For the next time there's a delay ... you can try what this woman in the U.K. did

Full story here. 

It would be interesting to see if anyone will try this on a GO train and if any pizza company will play along.

Her trip was four hours and she was hungry.

It's amazing what people will do when they are hungry.

What sorry state of a bulk emailer does GO Transit use?

It seems unable to push out thousands of updates in a timely manner.

If FutureShop, Target, Michael's, The Bay and Sears can all manage to email me same-day deals for toasters, cameras, lamps, glitter glue and $1900.00 five-carat earrings well before I'm even awake, surely Metrolinx can find software for GO Transit to use that will send a message to GO Transit passengers about a 5:41 pm train cancellation to show up at 6 pm in our in-boxes rather than at 12:28 am the next day.

You had one job!

Didn't I say something before about how the train is not your living room?

from:		April C
to:		"cj@thiscrazytrain.com"
date:		Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 10:26 AM

825 LSE. Not crazy crowded but all seats were taken on my car this morning an there were people standing. She just watched people walk by and no one said a word. She finally moved them when there were about 5 people standing near her. She was busy putting paper in her three ring notebook and updating her calendar. An office on the GO.



Please pop the bubble. That's all I ask.

Argh - your broke-ass shoes belong on the floor!

I think I'm too nice when I troll Instagram.

Ha! I wish!

Oshawa to Union in under 15 minutes? That would be awesome.

Here's what 430 km/h looks like:

So about that extra penny in fare...

GO Transit gave me an explanation that remains unacceptable (through no fault of theirs I want to add) re: Presto's penny-skimming off my morning fare for the past 10 months based on my bus-train tap sequence.

I have been assured this method of rounding up because the software can't calculate 1/2 of a cent based on the Presto card discount is expected to be resolved by February 2014's fare increase.

How nice. 

I've also been encouraged to apply for a credit in February for the pennies collected. The onus is up to each GO Transit customer to make a request. No one plans on contacting you if you're affected by this software conundrum. 

I still have to ask, what happens to the money collected that no one asks for back?

Well, Presto?

Don't forget about your credit for last Wednesday's train fiasco that affected the LSE/LSW/Stouffville corridors

GO Transit has started processing the claims and passengers are now being issued credits.

Make your claim here. I just submitted mine this morning.

Looks like GO set it up to just automatically approve anyone from that day. Note the very last email from GO's claims email account sent to Crazy Train reader Al.

For those interested in my "greatness at a glance"

November's walk summary.



It's the 16,001 calories burned or "4-point-something-something-I-can't-math-this pounds" that gets me - just from the exercise alone.

I can't say enough about the apps I use. Map My Walk for the GPS tracking while I walk and My Net Diary for the food I eat. Years ago, the only thing I had to motivate me was a scale and that worked out well, didn't it?

Being able to see the progress I am making, tracking the food I eat and monitoring my exercise makes such a difference in this challenge to be healthier and remain a car-less commuter.

The debacle usually starts with one donkey who didn't even try

Reference

Thanks to KB for the meme and source.

Matt scratches TTC brass off his Christmas card list. GO Transit management can high five themselves

from:		Matt
to:		"C.J. Smith"
date:		Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 11:19 AM
subject:		TTC this morning

Today my wife had to take our daughter to the doctor, so I was relegated to the TTC in order to get to work.  In hindsight, I should have stayed home.

I got to the bus stop near my house, and realized I forgot my phone at home, so I had to turn around and go get it.  Back to the bus I go; I’m sure I missed a bus because of this, but TTC’s morning schedule doesn’t really have set arrivals, just “as fast as you can” more or less.  Halfway along my ride to the nearest subway station, a group of three tremendously odourrific young men got on the bus and triangulated me with their seating choices and pinning me down with their stench.  The irony here is that I don’t believe they were travelling together.  I eventually made it to Kennedy Station, and to the subway.  The ride proceeded fine, and I transferred south at Yonge Station.  Shortly after this routine transfer is when all hell broke loose.

I’m not sure what happened, but somewhere south of Dundas Stn/north of Queen Stn, the train died.  Literally stopped moving, and the A/C turned off.  The lights went out too, save for the emergency lighting.  Being in the tunnel, we were trapped.  With no cell signal, we were at the mercy of TTC updates which took forever to come (and then came about every 45 seconds thereafter...thanks for the non-update TTC...).  The official announcement that eventually came was that there was an emergency “power down” at Queen Station due to a track-level emergency.  Was this a jumper?  A psycho pushing someone into an oncoming train?  A maintenance snafu?  Someone have a seizure and fall onto the tracks?  We’ll never know.  What they WERE able to announce was that for all the commuters who wanted to go between Bloor and Union, they’d have to take surface routes.  Very detailed instructions were given on how to achieve this.  Bravo TTC.  Glad that you were announcing this to all of us who were stranded underground and couldn’t give a flying fuck about the inconvenience to people who couldn’t get south of Bloor at the moment. 

But I digress.  25 minutes into our trip down Claustrophobia Lane, I think someone in the subway fainted.  About 30 feet from me, people were huddled around, fanning someone with newspapers.  Other passengers went to have a gawk/provide help.  Talk about a BAD time to have a medical emergency, when you’re stuck on a subway IN the tunnel, without power.  The emergency alarm was going, but clearly, no help was coming.  Does TTC have an update on what they’re doing for us entombed passengers yet?  Of course not.

About 40 minutes into the wait, they announce that power will be restored shortly and that they will “evacuate” the train at Queen station.  EVACUATE? This did not sound good; I have yet to hear of a situation on public transit where the term “evacuate” was used and chaos did not ensue, and I assure you the end result held true to my initial suspicion.  The train crawled forward, but it did not stop at Queen the way one might assume.  It barely snuck the front door of the lead car onto the platform, and the ENTIRE ridership of the train was herded through like cattle, all squeezed out ONE door at Queen station.  When we finally got off the train, there was ONE way up, so we were all bottlenecked again.  Finally, we reach the exit...FREEDOM!  Is that what you thought?  That’s what I thought.  I was wrong.  They had the fucking place locked down, and only a SINGLE door open for exiting the station.  Any other exits were locked, likely to ensure that we all left through the main doors, AND to prevent other passengers from coming into the station.  Once again, we plodded along like cattle.  I finally got out into the Eaton Centre, and made my way to street level and walked the rest of the way to work (I was planning to de-train at King Station, one stop south of Queen). 

All in all, my delay was nearly an hour.  Thank Christ my employer is fairly understanding with these things, especially considering that as I type this, there is NOTHING online about ANY sort of TTC delay this morning.  I assure you, I didn’t imagine my morning commute.

GO Transit, I promise to never speak ill of you again.  Unless you fuck me over like the TTC did today... then all bets are off.

- Matt M

A+ for clean socks. I guess...

Just telling it like it is

How nice that she(?) has her own quad office, complete with footstool

Looks like someone forgot to wear their Teflon coated shoes this morning

And just think, we get to pay more in fare in February and still endure this crap behaviour.

I know GO Transit customers feel Metrolinx should start fining for this infraction, but up in Ottawa, it's proven that despite signs that clearly state footriding is a $125 fine, this happens:

from:		Alex
to:		"cj@thiscrazytrain.com"
date:		Tue, Dec 3, 2013 at 12:19 AM
subject:		Scourge of the Foot Riders Spreads (Hat-trick!)

CJ,

Living in Ottawa, I thought I was relegated to reading your blog to get my daily dose of donkey disobedience. Sure, Ottawa has the O-Train, even equipped with quad seating, but the average ride is only 7 minutes and the longest 20. There just isn't a huge incentive to put one's feet up on the seats, and the short trip makes the occasional bag rider a non-issue. Generally it's an enjoyable experience.

This all changed this week however. With the snow, suddenly everyone has the irresistible urge to wipe their slush covered feet off on the edge of the seat across from them. Getting pictures has been a bit of a trick, but I have finally managed to capture my greatest infraction yet. Of course it was a bit sunny but I think the picture shows it. Three girls (all wearing UGGs of course) were sitting in a quad. The girl that is closest to the camera was originally next to the girl in the green sweatshirt. Not visible in the picture is the third girl in the quad across the aisle, also with her feet on the seat next to hers. Also note the condition of the train floor, covered in salt and sand to be wiped off on the seats. I would normally place my backpack out of the way of the camera when taking a picture, but I didn't want to put it on the floor.

This third girl was originally sitting across from the other two, until she discovered the extreme comfort of sitting sideways with your feet squarely on the seat next to yours (there is no central armrest like the GO BiLevels, but there is one at the aisle). At this point she was kind enough to give up her seat and move to the (unfortunately) empty quad across the aisle, so her friends could join her in stretching out for the remainder of their journey. At this point the one in the green sweater decided to document this new position with a large camera, I assume so she can share it on Instagram later. Of course the other girl in the picture was also social and broke out her phone to take a photo of her friend with her feet up while taking a photo of her with her feet up.

This level of social media-ing was simply too much for me to handle and my stop was next so unfortunately I didn't see how this ended. I would bet that they never noticed the sticker between every window on the train though.

from:		C.J. Smith
to:		Alex
date:		Tue, Dec 3, 2013 at 7:22 AM
subject:		Re: Scourge of the Foot Riders Spreads (Hat-trick!)

There is a FINE for putting feet on the seats!?
Can you tell me how this is enforced?
As for your story, I think my head exploded.

from:		Alex
to:		"C.J. Smith"
date:		Tue, Dec 3, 2013 at 9:29 AM
subject:		RE: Scourge of the Foot Riders Spreads (Hat-trick!)

Apparently there is a fine, but I have never seen a ticket issued. Like GO (I think), OCTranspo has both Fare Inspectors and Special Constables. I have only ever seen the fare inspectors on the platforms, but once the Special Constables did come through the train to check tickets, and another time they just wandered past. I imagine they would be the ones to give the tickets, but I've never witnessed it. The only staff member always on the train is the driver, and they can't issue fines. I don't doubt that they would tell a foot rider off though if they ever saw it.

The good news is that there is a new plan in 2014 for the special constables to get out of their cars and actually ride the buses and trains (genius, I know). Hopefully this means more enforcement of the foot rule.

And yes, I wasn't sure how to tell the story clearly. I considered giving the three girls names to make it clearer, but in the end couldn't come up with enough good ones.

Not a crazy train but a crazy streetcar. Close enough

from:		VA
to:		"cj@thiscrazytrain.com"
date:		Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 9:37 AM
subject:		Fwd: ;

This morning's commute on the 501:

You could honestly make episodes about what happens on this streetcar.

A young lady gets on at Coxwell and Queen. She enters the streetcar cell phone to ear talking loudly. For all to hear she has a long winded conversation about how her friend Fran is feeling jaded that her boyfriend Michael plays too much golf in the summer and indoor soccer in the winter, ...and really doesn't like to spend that much time with Fran. She continues to talk loudly about what kind of catering they should get for the party on Saturday, and talked at length about how to handle two co-workers that got involved and are no longer seeing each other possibly attending the party.

Throughout the course of this phone conversation, an ominous guy saunters over, and nods along with the girl while she is having her phone conversation. Although people are annoyed no one says anything because they think this guy knows her, but clearly annoyed, she briefly stops her phone conversation and says:

Girl On Phone: Do you mind?

Ominous Guy: Do you?

Girl On Phone: Excuse me?

Ominous Guy: No one wants to hear your phone convesation, people are just trying to have a quiet commute to work, and I'm sure Fran wouldn't appreciate you airing out her dirty laundry to all of us.

She lets whoever was on the phone go.

Girl On Phone: Whatever, that's harassment, I'm talking to the driver.

Ominous Guy: Harassment, please, you're harassing the whole streetcar.

People laughed and clapped to this, but the girl made good on her word, and went to the streetcar driver to complain. Now luckily, this happened close to Yonge where many get off, but the problem is many get on at Yonge as well. I usually get off at Bay. Because she was arguing with the driver, she held up the car. The guy that interrupted her phone conversation was long gone, I got off and just walked to Bay St.

I give the guy props for doing what he did, because unless you have noise cancelling headphones even with music on you could still hear this girl. But I'm wondering if she had a point about the whole harassment thing?

I also wonder what it will be like on a sardine can packed subway at rush hour, once the TTC brings in the wonderful innovation of wiring the tunnels so that people can talk on their phones....*shudder*

Yours Truly
VA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After much consultation with my lawyer, seen here in his corporate headshot in his handbasket to hell, Mr. Georgie Greyskull says with utmost confidence that asking someone in a public place to can it on a cellphone, or even standing next to them nodding along to his or her conversation that they have chosen not to conduct in private, is not harassment. 

GO Transit fare increase - approved

Hi - not Cj - but a guest blogger. Call me Billy.

Cj is predisposed but she texted me to let you all know that we will be paying more to ride GO Transit starting February 1, 2014 even though I am sure you probably read it on Twitter or got a panicked call from your Aunt Barb who knew you were waiting anxiously on this news. Cj told me specifically to say "Aunt Barb". I don't have an Aunt Barb.

Anyhoodles ...

Our fare increases will also help TTC customers pay $3 to ride from Union to Rouge Hill if Karen Stintz gets her way while us GO customers save 10 cents when we tap to ride the TTC.

Cj will probably kill me for making a statement but it's not right!

We should riot.

Today's the day Metrolinx asks the board to raise fares 4.8% for GO Transit

The agenda pegs the fare increase as item #19 on the list.

Don't hold your breath.

You will be paying more in the new year.

I'm done blogging for today.

Are you ready to help the folks in Toronto bum a ride?

from:		MS
to:		CJ Smith
date:		Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 7:51 AM
subject:		Article on Star website

Hi CJ.

I found this article on the Star about fare integration with TTC and GO. Karen Stintz wants TTC users to have a fare break when they use GO within Toronto. Maybe I'm confused but would that mean those in the 905 would once again be subsidizing TO transit users?

As a GO user, would I get a break on using the TTC?

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/12/04/ttc_chair_urges_fare_deal_for_riders_also_using_go.html

Not sure how this will all play out. Either way, I'm hoping for a lottery win so I can kiss the daily commute good-bye. Ha! 

Oh Presto ... can we talk?

GO Transit has kindly offered to look into it my penny skimming situation involving my Presto card - detailed here. I knew I could count on them but I really want Presto to pick up the torch here and chat with me about this glitch.

And speaking of "glitches", have you been caught in a Presto refund boondoggle? I love that word by the way. It's a scouting term apparently and it's become my word du jour of late. It's right up there with fubar.

The Toronto Star's Ellen Roseman wrote an article yesterday documenting one woman's Presto woes and even got a soundbite from the Vice President of Presto. He blames rapid adoption and growth for the problems affecting GO Transit cardholders. Thousands of people were forced to give up monthly paper passes. The onus was on your team, Mr. Hollis, to have the call centres and mechanisms set up and in place before the transition/expansion/growth/forced adoption happened, not after.

Let's outline all of the errors of Presto's ways, shall we? Wait, I don't have to. It's been done, written about numerous times on this site, but in a nutshell:

In 2012, transit usage reports, due to be released by end of February go up in late March only to be taken down for almost two weeks, inaccessible to customers because of a system error. In 2013, the track record wasn't any better.

Mr. Hollis, I welcome you to contact me to discuss what happened on March 2 in 2012 that resulted in a a critical phone call between myself and your IT department. You can reach me at 905 442 7423.

We should really chat. It's not enough that GO Transit is investigating my fare situation. I'm a Presto customer and I deserve an answer. I need to speak with someone at Presto, preferably you.

I regret now not staying on top of my fare situation when I first noticed this past February as I believed it would be resolved after I was told it was probably a glitch resulting from the fare increase a few weeks prior. I put it out of my mind because 10 cents really didn't matter and I was told the system would correct itself.

Turns out, it does really matter because this glitch is not a problem just with my account.

Where is this extra fare going?

But back to some nuggets of historical problems with Presto...

Presto machines began freezing along the Barrie line when the temperature hovered below -20C with wind chill. Passengers were unable to tap. Presto put the onus on customers to find machines and I quote, "covered in huts" which for many meant trudging 500 metres to opposite ends of platforms to find another reader not exposed to cold weather.

Monthly passholders quickly find out that their Presto card no longer allowed for free travel for one adult guest on weekends. Not sure who to finger for this but to all out remove this perk with no consultation with passengers was pretty low. A friend of mine headed into the city with her mother on a Saturday and a fare inspection revealed that mom should have bought a ticket. Adding further insult to injury, her 86 year old mother is on file with GO Transit with a registered warning. Nice, right?

In fact, to help others better understand all that is an annoyance with Presto ... it's like standing in front of a buffet of wrongs and not knowing which one to pile on your plate first ... I have chronicled all of their shortcomings in a web series that runs up to 24 chapters. It's a bloody book and you can read it here.

GO-GO-Gong show

from:  D.H. to:  greg.percy@gotransit.com cc:  cj@thiscrazytrain.com,  CEO@metrolinx.com,  mary.proc@gotransit.com date:  Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 7:46 PM subject:  Wednesday, December 4th east-bound delay

Dear Greg,

My train left Union Station at 5:35 pm heading east on Wednesday, December 4, 2013.  It is now 7:40 pm and I've made it as far as the Distillery District, and there's NO sign of any clear progress!

Please forward this to the idiot in charge of directing and managing train traffic, and then subsequently fire him/her.

I have been held HOSTAGE on this train for over 2 hours now.  I am HUNGRY, as I was rushing home to have dinner!.  I am thirsty!  There's no source of water on the train.

We are a few hundred meters away from union station, yet no one has made the call to reverse back into Union, and ALLOW people to get off, get something to eat, or make alternative plans to get home.  Staff announcements, as always, have been lacklustre.  Movement has been non-existent for the past hour or so.

Had we actually gone back to Union Station I would have been able to take the TTC and make it home over 1 hour ago!  You are NOT the only form of transit in Toronto, and I could have easily made alternative plans.

I get that extenuating circumstances are beyond your control, yet YOU WERE AWARE OF THIS DELAY SINCE AT LEAST 4:10!!!  You KNOW how much each train gets delayed and what your traffic patterns are like, yet no one in your organization seems competent enough to figure out how to prevent from having your customers from being stranded on a train.

Why! Why, can't you coordinate with the bridge inspection crew and ONLY release trains from union station when the way to the bridge is clear.  I'm sure there is now a clusterfuck of trains waiting inline because no one has the foresight to plan!

Its is NOT hard to offer your customers choices if you arm them with information.  Make CLEAR announcements, not that garbled crap you pass off as announcements, that INFORM passengers of the EXPECTED delay.  Work with the supervisor of the inspection to get an estimate of the delay and REVISE it as new information comes in.

NEVER, EVER should you force your customers to wait within eyesight of a station without giving them the opportunity to get off!

I expect a personal response from the you clearly explaining the steps and precautions GO will now take to ENSURE this will NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN and how you plan on actually providing your customers with realistic and up-to-date delay estimates.  I'm not talking about the current estimates you provide e.g. an announcement at 8:10 telling me "your 8:05 train is now 5 minutes late".  I mean do some math, some modelling, some actual head scratching based on line capacity, traffic, back log, and other factors to tell me when the hell I can expect a train to arrive, and when I can expect to be home.

I understand these skills might be lacking in your organization, as a trained engineer, I'd be happy to help.

Regards,
D.H., PhD