Special
to This Crazy Train
By
Ian Cognito
Search
tripadvisor.ca for Route 12, and you’ll find articles like Scenic Byway Route 12 in
Utah. Today, we’re not looking at that
stretch of highway. Instead, we’re
providing a traveller’s perspective of GO Transit’s Route 12 between Niagara
Falls and Burlington.
I’ll
refer you first to a couple of excellent articles by Shaun Cleaver regarding
inter-city bus travel in the Hamilton—Niagara region of the Golden Horseshoe:
Take
note of the awesome “spaghetti & meatballs” map in the second article.
1. Reading the
Timetable
If
you’re looking for a timetable posted at Route 12 bus stops, give up — there
are none. GO Transit removed them years
ago and now expects us to carry electronic devices with a data plan. Alternatively, you can download the schedule
as a PDF from the GO Transit website. If you must have a printed timetable, your
bus driver might carry a supply (but don’t count on it), or pick up a copy if
you’re at Union station.
One
anomaly that GO Transit continues to inflict upon the public is their use of “EASTBOUND
/ EN DIRECTION EST” and “WESTBOUND / EN DIRECTION OUEST” in the timetable. These are NOT compass directions! Metrolinx
views Union Station as the centre of its universe, and trains on the Lakeshore
West (LSW) line run eastbound into Union and westbound out of Union. Route 12 is viewed as an extension of the LSW
line, so it follows that this bus route should inherit its directionality from
the trains. I’m not buying into that
logic.
I’ve
taken some liberties and updated the map that’s in the timetable PDF to
illustrate the conundrum.
The
problem can be put to rest quite easily.
Route 12 operates on the QEW, which has NO cardinal
directions posted.
Leaving Toronto, signage along the highway is QEW/Hamilton, QEW/Niagara,
or QEW/Fort Erie; in the reverse direction, it’s QEW/Toronto. Given that they fall under the purview of the
MTO, why doesn’t GO Transit follow suit?
Some
minor notes regarding route numbers in the timetable and displayed by the buses:
·
12 is the all stops trip between Niagara Falls
and Burlington — both directions (◄►)
·
12A is the Grimsby to Burlington trip first
thing on weekday mornings. It does not
operate outbound from Burlington.
·
12B is the express trip between Niagara Falls
and Burlington (◄►)
·
12C is the all stops trip between St.
Catharines and Burlington (◄►)
·
As of this writing, the 12D express trip
between St. Catharines and Burlington (◄►) no longer operates.
2. Buying Your Ticket
If
you’re doing any more than a one off day trip, endear yourself to your bus
drivers, and get a PRESTO card. If you
must buy a paper ticket, do so at a GO station or the Niagara Falls bus
terminal. For other stops along the
route, you’ll need to buy your ticket from a driver — unless ticket vending
machines have sprouted along the way recently.
And remember, buses are not equipped to accept credit and debit cards;
it’s cash only, and your $50 bills might
not be accepted.
Do
your homework in advance and know where you’re GOing and how you are getting
there. Use the Plan Your Trip feature on GO Transit’s website, e.g.:
|
|
Other
trips will be suggested, but this is the one that gets you closest to the
Falls in the shortest time.
N.B.
Your GO Transit driver is not your
tour guide! Know what you want to
visit and what local transportation you’ll need before you embark on your
trip. You’d be amazed at how many
folks roll into town and ask, “Now what?”
|
Unless
you plan on taking the seasonal weekend train to Niagara region, you will
require a train to bus transfer at Burlington as shown above. Tell the ticket agent this is what you
want. Why is the onus on the passenger
to get this right? Ticket agents,
particularly those at Union Station, sell the seasonal train tickets even
though that train to Niagara region is not operating. What’s the issue? There is a $3.00 premium per trip to ride the
seasonal train.
You’d
think the ticket sales system couldn’t issue a fare for a trip that isn’t running. Call the toll-free number, 1-888-GET-ON-GO
(438-6646), to get exact pricing for your trip.
Do not rely on the website’s fare calculator. As of this writing, the fare calculator
does not work properly.
Note,
too, that a bus driver can issue a ticket to a nonexistent stop on the route,
e.g. Stoney Creek to St. Catharines GO station instead of Fairview Mall…
This
has happened when the station lookup method is used; using the zone lookup
issued the correct ticket. Know your
zones…
Once
you are in possession of your ticket, don’t lose it. Keep it on your person as proof of payment,
especially if you absolutely have to exit the bus at a stop to light a
cigarette, take three drags, discard the still lit cigarette by flicking it in
front of someone’s face, and then attempt to board the bus again. This incident actually happened. The self-entitled passenger wasted a
significant amount of time arguing their case with the driver that they had
left their ticket upstairs, and then had to retrieve it.
3. Which Bus Do I
Board?
After
deciphering the timetable and knowing where you need to be and at what time,
you’d think boarding the bus would be a snap.
Wrongo! Frequently, Niagara bound
buses and Burlington bound buses arrive at the same stop simultaneously or
within minutes of one another. The St. Catharines stop is
notoriously busy on a Friday afternoon, with a mix of local and GO buses pulling
up to the platform. Don’t let St.
Catharines Transit Route 12 buses (Vine St. northbound AND southbound) confuse you — ignore them!
I
recall being on a Niagara bound bus when a young lady waltzed on, tapped her
PRESTO card, and took her seat in the upper saloon. We had no sooner pulled away from the stop
and turned the corner by Home Depot, when she descended the stairs in a flurry,
rushed up to the driver, proclaimed she was on the wrong bus, tapped off, and
rushed back to the bus stop to board the Burlington bound bus. Drivers sensitive to perplexed passengers
will announce via the external loudspeaker (if it’s working) the intended
destination of the bus as it rolls up to the bus platform. Pay attention!
So,
how does the neophyte GO passenger identify their vehicle? Just read the lighted signage on the outside
of the bus. It’s as easy as A, B,
C.
A.
This is the route number from the timetable.
B.
This is the final destination for the trip.
C.
This is a scrolling list of stops on the
trip. GO Transit could improve this part
of the signage to show only current and remaining stops on the trip, i.e. do
not show stops already serviced.
In
this example, the bus is Burlington bound, making all stops, with the final
destination being the Park and Ride stop at Dundas St. @ Hwy 407.
There
is also signage on the side of the bus to the left of the door, which displays
information segments A and B only. The
following image is from a bus making the same trip as the one above. In this case, the abbreviation CRPL (car
pool) is used instead of P+R —more inconsistencies are addressed below. Sometimes a strip of “something” obscures the
side signage and maintenance crews take an eternity to fix the problem.
All
of this assumes your bus actually shows up.
Buses can be late for any number of reasons; see section 7 below. There are times your bus is a no-show — the
reasons are varied. The bus may have experienced
an equipment failure, or the driver may have slept in, or the Slip Office
(personnel management) may have messed up, or there
may have been a passenger with suspected ISIS affiliations onboard…
4. How Do I Know When
I’m at My Destination?
This
bears emphasis… Know where you’re GOing and stay vigilant to where you are en route! Even though buses are equipped with interior
monitors that display upcoming stops, which automated announcements are
designed to call out, the technology can let you down. How? The recorded announcement
can be garbled. The
interior and exterior speakers may have been wired in reverse, or the PA system
is inoperable, in which case the driver may need to bellow out the stop.
Experienced
drivers will make their own announcement for the approaching stop, because they
know what the bus technology tells you is NOT
NECESSARILY what’s printed on your ticket.
5. Passenger Charter promise:
Clear and consistent communications
If
there is one thing GO Transit excels at it is turbidness and inconsistency. There are three stops that are not listed in
the Route 12 timetable, and they are all called Fairview St. @ Maple Ave.
Here they are on Google Maps…
You
don’t learn of this anomaly until after you’ve boarded the bus. Travelling Niagara Falls to Burlington P+R,
the interior monitors display the following (reading bottom to top):
If
anyone can clarify why there are two stops 190 m. apart on the south side of
Fairview St., please enlighten us in the comments. Note that the stop on the NE corner of the
intersection by the Petro-Canada station is not listed as a designated stop
after the bus leaves Burlington station on its way to the carpool lot. Travelling the reverse direction, the
monitors display the following (reading bottom to top):
Note
that the aforementioned stops on the south side of Fairview St. are not listed
as designated stops after the bus leaves the carpool lot on its way to Burlington
station. Buses have been known to drive
past intending Niagara bound passengers who have tried to flag down said
buses. Hmmm… that sounds vaguely
familiar.
Other
inconsistencies include the following:
·
The timetable specifies Dundas St. @ Hwy. 407, whereas (i) the interior monitor refers to
the stop as Northampton Blvd. @ Dundas
St. GO Carpool Lot, (ii) the front exterior signage specifies BURLINGTON P+R, and (iii) the exterior
side signage says BURLINGTON CRPL.
·
The timetable specifies Casablanca Blvd. @ QEW, whereas (i) the interior monitor refers to
the stop as South Service Rd. @
Casablanca Blvd. GO Park & Ride, and (ii) the front exterior signage
specifies GRIMSBY P+R.
·
The timetable specifies Stanley Ave. @ Hwy. 420, whereas (i) the interior monitor refers to
the stop as Stamford St. @ Stanley Ave.
GO Park & Ride, and (ii) the front exterior signage specifies NIAGARA FALLS.
·
Zone 82 is Beamsville
per the timetable, Lincoln per
By-Law #2A, and generally defined as Ontario
St. @ QEW. How many QEW exit signs
list Ontario Street? Three — in Grimsby,
Beamsville, and St. Catharines.
6. Remember what your
mom told you before those long car trips…
When
heading to the bus terminal in Niagara Falls, there is no good reason to stop
at the 7-Eleven on Victoria St. for a jumbo Slurpee; the same goes for your Tim
Hortons large double-double. Why? Because GO buses are not equipped with a
washroom. This point cannot be stressed enough — take care of your business before you board.
If
you’re transferring to a train at Burlington, that station is your first
opportunity for a washroom break. If
your ultimate destination is Pearson International Airport, you’ll no doubt be
transferring to the Route 47 bus at the Burlington P+R stop. For the longest time, the washroom at that
location was behind the following stand of sumac:
More
brazen passengers would sneak behind the GO supervisor’s vehicle and…
GO
Transit Station Ops realized they needed a solution to the problem, so they
delivered it…
(A
photo of the interior is available upon request, but you’ll be sorry you asked
for it.)
So,
after leaving Niagara Falls some 2+ hours before, this is what you have to look
forward to for relief. Consider it, too,
from a driver’s perspective. This is
their layover spot before the trip back to The Falls — day after day. Who would want have a sit during those -20°C
days of winter? Is this the type of loo
the brass at Metrolinx use? If it’s not
good enough for them, why would passengers and front line staff think it’s
acceptable?
7. Are we there yet?
Even
though you may not be travelling the full length of Route 12, it may still take
a long time to arrive at your destination.
There are several reasons for this.
There may be a serious accident or a vegetable spill ahead…
On
June 25, 2018, GO Transit issued the following alerts for Route 12:
●
18:30 As a result of a collision on the Skyway Bridge, buses on your route are
delayed up to 40 minutes.
●
19:15 As a result of a collision on the Skyway Bridge, buses on your route are
experiencing delays of up to 75 minutes.
●
22:54 We are experiencing delays between 45-60 minutes as a result of multiple
collisions at QEW between Centennial Parkway and Fruitland. Buses are detouring
via South Service Road until further notice.
It
doesn’t matter what the reason is — all you know is you’re stuck in three lanes
of bumper to bumper traffic GOing nowhere…
Your
trip may be delayed due to a police investigation, because your driver was
assaulted…
Then
there’s the proverbial double-decker breakdown due to
coolant leaks, diesel fuel leaks, engines dying, and diesel fumes inside the
bus.
On
rare occasions, a medical emergency will delay the trip…
In
these events, please identify yourself to the driver if you have first aid or
medical training. Everyone else, please
stay seated and keep quite. The driver
has to manage the situation as best they can and doesn’t need to waste time
getting around passengers who are milling about in the aisle, especially if
it’s in the upstairs saloon of a double-decker bus.
We
all know the GTA becomes nearly paralyzed when inclement weather strikes. The QEW in Niagara is no exception…
Delays
of 45+ minutes are not uncommon during blizzard-like conditions. This delay negates a driver’s layover time at
the end of a scheduled two hour trip.
Now imagine you are a report driver from the Hamilton garage assigned to
cover a Niagara Falls crew. You need
extra time to get to The Falls garage to start your day. After nigh onto ten hours of near constant
driving on your shift, you have to drive home in that mess on the QEW. Now consider the winter of 2018 which had a
high incidence of bad weather days. IMO,
these drivers sometimes draw on superhuman reserves of stamina. We need to be sensitive to what they go
through. One silver-haired passenger on
Route 12 once put it to me this way: “Ask not what your driver can do for you —
ask what you can do for your driver.”
Again,
it’s important to remember the advice in section 6 above, because a delay can happen at any time.
8. Are you just going
leave that mess?
Drivers
like to present their passengers with a clean bus. Every now and then, passengers forget the
advice in section 6 above resulting in some serious “Name that Stain” scenarios
requiring a change-off of the bus for sanitary reasons. At the end of each trip, drivers perform a
quick inspection of the inside of their vehicle looking for refuse and sleeping
passengers. In a pinch, I’ve done it for
them. Here’s a bit of advice. If you drop your French fries all over the
floor, pick them up and deposit them in the waste bags on board. If you change your infant’s diaper on the
rear seat, don’t leave the soiled diaper behind when you exit. And, dude, if you are going to drink your
beer in the rear of the upstairs saloon of a DD and then repurpose your empty
tallboy as a private latrine, man up and
take the can with you!
9. DANGER, Will
Robinson! DANGER!
The
scheduled buses on Route 12 are the ADL Enviro500 SuperLo double-decker models,
numbered 83xx–84xx currently. Passengers
who head to the upper saloon for the journey must take extra precautions when
leaving the bus. The descent down the
stairs is very steep — steeper than the older model DD’s in the fleet — IMO.
A word of caution… If you’ve packed your suitcase so densely that it’s like a heavy
bag of cement, you’ll have problems getting your luggage in and out of there. This cargo bay design, like that of Megabus,
can be very dangerous. I talked to a
Megabus driver who told me one of his colleagues went to unload a soft-sided
duffle bag thinking it was relatively light weight. It wasn’t; the bag had rolled coins in
it. When the driver tried to catch the
falling bag, he ruptured two discs. That
driver’s career ended that day. Always
execute a “tug test” before unloading luggage!
GO
Transit recognized ADL’s ongoing design flaws in this area. Seats have been removed and a luggage rack has
been installed in the lower saloon of some buses. That, or it’s a bunk bed for youngsters…
10. Why is that GO bus
blocking the right turn lane?
This
question is asked frequently by motorists who are stuck behind a Route 12 bus
that is taking on passengers on the NW corner of Hwy 420 @ Stanley Ave. Google Maps satellite view caught DD #8148 at
the location. It’s not clear whether
#8148 is still moving; buses I’ve been on have rolled forward so as to be even
with the bus shelter. Some motorists
become impatient, go around the bus, and cut in front of it whilst passengers
are boarding. Doesn’t this vehicular
maneuver contravene the Highway Traffic Act section 140(3)?
There
is a solution, and that is to have passengers board the buses at the Ontario
Travel Information Centre. The facility
is already owned by Government of Ontario.
Years ago an employee at the information centre told me talks about this
strategy had taken place with Metrolinx, but nothing came of the matter. Maybe Metrolinx used the word “soon”, and the
employee didn’t take the term in the proper context.
Conclusion
Perhaps
our new premier, Doug Ford, can resolve some of the issues described
herein. He already lit a fire under
someone at Metrolinx to get GO Transit’s real-time
bus information service rolled out — at least I assume it was
Doug.
Do
you have your own perspectives (passenger or otherwise) travelling Route
12? Please add them to the comments.
Happy
trails!
