New 'masterpiece' site tracking GO Transit delays is taking off in Ontario

Complaints about TTC disruptions and GO Transit delays are becoming increasingly common, and one Ontario commuter has taken matters into his own hands by building a tool that shows riders exactly how late their trains and buses are, so they can plan better.

Nick Mazzotta lives in Oshawa but works in Toronto as a product manager for a fintech company, meaning he relies on GO Transit to commute to and from the downtown office.

"Nothing is more frustrating than getting to the train station, only for them to update that board on the track as you're waiting, saying that the trains will be another 20 minutes," he tells blogTO. "It feels like the service has been really unreliable, particularly since the beginning of the year."

Winter weather only made matters worse.

"Especially when we had all those big snowfalls for those couple of weeks, every single day, both into the office and back home, there was some delay or cancellation," he says.

Fed up with being late to work, Mazzotta designed a website with a live delay tracker for GO Transit, as well as TTC and MiWay, hoping it can also benefit people living in Mississauga.

With freelance web development experience from high school and skills gained in his current role, Mazzotta had the know-how to build the site entirely on his own.

He wanted a site that shows real-time train delays because GO Transit platform screens often display vague or delayed information. While GO Transit does have its own website for updates and delays, Mazzotta calls it "outdated and pretty buggy."

Soft-launched just a few weeks ago, Mazzotta says his website has already attracted around 5,000 unique visitors.

"Lately it's been up to 500 people using it each day, and I haven't really done anything to promote it," he says, aside from sharing the link on LinkedIn and Reddit.

One of those visitors, it turns out, is a data scientist at Metrolinx. According to Mazzotta, the individual reached out to say that "a few people in the office" were using his "masterpiece" of a website to keep track of their own trains to get home.

Another connection Mazzotta made recently was Karman Singh Bains, the Toronto resident responsible for the website tracking 12 years of TTC bus delays. Between Mazzotta, Bains and Luka Jovanovic, the Ontario student who designed a website tracking slow-moving streetcars, Toronto may have its own transit-friendly version of The Avengers ready to assemble. 

After spending so much time monitoring the data on his website, Mazzotta says he noticed some patterns. Rush hour, he says, is when most problems occur for both GO trains and buses, which may not come as a total surprise given the higher volume of commuters during those times.

"The lines that run north, like Kitchener and Stouffville, seem to be the most impacted by delays," he says, adding that weather also plays a significant role.

"For trains, delays of around half an hour are usually the worst. Buses, though, can get much higher. I've seen delays of 45 minutes to an hour."

Mazzotta says people have already been reaching out to request that the site be expanded to track Oakville and Durham Region transit delays, though he hasn't confirmed whether or when those systems will be added.

"Nothing's worse than having a sh**** commute in the morning, and you show up at work, and you're mad, so if I can make people's days a little better, then that's cool."