- These delays are unacceptable. I can joke with you on Twitter but ultimately, you're a customer, too, and you need to call Metrolinx (416) 874-5900 and GO Transit (416) 869-3200 and make your grievance heard. Fire off emails to greg.percy@gotransit.com Unlike his predecessor, Gary McNeil, Percy doesn't read his emails but he has a team of assistants who do and their job is to address and faciliate. Make sure you cc his boss premier@ontario.ca
- Don't scoff and say complaining won't do anything. YOU PAY THESE SALARIES. If you found time to write an email to me, you have time to write an email to them
- Service Guarantee Refunds do not reimburse parents with children in daycare where the late charges range from $1 for every minute late to $5 for every 15 minutes late. The people operating these facilities would like to go home and the children in their care want to see mom and dad. For those with pets, dogs need to be let out and fed. Cats need ... wait, who am I kidding? Cats don't care that you're late.
- On the 4:07, apparently a passenger was physically assaulted by a group of other passengers after a confrontation with the CSA. I can't verify. If you have info, please share in comments.
- On the 4:25, a woman went into labour? Can anyone verify?
- I bailed at Scarborough GO. I rode a TTC bus that was worth every penny of the $3.25 I paid (what a shit show tour of forgettable streets and people say Oshawa is a dump?!) and I found a GO bus where the rest of my ride was as luxurious as I expect from the fare I pay.
- How did you get home?
Friday, May 22, 2015
I want to blog about last night's LSE disaster so hard but I'm buried at work and can only fire off this note
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32 comments:
Once again, I was lucky to have picked yesterday to work from home. Had to take the foster cat (aka evil minion) to the vet.
As to your point about cats: Minion does care about when I get home. Mostly because he knows he will be fed and have human contact (poor minion spent most of his short life in a cage, segregated because of an illness. He is getting better). They are actually talking about him being adoptable next month!
Complaining is good. Especially in these types of situations. It has now become a weekly occurrence! Same spot, same issue. It has to stop. We pay too much money for this to keep happening.
Had I actually been on a train, you betcha I would be contacting anyone and everything about this. Unacceptable.
A lady had contractions at 33 weeks pregnant. A nurse from Mount Siani who was on the train helped her out and she got off the train at Guildwood to be assessed. She posted on a Facebook group i belong to. Wasn't on the train. Turned out to be false labour due to dehydration and stress, probably due to the delay. She is fine.
I just sent my email. I finally got home an hour late, missing another appointment for my daughter, the second now in 2 weeks.
I waited it out, got a seat on the 5:20 when I saw how packed the 5:10 was. I am one sure I am one of the many parents that schedules things in the evenings so that they don't have to take time off work, I have to rush home to make dinner and rush my kid off to sports too. Thankfully I don't have to deal with daycare costs as well, but I remember that frustration!
I think we all have a reasonable expectation that this issue should have already been resolved. I hate this commute, I hate being stressed not knowing if I can rely on GO too.
An interesting read here in regards to the revitalization and improving or replacing the outdated signal system. Target completion date? 2019
http://www.gotransit.com/unionstation/en/improvements/signals.aspx
I wished my cats cared about where I was!
I was on the 4:25. After being stopped at Guildwood for roughly 45 minutes we were told to hop on the all stops train. I managed to walk in my door at 7:00, after making a run to get booze :). There has been a delay every week since the beginning of May...getting tired of it.
I felt for you all yesterday. There should be a reasonable expectation of an expensive public transit system (My round trip is nearing the $20/day mark so it is expensive) will allow you to make post work commitments within reason. The fact that the same reasons (excuses) keep coming up for delays is unacceptable.
CJ: I did not want to respond to your twitter yesterday as your battery was dying, but I just bought this bad boy from Anker off of Amazon Anker 2nd Gen Astro E4 13000mAh Portable Charger. It holds enough juice when completely charged to charge up my phone 3 or 4 times over and does so at a comparable speed of a wall unit. It sits in my backpack to address similar situations you found yourself in, or my own stupidity of forgetting to charge my phone overnight. Its awesome.
Oh and P.S., I sent an e-mail to Mr. Percy and his boss :)
I was on the 4:25 and we initially pulled about halfway into Guildwood and stopped. After I don't know how long, we pulled all the way in and the doors opened. The 4:30 was across the platform, and departed before we did. They allowed passengers from my train to board the 4:30 but by the time I clued in to what was happening (tunes were playing, I was on Twitter), the train was full. I waited it out and eventually we rolled along making all stops the rest of the way. I got in to Whitby at 6:45 and was home by about 7:00.
I did hear a code 1033 at one point during the delay but didn't know what it was for as it wasn't in my coach.
On a side note, the VIA train pulled in shortly after we did and then managed to leave, heading east to Oshawa. Go figure. They must have been on the track not affected by the switch/signal problem.
It is getting rather tiresome.
Meanwhile, in other Metrolinx news, they unveiled "Triplinx" after $8.5 million and 8 years of development!
The Star covered it here: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/05/19/new-metrolinx-trip-planner-eight-years-in-the-making.html?referrer=
While over at York Region Transit, they've been feeding Google information on schedules since 2008 and real time information since at least 2012.
Not sure why Metrolinx's geniuses didn't help local agencies in just doing what YRT did by working with Google to integrate the information.
Happy Friday!
I had an appointment after work and was going to get the 18:43. When I got to Union, I caught the 18:18 that left at 18:37. It was all stops but I made it home in an hour and a bit. I also ran into you at Whitby!!!
I was on the 4:30 but in reality we were "only" about 50 minutes late getting in to Oshawa. It did take longer to get out of the parking lot since some folks from another train (4:25 ?) jumped on ours at Guildwood. When we got the go ahead to leave, our CSA announced we were the all stops to Oshawa and some people got back on the waiting train rather than jump on ours. It was only ONE more stop, at Rouge Hill. I truly felt sorry for the people trapped on the train that was just east of Guildwood - the forlorn/angry looks from people staring out the windows/doors.
I've sent an e-mail, but I also feel it's important to point out my cat cares about my home time. He waits by the door to greet me, and I approximate for every 30min later than "usual" I arrive home, his whining miaows on arrival are drawn out by around 20-30 seconds.
Also, for the first time in 3 months I got a ride yesterday. I watched from the standstill traffic on the highway as the GO trains stood still and solemn,
That is all.
I have 3 cats. I am sure they miss me ... but it was a joke.
And now that I've pissed off all the cat owners... yikes. I'm truly sorry.
I was on the 4:07. After we got stuck somewhere before Rouge Hill I think it took a good 30 minutes before "the solution" turned up: a slow walking rail employee with a mallet. I kid you not. He strolled down the tracks with his trusty mallet while chatting on his phone. After another 30 minutes he strolled past in the other direction to fetch a bag from his truck. He went back to the front of the train and blammo! 30 minutes later we started moving forward. This is after we watched in disbelief as the 4:25 or 4:30 train rolled by us. I didn't see any altercation on the train. The CSA was kind enough to offer the use of her phone to anyone who needed it. Got home at 7 instead of 5:20. Awesome.
B
Thanks for that info. I'll definitely be writing/emailing with some grievances. I was on the 4:07 train. Didn't hear of any assault or birthing scare, but I was on the first car. We really don't get told much while on the train. Only thing we kept hearing was that we would be moving 'momentarily'. I don't think the CSA knew the meaning of the word though.
I was on the 4:07 and the CSA was relaying the information she had. Clearly whoever was giving her the info had no idea how long the fix would take. In one of her first announcements she even said she was having a hard time getting info from the crew to know what was going on.
Let's be fair to the CSAS.
I was on the 4:25. We pulled half way into Guildwood and just sat there (right behind the 4:07 that was just beyond Guildwood). In the meantime the 4:30 had also pulled into Guildwood on the other tracks and opened their doors.
Finally, after close to 1hr, a genius at GO decided to actually pull our train fully into Guildwood and open the doors. Some people got off but most stayed put. Then all of a sudden the CSA announced that the 4:30 on the track beside us was going to move and make all stops to Oshawa. Ensue mad dash to get onto that train.
Sure enough, we left less than 3mins later and made all stops. I hopped out at Ajax, got in my car and booted it to my son's baseball game close to the station around 6:25pm.
I was on the 5:10pm train, what pissed me off was that I didn't realize the 4:53pm was still waiting on the platform. It started moving at some point and then I think the 5:05pm left, and the 5:10pm just sat there...then the 5:20pm rolled in. We all sat there, and sat there then we realized it looked like the 5:20pm was going to leave. Then they cancelled the 5:10pm told us all to get off and we had no chance to get on the 5:20pm because it was packed. 2mins after the 5:20pm left the CSR on our 5:10pm train told us all to get back on as it was now the 18:20pm all stops to Oshawa. So infuriating, all the people who'd been waiting on the 5:10pm were now even more inconvenienced because they cancelled our train and not the 5:20pm. On top of that the CSR was saying get on the train while the platform announcer was saying wait in the concourse and there was a whole bunch of people on platform 26 who'd missed the 5:20pm who had only a few minutes to rush over to platform 24 to get the new 18:20pm. I get that things happen but they just can't seem to get their shit together and communicate. Luckily I managed to call my husband and have him leave work on time to pick up my son, he had to cancel a meeting. If he hadn't been able to I would have been charged $65 by my daycare last night for being late. You think they'd have practice and would have learned from their mistakes when dealing with delays by now.
They need to fix it!!! Pemanently!
Folks, don't forget to copy your MPP on your email. Demand they contact Steven Del Duca to find out what's being done to correct the mess at Metrolinx. The Pan Am and Parapan American Games are coming to town, and GO Transit is about to cause some serious embarrassment to Toronto, Ontario, and Canada.
Don't have the contact information for your MPP? Go here: http://bit.ly/1hdahTT (copy/paste to your browser's address bar).
I just received denial of my service guarantee: "The trip details submitted for this claim do not match." I suspect it's because I don't know which f'in train I was on...
Those of you who are getting denied will have to deal with GO customer relations and get it manually accepted. You can email customerrelations@gotransit.com or call 1-888-GET-ONGO (438-6646)
I called this morning and was on hold for 14 minutes. Once I got through, I gave the woman my claim number. She resubmitted it. There was a problem with denials and cancellations of claims. Taken care of in less than two minutes. Shout out to Lisa on the claims line. She rocked it.
I have more info about the assault. Check your email.
I got your email, thank you. I just need to verify some of your claims against other info I got. I will post an update shortly.
Oshawa is a dump. At least at Scarborough Go I can get a bus at all hours of the night and the crackheads are contained in certain neighborhoods. Oshawa is just a bunch of low IQ druggies. And I can say that because it's true. (Offended Oshawa? Don't care.) Glad am gone from there. The bottom line is, it doesn't matter left or right in the politics, they always seem to screw up in everything. It has to be an Ontario solution and nothing off the shelve of a proven tech, or a proven ticket refund system. In terms of daycare, yes when Go is late it sucks but I the taxpayer refuse to pay for others' daycare, all because a Go Train is late does not grant someone the entitlement of daycare refunds. The TTC doesn't give refunds for crappy service, and to be honest I think the fact that Go even issues refunds is surprising. I would never offer refunds, but then again if I was running the show Go trains would be doing 140 MPH and delays like you mention would be gone. Scarborough Go to STC via the 9 Bellamy bus, a little too scenic, but never crowded. Our fares and taxes pay for this system and I gripe and bitch about everything that is Ontario, land of the ignorant entitled morons. (Lots of them, parking donkeys, foot riders, Go bus "yankers" gross! etc.) Because I am and we are taxpayers and when we say jump to the sky you better have a trampoline and a jet pack because we as a society should have the political equvlient of Tactical nukes and destroy any party at the ballot box who screws up. We need to be vigilent assholes everyday especially to government employees who screw up. Electing criminals is a common practice here too, and is a side effect of lowered expectations and we are a weak minded Ontario that just complains and submits to anything the Ontario gov says. I know for a fact we can have our cake and eat it too, but a society of morons will get moron governments and morons running Go transit treating it like a steam powered service with smart card technology. Long rant yes, but I am sick of the stupidity by Ontario and playing politics with basic services. Quebec looks more and more inviting every day.
I'm more of PEI mindset myself.
It's bud the spud from the bright red mud
Rollin' down the Highway smiling-
The Spuds are big on the back of Bud's rig
And they're from Prince Edward Island they're from Prince Edward Island...
RIP Stomping Tom Connors
Exactly!!!
Stomping Tom is dead...?
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