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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Once again CN saved the day!

No they didn't.

Those turnips couldn't save a penny from a mall water fountain and the ride home tonight proved as much.

Those of us on every GO train out of Union during the evening rush were held up outside Danforth as the engineers and conductor put each train on turtle to avoid wheel slippage on leaves that had glued themselves to the track.

When was this monsoon warning issued? Early this morning, right? And why in the hell is no one pruning the trees that create the so called "canopy of death" over the east and westbound tracks?! It's 2010. Why all of a sudden is this a problem?!

I'm all for safety but I'm also all for getting home on time, too. Believe me, the last thing out of my mouth when I'm dying on my death bed won't be "Gee, I wish I had spent more time on the GO train".

Somewhere, somehow, there's a person that GO can hold accountable. To that person I say, buy some sand and get on with it!

Does no one get a weather report over at the maintenance yards?

8 comments:

Dan said...

In recent years, probably due to the pennypinching ways of corporate CN, right-of-way maintenance has been cut back. Looking at older photos from the 70's and 80's, right-of-ways were pretty neat and well-trimmed. Not trimming or weed-spraying on a regular basis can cause weeds and vegitation to grow in closer to the tracks. The Georgetown line around Weston is a good example (but, some lines are now owned outright by GO, who contracts PNR RailWorks for the maintenance).

Anonymous said...

The new engines are also to blame... lets do the math shall we??? More horse power plus smaller sand boxes and half as many sand nozzles equals more GO delays!!!!
The finger needs to be pointed square at whoever ok’ed the purchase of these new engines that just don’t work in a commuter situation.

Kelly said...

GO released its five big promises to passengers just last week. The first one is that they'll TRY to be on time. Since seeing that video, there's been three days where I've been on trains or waiting for trains that have been delayed in excess of 20m. Clearly trying, doesn't mean trying very hard. How about I TRY to pay when I ride?

Anonymous said...

sitting in a warm delayed train beats waiting for a delayed go bus in the rain.

TomW said...

CN need to use this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandite - a mixture of sand, aluminium powder and glue.

Anonymous said...

Note: GO's new locomotives are unique to GO. They took one cab design and swapped in another power unit... Seems to me like they didn't work out the bugs on the Traction Control System (TCS). Ever notice the "shuddering" when they're trying to get traction through the wet leaves? That's the TCS slamming on the brakes...

I was on the 6:13 out of Oshawa this AM -- they had an old locomotive on the train -- and it was on the West end of the train! 15 years of GO riding and that's a first!

Dan said...

Annon(10:19) raises a good point: The new locomotives only have one set of sanders on the bogies, and not on each side of the bogies. So if it's travelling forward, only the sanders on the front bogie would work, the rear wouldn't have a set for travelling in that direction.

They're using old locos at both ends of some of the Barrie trains to combat leaf problems.

Anonymous said...

These problems probably/most likely happened before but they notify riders by saying that there are track issues. So now it seems like this leaf/water issue is new when it probably has been occurring all this time.
I would argue that it is no different than getting the streets ploughed after a heavy snow fall. It is 2010 but we are still using the same salt/dirt mix and the same snow ploughs to clean up the mess, yet people are still getting into vehicle collisions.