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Monday, September 9, 2013

The one about a Niagara Falls bus ride

from: Janine
to: cj@thiscrazytrain.com
date: Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 8:52 PM
subject: Excellent customer service!

Hi! I came across your blog and figured you would want to know what a fabulous things GO Transit did for a friend of mine! My friend was heading for the train to Niagara Falls a weekend or so again at Union and she missed the last train. She was franctic. Well wouldn't you know that arrangements were made to have a bus take her there so she could get home. Isn't that amazing? It was customer service at its finest. Made me a GO customer for life, I tell ya.
If you use this, please just use my first name.

from: C.J. Smith
to: Janine
date: Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 9:06 PM
subject: Re: Excellent customer service!

Sorry, what?
So your friend missed the train and you're telling me GO Transit summoned up a bus to drive her to Niagara Falls from downtown Toronto?! Was this a bus in service or did they actually put a bus in service for her? Sure, that's great customer service but at what cost?
I would think a cab would have been cheaper or a night's stay at a downtown Toronto hotel.
Your friend does realize that GO is funded by taxpayer dollars and the fare thousands of us pay to ride the buses and trains.
Don't get me wrong. It's wonderful GO helped her out but the expense was unnecessary, unwarranted and a waste of money. Unless it was a matter there was a bus going there anyway, then I don't see what was so great about what GO did.
Hit me back with more deets.

Cj

---

I never heard back from Janine so I don't know if this story is true, is missing a whole bunch of facts, or she misunderstood how this trip went down. If it's true and it was a bus put solely into service to drive a woman home for two hours there and return, then this is a complete waste of tax dollars. It would have not been worth the almost $18 fare, especially if she was the only passenger on the bus!
I'd love to know what made her so important for this happen.

It's probably not true. It better not be true.

8 comments:

TomW said...

If this is a couple of weekends ago, then the direct trains to Niagara Falls were still running.

I'm guessing this person missed the last *direct* train (at 20:10), and instead took the bus from Burlington. (They run much later - you can catch the 22:43 train and still get a bus at Burlington to Niagara Falls).

Anonymous said...

The impression I got TOMW was that she was driven from Union TO Niagara Falls. There is no bus that I know of that leaves Union to NF which means a bus had to be put in service. Unreal.....

Anonymous said...

It sounds to me a bit like it was a GO Transit mishap that caused this passenger to miss the train, so there were probably other people on the bus as well besides the letter writer's friend. OP probably just didn't have all of the details.

George said...

Probably a bus that was deadheading so it was going there anyway. If this tale is true that is.

There is zero chance they would do a bus run for one person since they missed the train due to their own lateness.

I be,ieve some important facts are missing or maybe CJ is getting trolled.

C.J. Smith said...

Trolled? Me?
NEVER.

Anonymous said...

True story!
Lady missed her last train that would connect with last bus from Burlington.
GO used an out of service Bus, driver was on Over Time too (so we heard)
Approx $1000 in operational costs because 1 person missed a train!

Anonymous said...

This story is true.

Machu Pichu said...

Happens all the time and 99% of the time it's a female passenger that gets the limo ride to her station.