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Tuesday, October 6, 2015

So about yesterday morning's LSW mess

from:Skin Man
to:"cj@thiscrazytrain.com"
date:Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 8:24 AM
subject:Oct 5th

What a disaster yesterday was for the Aldershot commuters.  I got to the station and saw that the 630 eastbound train had been cancelled…no problem, I was getting the 645.  I reached the platform and the station attendant came on PA and advised that the 630 was cancelled due to freight train traffic.  A couple of minutes later she came on again and said that it was worse than previously thought and that a freight train had broken down blocking all trains from getting through.  She advised us to go to the bus loop and wait for GO buses.  The herd started to had that way, (I was at the tail end), and just as I was about to reach the bus loop, the herd started to reverse course, people noticed that there was now a train waiting on the platform.  I am now at the head of the herd and I walk briskly back to the platform.  Just as I reach the top of the stairs the CSA announces the doors are closing and just as I leap aboard, the doors close.  150 people have now been effectively kicked off the train as they were incorrectly told to go to the bus loop.  I start walking through the train to tell the CSA what happened and the doors open and close about 3 times, (someone must have been trying to hold the doors open).  I reach the CSA on the 4th attempt to close the door and tell him what happened.  His reaction was surprising….I think he was so pissed that people were holding the doors open, that he just shrugged it off and closed the doors. 

Not sure how many people made it on the train, but it couldn’t have been all of them.  You see, the great part about Aldershot is the rush hour eastbound trains leave from platform 2/3.  This platform only has one set of stairs to get to the platform as the other egress is an escalator that has not functioned for many years.  So people who were coming back were really challenged to get to the platform via that single set of stairs.

Oh, and don’t forget, since the 630 was cancelled, that was 2 trains worth of passengers who wanted to board that train.

2 comments:

Warren Downe said...

GO Transit Operations, did you read what Skin Man did there? He (i) made the effort to (ii) communicate information for (iii) the benefit of riders.

How could Operations send one set of information to station staff and no (or different) information to Bombardier train staff? Why didn't the CSA contact the conductor for clarification from Operations? This is clearly another Passenger Charter violation.

As was posted previously on this blog — new VP of Operations, same GOng show.

Tal Hartsfeld said...

You just have to love the immense organizational and communication skills those in charge of this system have.