecasts that a smaller share of riders will pay up as a result.
The new penalty ladder, approved by the Metrolinx board on June 25 and in force as of Sept. 8, sets a first offence at $200, a second at $300, a third at $400 and a fourth at $500. A fifth offence draws a provincial offence notice carrying a set fine of $600, according to GO Transit’s own fines page, and a sixth or later offence brings a court summons with a fine of up to $1,000 on conviction. The previous schedule was $35, $50 and $100, with a summons and a $200 fine after that.
Most coverage of the change has stopped there. The memorandum that chief operating officer Sean Fuller put to the board goes considerably further, and parts of it sit awkwardly beside the decision it recommends.
Metrolinx issued 77,443 notices of violation in the 2025-26 fiscal year, the memo says, worth about $3.04 million at the old rates. It collected $2.31 million of that. Repricing the same volume of tickets at the new rates lifts the face value to roughly $16.97 million, an increase of 461 per cent.
The agency does not expect to collect anything close to that. The memo models a collection rate of 40 to 60 per cent, producing an estimated $6.79 million to $10.18 million a year, and is explicit about why the range is set so low. “This sensitivity reflects the risk that customers are less likely to willingly pay higher fine amounts, increasing the share of accounts that may be uncollectable,” it says. Metrolinx collected roughly three-quarters of the face value of its tickets last year. Its own forecast is that the new fines will push that down to somewhere between two-fifths and three-fifths.
The memo is also candid that severity is not the lever it believes works best. “Research consistently finds that the certainty of being caught is a more powerful deterrent than the severity of punishment,” it says, before noting that inspections have already been driven to a record high and that “there is a limit to what can be achieved with the current staffing complement.” Revenue protection officers carried out 1,557,243 onboard inspections in 2025-26, up 29.9 per cent from 1,198,823 the year before. Over the same period the network-wide fare evasion rate fell to 5.02 per cent from 5.30 per cent. Metrolinx values each one-percentage-point drop at about $4.28 million in recovered fare revenue.
Read together, those passages describe an agency that has largely exhausted the deterrent its own research prefers, and is now reaching for the one that research rates as weaker.
What almost none of the coverage has told riders is what to do if they are ticketed. Under Metrolinx By-law 7, a person who receives a notice of violation has 15 days to pay it or to request a review by a screening officer. That officer can cancel, reduce or extend the time to pay, and the by-law sets out three grounds: that the person did not commit the act described, that relief is “necessary to relieve undue hardship,” or that it is consistent with the integrity of the proof-of-payment system. The hardship ground is written into the by-law and applies at the first offence, not only after a matter reaches court. A screening officer’s decision can be appealed to a hearing officer within 15 days, and a hearing officer’s decision is final. Failing to attend a scheduled hearing costs an additional $100 and affirms the fee.
The deadlines carry real money. A first-offence fine left unpaid past 15 days rises to $225, and past 75 days to $245 once a $20 collection fee is added. Metrolinx says a review request can take up to 30 days to answer, though the ticket is placed on hold while the review is pending.
Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria framed the change simply in a video accompanying the announcement. “Transit riders deserve a safe, fast and reliable transit system,” Sarkaria said. “Paying your fare helps make that possible.”
via CP24. Penalty structure, collection modelling, inspection totals and deterrence language from the Metrolinx board memorandum of June 25, 2026, Amendments to By-Law 7. Fine ladder, late fees and review process confirmed against GO Transit’s Dealing with a Fine and Notice of Violation pages. Minister’s quote via Global News.
