GO passengers line up at York Mills GO Bus Terminal for buses into Durham Region
As I play my violin, leave the tale of your journey into the LSE shitshow last night in the comments.
One friend of mine made it to Oshawa by 9:30pm last night.
I got into Ajax at six myself where my husband hooked up with me to complete the ride home, but not without having dinner first with my chauffeur and his lovely wife (twist my arm).
We dined at Mazza, a Lebanese place at Bayley and Westney Roads.
It was delicious.
Food can always help make a bad situation a good situation.
I got home almost at 10. That was with staying at the office until 7.15. It took 1.5 hours to get to the STC, where I yelled at a woman because she thought the shuttle would be going all the way to Whitby, instead of just to Pickering where the trains were running.
ReplyDeleteGet home, check the email and then realised that had I waited another 10 (TEN!) minutes, I could have taken the train to Scarborough then shuttle to Guildwood and train to Ajax.
Sigh. At least last night's adventure made me realise how civilized and comfortable our commute is on the GO compared to the TTC.
Plus, it now sounds like I need to check out that restaurant. Spent time in the Middle East and came to love the food.
Left downtown at 4:15pm, got home by 7:15pm. Honestly, considering how many people needed to travel via TTC and GO, everyone I waited with was surprisingly calm and level headed. No yelling at all! People were just making the best out of it and everyone was helping everyone else when they could, especially at Scarborough TC where there was little help.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the above comment, I think we're lucky that we don't have to take the TTC because it took me as long to get to Scarborough TC from Union as it did to get from STC to Ajax GO.
The best part of the trip was the Go Bus ride (thanks to a surprising gap in the traffic), but then I sat at Pickering GO, on a train, waiting for 45 minutes before I got to Ajax (3 minute trip!). The best part was when we sat, with doors open, on Track 1 collecting people, then closed the doors, headed west (yup, not east), switched over to track 2, then headed back east and pulled back into Pickering to pick up people on track 2. That was fun. I could, or should have, walked to Ajax Go from Pickering Go, might have taken me about the same time as I sat at Pickering.
Overall though, considering the tragic event of the commuter bus in Ottawa yesterday, I think my situation was really not all that bad.
You know if anyone is going to tell you where to get good food, it will be this bitch.
ReplyDeleteFive of us who work in the same building and travel east rented a car and split the 149.99 plus tax among us and paid $34 a piece which would have been cheaper than a cab and we were all home before 7
ReplyDeleteI rented a lovely room at the Royal York!
ReplyDelete^ Really? Wow. Must be nice to have that kind of money just readily available.
ReplyDeleteHow about suing the blockheads that broke the gas main in the first place.
ReplyDeleteYes it is, thank you.
ReplyDeleteI live within my means so when times like this arise, I can do such a thing.
The problem with suing the blockheads is that eventually you end up paying for it. Somewhere down the line, it will show on our gas bills or with GO fare hikes.
ReplyDeleteMind you, I did think of that while some woman molested me on the SRT last night. But then a calmer head prevailed.
I had been home almost an hour when GO sent out the notice about shuttle service from Scarborough to Guildwood. I don't know why it took them several hours to get that plan in place, long after the evening rush was over. It sure would have been a nice option for people like me, had it been available at 5pm instead of almost 8pm.
ReplyDeleteI called GO at 3:45pm to ask how I was supposed to get to Guildwood to retrieve my car, and their suggestion was to take TTC, although they didn't have any specifics about how I would do that. So I called TTC who knew nothing about a gas leak, but were able to give me specific instructions on how to take two buses from Scarborough GO to Guildwood GO. Then I got on the Stouffville 17:20 train, and the CSA was advising people to go PAST Scarborough, and instead get off at Kennedy GO and take a bus from there to Guildwood...this wasn't what GO told me 90 minutes earlier, so I went with the route I had already planned out.
What a total mess.
And yes, I totally realize these are first-world problems here. I tried to keep things in perspective on my commute. Nobody yelled, people were all accommodating and some even made jokes.
@Matt:
ReplyDeleteGO didn't post which GO buses and where to catch them until 4.50 yesterday. Well after the time many people leave work. So, the information you got was actually more useful than what I had seen.
Left downtown at 6:30, TTC to Yonge and Sheppard, took the express bus. Was at Ajax GOa little after 8:00. Not as bad as I expected.
ReplyDelete@Anon 10:06am - I called GO Transit at 3:45pm because their email shortly before that was an "update" email, but I never got the inital notification; I called to find out what my options were because there was nothing in their "update" which addressed where I needed to go.
ReplyDeleteHad I relied on GO to disseminate information to its ridership, I might have been putzing around Union Station for a couple of hours.
@ Jill, fabulous answer to the troll!
ReplyDeleteI worked late, got a cab home and walked in my door at 3:30 a.m. I should have taken a bus.
I caught a ride with my brother. Left downtown just before 5pm and was in Whitby by 6:08pm.
ReplyDelete@Jill. I would have done the same thing if my brother wasn't able to drive me home. Good on ya!