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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

We're sorry ... the number you've dialed is not in service

Place a call with what?

And check out those long distance charges!

Submitted via picture messsage to 9054420352
UPDATE

Crazy train reader Dan was kind enough to provide some background behind this picture:

Commuter trains will get telephones; [SA2 Edition]
Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Sep 15, 1990. pg. A.4

Copyright 1990 Toronto Star, All Rights Reserved.

Riders will no longer be able to use a late GO Train as an excuse for not calling in.

Next month riders will be able to pick up a cellular phone on board the train.

"You've got to admit, there are delays every now and then," said GO Transit's Tom Henry.

All passengers need is a credit card. But the $1.50-a-minute charge is quite a bit more than the quarter used at a regular pay phone.

The service is being implemented to generate revenue for GO Transit and also to provide commuters with a much-needed service in the high-tech age, Henry said.

Twenty-five phones are to be installed in the six-month pilot project, which begins Oct. 15. If the system proves popular, there will eventually be a cellular phone in every car, Henry said.

Rogers Cantel Inc., which the GO Transit board decided yesterday will get the contract to provide the service, will share some of the profits.

The phones will initially be available on the east-west Lakeshore line all day and on the Richmond Hill line during rush hour, said Joe Zinner, assistant vice-president for national sales at Rogers Cantel Inc.

"It's going to be unique in North America on a commuter service."

7 comments:

C.J. Smith said...

Looks like there was a phone on the train at one time.

Imagine those phone calls.

Anonymous said...

The phones were only taken out about 5 years ago... they were there for a long time! I don't think I ever saw anyone use them... EVER!

RonNasty said...

How about those TVs? Whatever happened to the Global TV feed? Did anyone ever listen to them?

Dan said...

And then there were those LED displays that scrolled messages for dog walkers and grooming salons, that were turned off and later removed when someone made a train say "Stephen Harper Eats Babies".

Anonymous said...

LOL!

TomW said...

Actually, I'm old enough to remember payphones on trains in the UK... that dates me.

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