Those of us who ride out of Oshawa on the 7:53 train to Union know all too well who Customer Service Ambassador Tom is.
A lovely gent, Tom is the one whose voice cracks like a 13 year old boy when he reads all of the service announcements for the morning commute. And I mean all of them.
Tom goes into great detail about where we're heading, how we'll get there, what to do if you want to go somewhere else, how to avoid death at platform level and he does all of this at the speed of a turtle. And the best part is he only subjects those of us leaving Oshawa with this long-winded novel of announcements of his. The Pickering people are often spared. That's because Tom has passed out due to a lack of oxygen.
This morning, both Jill (my train buddy) and I found out that a woman on the train with us, while commenting on the new guy - "Mr. DOORS... ARE... CLOOOOOOSSSSSINNNNNNG" -that she actually started to take the 8:25am train just to avoid Tom.
That's hardcore, man.
9 comments:
Relarted point: some CSA's don't seem to realise GO uses the 24 hour clock, and has done for years. When every sign and schedule says 17:10, being told about the "five ten pee emm" service seems at odds somehow.
I have an out of body experience myself everytime I hear the phrase "Welcome aboard the 4:10 train to Oshawa" This causes me to freak out and think it's super early in the morning.
Other people find the 24 hr system confusing. I enjoy watching them use their fingers to count so they can figure out what train leaves after 6pm.
I'm a nurse so the 24 hour clock is second nature. One day I was taking a different train than usual, so before I hopped on I asked the CSA "Is this the 17:10?" and he stared blankly back at me. He said that I was the first customer he'd ever heard refer to the "5:10" as the "17:10", so he had to figure it out himself!
I am pleased to let everyone know Tom has been reassigned to the 5:53pm train to Oshawa.
We we just passing Danforth by the time he rattled through which coaches would not be opening at Whitby.
haha My friend was just commenting to me tonight on the 5:53 train about how annoying Tom is. Every time he would talk she'd stop mid-conversation and had steam coming out of her ears. I wear my headphones about 90% of the time, so I don't usually notice the "Customer Service Ambassador".
I'm pretty sure that I'm the friend mentioned in the post above and if so, I stand by my words... Those who had to suffer on the 7:53 every morning know what I'm talking about! We'd get to Whitby and he'd still be rattling on about the stops and the bus connections and the cars in Whitby where the doors will not open. Being on the 17:53 tonight was a horrible reminder as to why I'm glad he's on the night shift lol Although the new 7:53 guy is no better.... "the doors.....are.........cloooossssssiinnnnngggggg.....reclosing!......reopening......closing again!!!!....." Just close the damn doors already!!
@Anon 10:46PM (or 22:46)... if Whitby passengers actually turned up on time, then they wouldn't run for the door, and the doros could close when they were supposed to. The doors shoulc close 15sec before the train is due to depart. If you're late, tough cookies. The remaining 1800+ of us got there on time and don't want to be delayed.
I'm with TomW on this.
7:53 means 7:53. Those who are late can catch the next train.
I can appreciate there are CSAs who will cut people chugging it across the lot like Arethra-Franklin-heading-to-a-buffet-discount-restaurant-with-minutes to spare-to-closing a break. But at whose expense?
When everyone has their shit together, I'm in my office chair by 9am. So why make 1800 people late for work just so one person or two can make the train?
Ideally, GO would run trains every 10-15 minutes, so missing wouldn't be such a big deal. Then CSA's could close the doors ontime without worrying about the inconvinience.
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