Special to This Crazy Train
By Chris P. Bacon
Autumn Quick Facts
Autumn is here and The Weather Network
shared their Autumnal
Equinox fast facts with us. Not to
be outdone, GO Transit released some quick
facts about Union Station.
Allow me to contribute to this flurry of
facts with one of my own. Metrolinx and
Bondfield Contruction have collaborated, once again, to miss another completion
date for Burlington Station. A visit to Metrolinx’s
Project
Map on this first day of Fall reveals the following:
By clicking on the Learn More hyperlink, you’ll be amazed to find out …
Well, … absolutely nothing! This is so bush-league; high school students
can maintain a better website than the “professionals” at Metrolinx.
Let’s move on. I visited Burlington Station last Friday and
witnessed these intending passengers queued to buy their tickets from machines.
They should have been served by ticket
agents on the other side of that black partition — as promised in the list of
improvements on the project map. Instead,
the ticket sales office sits empty …
On the outside, the south bus loop is still
in shambles …
The list of improvements also cites
“enhanced accessibility”. I had meant to
address that point last winter; I’ll do it now.
The weekend of February
13-14 was VERY frigid. A Niagara
Falls bound wheelchair passenger,
who had transferred to the Route 12 bus at the Burlington P+R stop, requested
to use the washrooms at Burlington station.
When the traveller found the facilities unusable, because the plumbing
lines in the temporary washrooms had frozen, he was directed to the new
washrooms in the main building. There
was one problem though …
The elevators from the west tunnel to the
new station were not installed — they’re still not available for use. There is no “enhanced accessibility” at
Burlington GO station. The passenger had to complete his trip to Niagara Falls
before he had access to a washroom. Truly
shabby, IMO.
All these stories from Metrolinx’s spinmeisters
remind me of the Three
Dog Night song from 1970. How many
more will Prichard, McCuaig & Co. pump out before Burlington station is
complete?
2 comments:
21st-century efficiency.
We've really progressed in the last 50 years, haven't we?
Y-e-e-e-h-h-h-h for cultural advancement and enlightenment.
What really irks me is standing on the platform at Burlington looking across at the station construction site where progress creeps along at a glacial pace with two, maybe three people working, and seeing all this rental equipment that's not being used. The daily fee for renting construction equipment still has to be paid regardless of whether or not it's getting used and seeing idle equipment week in, week out knowing it's costing money just to sit there all this time really ticks me off.
Train service is still hourly at night and this is what that 7.2% fare increase back in February is getting blown on, not running more service.
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