By GO Voyageur
Let’s get some musical accompaniment from Martha & The Vandellas, shall we? Excitement mounted on August 21 when GO Transit announced their Route 12 service changes commencing September 2:
St. Catharines received some well-deserved improvements in service. I have believed for a long time that city carries Route 12. Thank you GO Transit planners! The editing on the announcement is mine. It appears someone in the Ivory Tower forgot that GO’s directionality of buses on the QEW is relative to Union Station, the centre of Metrolinx’s universe; apparently, official MTO signage is irrelevant. This oversight can be excused given the excitement surrounding this news.
In my opinion, the real highlight of the announcement is the last line. It appears to be Metrolinx’s way of saying they’ve made some headway with Burlington GO station. Did they keep their word? Indeed they did; bus 8370 rolled in just before 07:00.
I had to contain myself as the tears of joy welled up. However, there was no head office representation — no balloons, no music, no cake, no party hardy PR folk. The only coffee served was the one I brought the driver. We shook hands and exchanged pleasantries; then he was off.
Now, don’t get all excited and start thinking that the construction at Burlington GO is complete, because it’s not. GO Station Ops personnel were still mounting signage on the bus platform as bus 8370 arrived. You now purchase your tickets from agents inside the building, and the east tunnel leading to the track platforms is no longer barricaded. However, there are still construction pylons inside the building, black partitions at the west end, scaffolding in the stairwell to the west tunnel, and there are construction grade doors along the corridor to the east. Here is a walk from east to west through the building…
Is Burlington GO finished? No, but at least it’s usable. No dancing in the streets just yet.
3 comments:
I was on the next bus that pulled in and I never thought I'd live to see the day that the new station was actually completed. Well, at least in use. The most important thing is that we can finally say good-bye to the Burlington Outhouse as the (gasp!) indoor washrooms are open. The outhouse became such a fixture in the St. Catharines-Toronto trip that I hope they save it for some kind of GO museum.
Curtis,
The "temporary" washrooms in the construction trailer on the North bus loop disappeared a couple of weeks ago (http://bit.ly/2f4xmMC). The new washrooms inside the renovated building have been in use for over 18 months.
Apparently an intoxicated person running for a or from a train ran right through the glass wall by the ticket desk.
I notice inside that the glass walls have no marking on them, unlike the windows. So you can easily walk into it.
Reg Varney
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