The mandatory vaccination policy for GO train crews, who are employees of Alstom and subject to the company’s mandatory vaccination policy in line with Metrolinx’s policy, is now in effect.

Although 96 per cent of the over 1,000 Alstom employees working on trains are fully vaccinated, the loss of even a small percentage of crew members, given the current labour market shortages, will unfortunately result in a few GO train trip adjustments, with bus running in place of train.

Currently there are upwards of 500 daily train trips – of those, Metrolinx believes they can limit the adjustments to about 2 per cent of all trips. Metrolinx will ensure they communicate to customers the night before and early the next day if there are train changes planned on their line.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Metrolinx has had strict health and safety protocols in place to protect staff and customers.

Metrolinx is ensuring service can get people to where they need to go, safely.

What customers need to know:

Train crews are employees of Alstom and are subject to their own mandatory vaccination mandate as required by Metrolinx. More than 96 per cent are already fully vaccinated. They must also follow all the same health and safety protocols as Metrolinx employees including mandatory medical masks and daily health screening, as well as rapid testing as needed.

The Alstom mandatory vaccination mandate came into effect as of Sunday, Dec. 5, 2021. This may result in some crew shortages.  

They will ensure customers are notified when adjustments cannot be avoided, that the busiest trips are maintained and as much as possible, ensure there is bus service to replace cancelled trains. Customers should watch gotransit.com, the in-station message boards, and gotracker.ca, as well as line handles on Twitter for the latest updates. If they haven’t as yet, customers should sign up for On The GO alerts.