A few weeks ago, as much as we like to think journeys on our vehicles should always be awesome, a casual daily commute wasn’t really worth putting in a diary to one day show the grandkids.

Today, those travels are rather exceptional.

While many customers temporarily stop using GO Transit and UP Express, as they listen to health officials urging people to stay put if they are able, there are those who just need to keep GOing. They include our train operators and bus drivers – and hundreds of others supporting them – who all still must show up on the job.

And it includes travellers, who ride those vehicles, because their jobs and home-visits to the vulnerable still need to happen.

While more than 300,000 people would normally share those daily rides, today, there are relatively few of those travellers. Their experiences are historic. So we recently put out a call for selfies and images of what customers are seeing during their rides, as well as context about why they must keep moving when the world has all but stopped.

Those customers are nurses heading to downtown hospitals, construction workers making sure our cities aren’t stalled when things ease up, grocery store workers putting out daily bread and attendants headed into senior homes to tend to the scared and confused.

They are, largely, those who keep things running, so we can all keep moving.

Among those faces, and stories, is…

Andrew Wolczyk, an IT professional that works in downtown Toronto. He notes the vast majority of his colleagues are working from home, but a critical few must show up to ensure they all have access to internal systems. He shared the view from his morning commute, which is noticeably different from just a few weeks ago.

Marilynn Taylor shared a photo of herself on an early morning GO train as well. Noting – a bit tongue in cheek – how she’s observing proper social distancing with her fellow customers.

Many customers have also emailed in their stories and kudos to our customer service team. One GO rider says:

“Big shout out to Dave, the driver of the 40 – Richmond Hill Centre GO bus, who picked me up today (March 18, 2020) from the Dixie Transit Way at around 7:10am. He mentioned that this is not his typical route as he is usually driving out in the West in the Waterloo area – but nonetheless took this new trip today when he found out it was originally cancelled. As someone who works in healthcare, where working from home is currently not an option, I wouldn’t have made it to work without you! You have greatly impacted not only myself but also the patients that I work with during this stressful time, so thank you. Individuals like Dave are valuable and essential members of the GO/Metrolinx team – keep up the positivity and great conversations!”

It’s not just drivers getting praised. Other GO customers are fans of the cleaning staff.

“I would like to send compliments to the GO cleaning staff. Getting on the train this morning I could smell the disinfectant. Thank you for your extra efforts in keeping your riders safe by providing a sanitary environment.”

We would also like to see you and hear your story about why you still need to keep moving. Go here to connect via social media, or simply send us an email at news@metrolinx.com.

We’re here to keep get you there. We’re just curious about the story behind that journey.