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Dear Greg,
I'm not sure to what happened to the reply I was expecting, perhaps I set my expectations too high for GO Transit once more, much like last night, allow me to regale you with the details.
Last night was yet another example of a customer service disaster on behalf of GO Transit: I can only assume that the hamster that plans your train traffic fell of his wheel again and that your communications staff left early.
Sometime around early afternoon a "trespasser" wondered onto the tracks and between Guildwood and Pickering (what happened to Rouge Hill, are we no longer using that as point of reference). I'm being purposefully intact with my comments, as whoever is in charge of your communications was as well. Let me outline the difference, a "pedestrian fatality or pedestrian injury on a rail line" is a BAD and UNFORTUNATE thing, it elicits feelings of remorse and concern for the poor fellow/gal that wondered onto the tracks. A "trespasser" is a person who has entered your property illegally, it evicts feelings of ANGER in people. A "trespasser" can be forcefully or otherwise removed from the tracks and everyone else can then go on about their day. A "trespasser" does not require a half-day police investigation. See the difference? Your communications person doesn't, perhaps you can use my next fair hike to buy a dictionary, or perhaps use one of the free online ones. I think my wife said it best, "Trespasser is an insensitive term used do describe what happened, I'm sure the family of the person injured would be offended."
This now sets the MOOD for the rest of my story, seeing as from about 3:50 pm, all I kept hearing was that a "trespasser" has wondered on to the tracks. Which to me means a delay of 30-60 min before service is fully restored, so all an all a happy rush-hour home. Alas, such was not the case. Luckily, I smelled a ruse, so I had the foresight to make arrangements to have my kids picked up from school. Yes, amazingly some of your customers have concerns above and beyond their daily GO trip, which are often times severely messed up by the actions, ney INACTIONS, of GO Transit.
Carefully watching the departure, cancellation, delay, etc of trains using your website and my handy GO transit app I picked a time to depart when I thought the coast was clear. I had to use my own judgement as there was no hint of a smoke signal from GO as to what was going on. It was after all after 5:00 pm which I assume is the official GO quitting time and the office subsequently clears out.
I packed my stuff, called my wife, and signalled that the coast was clear and that we should catch the 6:43 pm train home to Rouge Hill. I kept checking my GO train app (the union station departure screen) on my way down to Union Station frequently in the hopes that some tidbit of useful information would be dropped, alas no. The walk was about a 25 min trek from where I work, so plenty of chances, and plenty of let down. The net sum no cancellations, only a delay, no time limit on the delay as is the style of GO transit. I arrived at union station at 6:36 pm, at which time the train was still in a date of unknown delay.
Let me briefly pause and ask you a question. In a world of GPS tracking and package shipment with real-time status updates, JIT inventory systems, why does GO Transit not know WHERE its trains are by HOW MUCH they are delayed? Seems preposterous right? I'd think so.
I waited around Union station, reloaded my presto card . . . which I can't seem to do online via the Presto website ever since the sign-in procedure has change, nor can I trust the money to be there after a reload anyways within 24 H span. But I'll save that debacle for another email, as from an IT point of view Presto is a disaster. Again, see ANY other form of electronic payment and do a compare and contrast and the pitfalls of Presto are startling! BTW, military grade integrated circuits are guaranteed to operate down to -50C, industrial grade -40C. I assume Presto cheaped out and used commercial ICs which are only rated down to -0C for their readers. Good call, we are after all in CANADA, where the temperatures dip below 0C 25% of the year.
Back to my story, I'm at union station, waiting patiently. 6:42 pm clicks, and lo and behold the train is CANCELLED. GO TRANSIT LOST A TRAIN!!! That is the only possible explanation that I can accept for your inability to track and plan your train traffic! See two paragraphs up about GPS. Seriously, how can you not know more than 1 minute before departure that a train will be cancelled? Was your traffic controller praying to some nameless deity hoping for a miracle train to show up? You know how you groan when your flight is cancelled, limo driver is late, your late is made with 2% milk rather than skim? Multiply that by about 200, that's what happend at Union station at 6:42 pm
Keep in mind, people were probably making arrangements with their loved ones to be picked up at their station, as the miracle unspecified-delay train will whisk home. Only to have to call them back, make other arrangements, ask their baby sitters to stay late, wish good night to children they won't see before they go to sleep. Yet the miracle train did not appear to the wishes of all. Let me be crystal clear, you held your customers hostage in the Union concourse while they waited for a delayed train that was subsequently lost, and cancelled.
With dreams crushed, and all HOPE forlorn in GO Transit, as there's NO GUARANTEE that the follow up 7:17 pm will not be cancelled (albeit it wasn't delayed, yet) my wife and I resorted to the TTC to get home.
So let me recap:
- 3 hours of waiting for the "trespasser" to be escorted off the tracks - tho both you and I know it wasn't a trespasser
- 25 min walk to Union station in vain
- 1.5H ride home via TTC to get home as I do NOT trust you or your ability to get me home
- 4H of baby sitting for 2 kids
Alas, this debacle will NOT qualify for a GO Transit guarantee either, as I did not want to tap my card on (in vain) before the platform was announced. In fact, I knew (with the limited information I had access to) to already start making plans to use the TTC instead. My wife did tap on, yet cancelled her ride after the 6:42 pm letdown.
Now, I don't have all of the answers, but allow me to describe to you how I would have handled the situation.
Disaster strikes. I have at least 2 trains east of pickering, probably more. Those can easily service Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, and Oshawa in back-and-forth service every 30min. I have shuttle busses (which I'm sure there weren't many) offering service between Guildwood and Pickering, obviously because Rouge Hill has fallen off the map now.
Seriously, why skip Rouge Hill, is there are lack of switches between Pickering-Rouge Hill and Rouge Hill-Guildwood, I think not. Was the "trespassing" incident at Rouge Hill? If so, why not just say that? Why stay vague. Vagueness is DEATH in the communication department for a customer service company. Instead, be precise and factual. Are you this vague when it comes to board meetings? Would you accept vagueness from your underlings in their reports? Why should your customers expect less?
Alright, back to my plan. I have 2 trains running all-stops, because there's no point in express trains in service crunch, between Guildwood (Rouge-Hill if possible) and Union every 30 min as well. Let me draw your attention to the fact that not ALL your customers call points east of Pickering their terminal stops. I would have LOVED to be even able to make it to Guildwood last night on a regular schedule. Every once-in-a-while you might be able to squeeze a train in-between the disaster zone. I'd have one train start at Guldwood (to relive the shuttle bus overload) and run run all stops to Oshawa. I'd alternate that with an express train from Union to Rouge Hill, and then all stops thereafter. Returning trains past the disaster zone can pick up the non-rush hour traffic between Pickering, Rouge Hill and Union.
Notice how I'm able to satisfy passengers travelling between Guildwood and Union with regular service, as well as passengers traveling between Pickering and Oshawa with regular service? Notice how the limited traffic restrictions between the disaster zone is handled?
Compare that to the GO transits plan: shove as many trains past the disaster zone, maintaing the illusion of a regular schedule including express trains. Then cancel trains at Guildwood due to shortage of trains at Union Station to service other lines. Thereby stranding passengers at Guildwood, overloading the shuttle busses.
Again, all of this can be optimized. There are algorithms known to man, but not to GO Transit, that plan this all out. Remember JIT inventory systems, I wonder what algorithms they use?
I hope, sincerely hope with all of my little heart, that a true disaster never strikes Toronto in my lifetime. I cannot imagine the unorganized pandemonium that would occur at Union Station while GO transit misplaces trains in a real emergency situation all in the name of keeping an unachievable schedule.
Which brings me back to your communication system. The public address system at Union Station is a joke. The place is loud, the speakers are crap, the person making the announcements mumbles and does NOT annunciate (sic), nor even repeat the announcement in case someone missed a key piece of information. Addresses cannot be heard, comprehended, and are thus useless at platform levels: you use diesel trains, NOT silent electric trains. Auditory addresses CANNOT and SHOULD NOT be used at platform level! The screens, seem to be frozen on the departure schedule. Why, only the upper 3 lines are, on average, displaying useful information critical to the people looking for their train platform. Why are these screens not used as public address systems as well? What are the hearing impaired customers to do? Your corporate communication strategy sucks, there's no nice way of putting it.
Again. There's no reason for this. It's not like there aren't other transit systems in the world that you can't steal best practices from. It is sad, but every other place I have traveled has a better customer information system and better coordination than our own. Are you as an agency happy with being the worse of the lot? I mean you're better than the TTC, but that's a pretty narrow vision, and a crippled competitor at that.
I have tried to keep keep a cool head while composing this email, but it's hard. As a GO Transit user for 15+ years, I'm fed up. I can only count on one thing in any kind of non-standard operating situation: GO transit will mess it up, I will not get home on time or possibly not even via a train. And, at the end of the day, I will be fed up and angry at your organization for its ineptitude. Not because you can't plan (which you haven't learned how to in the 15 years I've been riding GO), but solely because you cannot communicate effectively, clearly, and TRUTHFULLY with your customers.
I'm (CC'ing) more people in your organization, and more external influences in the hopes that I will get a response, including members of Parliament as you are a public agency that is not being accountable. Maybe my last response was being carried by the lost 6:43 train?
I suggest you spend the next fare increase to institute a system to schedule your trains around an emergency, again, based on traffic patterns, usage patterns, and blockages. Use that system to provide accurate and real-time estimates to your customers. Fire the hamster you've had at the wheel for the last 15+ years.
Regards,
D.H., PhD
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