GO Transit seems to be taking a page from No Name’s Twitter strategy by leaning hard into the snark.

A tweet posted this morning got about 58 likes in just one hour, which is no small feat for the Greater Toronto Area regional transit system that is not loved by all (especially when there’s epic delays). While GO Transit will always have some delays that anger riders, they can use a fun Twitter presence to counteract those frowns by spreading some smiles.

The tweet shows the photo of a young woman smiling with the caption: “Me smiling at the nice old lady across from me while I listen to Swedish death metal.” Confusingly, the woman in the tweet doesn’t appear to be wearing earphones, guess she must be donning those annoying AirPods that all the kids are wearing these days?

A deep dive (a.k.a. scrolling) reveals that a moody Gen Zer seems to be running GO’s Twitter account, as there’s multiple recent posts that don’t have the tone one would expect from GO. A July 31 post of a man reads: “me: i will use my time on the go bus to be productive. also me: * watches 45 minute compilation of cooking show meltdowns *” It’s gotten 123 likes and 17 retweets since being posted, which pales in comparison to the thousands of likes every No Name Twitter post is racking up.

But, we applaud the sassy tone, which is actually not new for GO Transit (remember its Unwritten Rules of Public Transit Etiquette Written Down book from last year?). From a brand-building perspective this silliness strategy is smart, GO service issues sporadically make Torontonians angry, so this Twitter account is a savvy counterpoint to some of those negative feelings.

The least a public transit system can do, IMHO, is make you smile a little if you’re going to be stuck on the GO train home (again!), right?

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