Search ThisCrazyTrain.com

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

GO Transit pledges better service following Monday's snow-snarled commute

GO Transit is promising its customers a better commute Wednesday morning after a blizzard and a website failure created a perfect storm of anger for many commuters, who faced train delays, cancellations and a fare hike on Monday. The snowfall forecast by Environment Canada for overnight Tuesday, into Wednesday, was expected to be heavier and stickier…

12 comments:

Bicky said...

And yet, my boss is late again for a third day in a row. Upon checking the status updates, his line is delayed. He won't be a happy camper.

I wonder how many people are even aware they're paying more. Some woman was shocked to hear there was a fare increase. She just taps her card and doesn't pay attention, apparently.

C.J. Smith said...

The only better service I'm noticing is lip service. What happened Monday was inexcusable. With the money we now pay in fares these kind of bullshit, boiler plate responses are insulting to the very people who pay this CEO's salary. For three days straight, every train I've taken on the LSE has sat outside of Union Station waiting for entry. It's very convenient to blame the weather for what is becoming a poorly managed system under Percy.

Bicky said...

^ Agreed. (with CJ's comment, in case another comment comes in between hers and this one)

Anonymous said...

yadda yadda yadda

Nahid said...

Its funny how they can't keep their track switches or their network switches operational.

Anonymous said...

For a year every morning the LSW I take sits on the track waiting to enter Union Station. Varies from a minute to 5 or more. Every Day! Poor managed system.

Iona Ford said...

GO Transit has pledged "better service" after every "Act of _____" (you fill in the blank) since I started riding the rails back in 1990.

"We're advising passengers to leave extra time for their commute tomorrow."

It's always our fault we didn't leave enough contingency time for GO Transit. A 1/4 century later, and it's the same blah, blah, blah.

Unknown said...

@Anonymous - I've been on many LSW trains that have held at 0.66 before, especially during rush hour. Believe it or not, GO doesn't deserve all the blame for this one. Let me explain.

The USRC (Union Station Rail Corridor) is functionally separate from all the rail subdivisions that feed into it. That is to say that two entirely separate organizations control the movement of trains between Exhibition and Union Station (those organizations being CN and the Toronto Terminals Railway, TTR).

If you were wondering what "0.66" was referring to, milepost 0.66 of the USRC is where the west ladder (long series of switches leading into the station) starts. (As an aside, you may have noticed the 0.00 sign in the middle of Union Station platforms, just above your head; the trackage is numbered outward from this point for historical reasons).

Your train, more or less, travels on the same track from its penultimate station to this point. The signalling system, due to its age and staggered upgrades, will only allow a limited number of simultaneous movements (even though other movements may be non-conflicting).

I'm sure you saw the announcement (or re-announcement) of the USRC signal upgrades a few months ago; this work should partially remedy the issue. This was supposed to be complete by now, but Siemens royally screwed up. Of course, the work won't compensate for occupied platforms, late trains etc., but it should make your trips a bit shorter.

TL;DR: blame the TTR (for lack of planning and flexibility) and Siemens (for not delivering on their contract)

--

It occurs to me now that 0.66 may actually be the Don Yard exit on the east side of Union Station, so apologies if that number isn't correct.

C.J. Smith said...

^ Tyson, you're such a rail nerd. And I love you for it.

Anonymous said...

Empty promises. Again.

Squiggles said...

Only slightly related: 2 years ago, my train always arrived at Union and was offloading at 7:26am. Now, it is 7:31am. Not a huge deal, but it does have a snowball effect with other little chores that need to be done on the way into the office.

So, in reality, I am not surprised with this article. Some better planning needs to happen, and realise that Winter in Canada means ice and snow.

Robert Wightman said...

Tyson said

" It occurs to me now that 0.66 may actually be the Don Yard exit on the east side of Union Station, so apologies if that number isn't correct."

No Tyson you got it correct. Track mileage numbers from east to west or south to north. It is 332.6 at Cherry St. east of Union.

The problem is that Metrolinx completely rebuilt those double sets of ladder tracks with double slip switches. It is beautiful to look at but totally archaic. As a train crosses from one track to another it blocks all tracks in between as well as the two it is on, AND these tracks take a while to clear because of the time delay on the interlocking. They would have been much better off to rearrange the tracks used by their trains to eliminate the need for these ladder and us a smaller number of judiciously placed crossovers.