A note of appreciation from a Barrie passenger who has mobility issues

This morning I was walking a bit slower than usual to get on the Go train due to a later pick-up from home with York Region transit. As a result, I did not make it into the accessible coach where I usually sit. Therefore, I just got on any coach and sat down. About 15 minutes later, the Barrie Customer Service Ambassador (CSA) that makes the stop announcements on the train arriving at Union at 7:03 came walking through the train. When he reached the coach where I was sitting he says to me, "Good morning, can I help you through the train coaches, Daniella?"
My response? Don't mind if you do. As a result, he kindly helped me through the coaches until we got to the accessible coach.

 Barrie CSAs are awesome. To each and everyone of you, thank you for all you do, this passenger truly appreciates all your assistance.

Planning for the future at the Courtice Park and Ride? Because it's sure not for the present!

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT THE COURTICE GO TRANSIT PARK AND RIDE?

GLAD YOU ASKED (a pictorial)...

The parking lot and driveway are in place. Posts for lighting have been installed...

 But wait... What's that in the middle of the parking lot?

Let's zoom in...

Why it's a bicycle station! This is great but problematic. Currently the station is accessible from Courtice Rd which is a regional highway with an 80 km/hr speed limit. There are very narrow shoulders and NO. BIKE. LANES.

Look at that shoulder width! Would you bike this? Not me!

Here's Courtice Rd looking north. I've biked this stretch only a few times and never at night. Drivers aren't traveling at 80 km, more like 90... It's terrifying. Biking to the park and ride wouldn't be safe unless Metrolinx is working with the Region of Durham to install bike lanes?

I've sent Joe Neal, the regional councilor for Courtice a message via his office to call me to discuss this in the new year. Maybe he has some answers for how Go Transit passengers looking to cycle to the Park and Ride can do it safely.

Why is this considered "historic"? It's GO Train service, not the invention of commuter rail into terrain that's never been traversed

News Release

Ontario Delivers Historic Weekday GO Train Service to Niagara Falls
New Morning and Evening Train Service Will Start Four Years Ahead of Schedule

December 14, 2018 11:00 A.M.

ST. CATHARINES — Ontario's Government for the People continues to deliver on its promise to get people moving faster by adding regular weekday GO train service to Niagara Falls and St. Catharines for the first time.

Today, Jeff Yurek, Minister of Transportation, Kinga Surma, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation, Sam Oosterhoff, MPP Niagara West, along with Leslie Woo, Chief Planning and Development Officer, Metrolinx, visited the rail station in St. Catharines to announce that the government will introduce long-asked-for weekday GO train service to Niagara Falls and St. Catharines on the Lakeshore West line.

“Our government is keeping our promise to get people moving and make life better for everyone in Ontario by expanding GO train service to Niagara Falls,” said Yurek. “We are working with our railway partner, CN, to use the existing rail infrastructure to expand GO Transit service for people in Niagara Falls and St. Catharines four years sooner than promised.”

Beginning on January 7, 2019, people travelling by GO Transit between Niagara Falls and Toronto's Union Station will benefit from a new morning trip with an evening return every weekday. The morning train that currently starts from West Harbour station in Hamilton at 6:39 a.m. will now start in Niagara Falls at 5:19 a.m., stopping at St. Catharines before continuing on to Toronto. In the evening, the existing train from Union Station at 5:15 p.m. to West Harbour will continue on to serve St. Catharines and Niagara Falls.

“This is great news for people in Niagara Region,” said Oosterhoff. “Weekday GO train service between Niagara Falls and Toronto will help connect the region and create new business opportunities.”

“We are very excited to introduce this essential commuter rail service to this market. Regular weekday GO trains have never operated out of Niagara Falls or St. Catharines before,” said Leslie Woo, Chief Planning and Development Officer of Metrolinx. “This is new territory and a sign of more great things to come.”

“Today's announcement is a demonstration of our commitment to improving the transportation experience and getting people moving. We make every decision with the customer – the Ontario taxpayer – in mind. Our Government for the People looks forward to continuing to provide better transportation across the province,” said Yurek.

Source: Ministry of Transportation

Fare increase for 2019 GO Transit passengers doesn't appear to be on the agenda for this Thursday's Metrolinx board meeting

This has been one of my biggest worries seeing as commuting by GO now carries the financial equivalent of making a third or second car payment for many commuters. I'm at $344 a month in fare for myself (using November as a reference point).

Generally it's around this time of year that GO Transit presents a case to Metrolinx for increasing fares. I went ahead and reviewed the agenda for the December 6th board meeting and this isn't on it. There is a discussion about fare policy with 10 minutes allotted to the speakers, so I think we're safe to assume we've been spared an increase come February 2019.

But, we've been shafted before. The last increase happened in the fall of 2017 when we were all hit with a 3% hike, so we may not be completely out of the woods!

Better late than never for a feel good Go Transit Lost & Found story!

This past weekend I received a DM on Twitter asking if I had the chance to read an email a person had sent me regarding GO RER and Toronto Mayor John Tory. I did not recall said email and decided to scroll through my Gmail spam folder and stumbled across not only the email in question, but also this email from MS who forgot his Apple laptop on the train back in July.

I suspect emails from readers found their way into spam due to the filters and mail rules I have set up to avoid Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day emails. I apologized to MS who was very understanding. I also apologize to others whose emails were trapped.

from: MS
to: cj@thiscrazytrain.com
date: Jun 13, 2018, 1:37 PM
subject: Love for Go Transit: Backpack with MacBook Pro returned intact

Hi CJ,

I found your blog when googling about GoTrain lost & found histories. I like your blog a lot. I've lived in Canada for ~8 years and never used Go trains until last weekend. My family and I (wife, one 3-yrd old and a 2-weeks baby) recently moved to Whitby and decided to try the Go Train to go to the aquarium on Saturday along with my inlaws that are visiting. I work as a software engineer and sometimes we need to be 'on call' in case systems break. I was on call so I took my laptop with me. A new MacBook pro 2017. On the way back, while chasing my kid (who was excited about riding the train and going up and down the stairs) I left my backpack on the upper level seat while chasing my kid downstairs. We arrived to Whitby and checked the seats so we don't forget anything (we were all sitting on the lower level), wife, inlaws, newborn baby, my 3-yrd old, stroller, diaper bag, etc; but as you can guess, forgot my backpack in the upper level!

Needless to say it's a horrible situation. I'm 3 months into this new job and I lose the laptop! never happened to me in my life and just had to happen as I start a new job. I filed the lost & found report online that night, visited them on Sunday at Union Station and they said there was nothing else to do but wait. My backpack contained not only the laptop but also charger adapter, accessories, airpods, etc; Finally, they called me back Monday 2pm to tell me it was found!

It's a shame there's no reward for whoever found it and returned it. I'd gladly had paid a reward to whoever did this, even if people don't do it for the money, it's a huge favor done to those of us who accidentally forgot something and perhaps being able to share a reward and/or thank you note would encourage more people to report/return lost items.

Anyways, I figured this success story could help anxious people like myself when they wander at 3am in the morning if they'll see their lost items again.

Attached pic of the most important returned item.

Cheers!

MS

GO train to Courtice-Bowmanville in 2024? Don't hold your breath!

The current Ontario government party in charge has put the brakes on the expansion into Niagara Region after Metrolinx sent a letter to the region saying the project had been "halted".

This makes me nervous. As with the Mimico station renovation on the Lakeshore West corridor, where a private developer was selected to build the new station, I suspect this is what will happen in Courtice and Bowmanville since the letter outlines that Grimsby will only go ahead once a third party investor has been found.

The Toronto Star also reported this may be the new normal for regional transportation infrastructure where shovels haven't yet met dirt.

I have mixed feelings about this. The area where the Courtice station is to be built could benefit from this kind of partnership as it's in the middle of a field with no subdivisions or amenities within a 5 km radius. In Bowmanville, it's a different situation where the area is over-developed and traffic would be greatly impacted if say, a condo were to built on the station site. In Oshawa, the new station is to be built where a Knob Hill Farms grocery store once stood. The area would benefit from housing, especially if it's rental housing.

This all sounds great in theory but how long do we wait? That's the billion dollar question no one in the Ford government is willing to answer.

Since Metrolinx employees can't stop raving about the new Union Station Food Court on Twitter, I decided to go check it out

Where is it? York Concourse, Basement, Toronto Union Station

Hours: Monday to Friday 7am to 10pm & Saturday to Sunday 10am to 10pm

What's there to eat? https://torontounion.ca/eatshop/

At first blush, I can appreciate the use of a vibrant colour and height so that the customer doesn't feel like he or she is trapped in a World War Two bunker, so A+ for that.

Moving stairs that actually work are an engineering marvel in this day in age. Five stars.

Tables. Chairs. Waste bins. Ambient lighting. Standing tables with charging stations really give off a, "Hey, we're here for you" kind of vibe. Almost like a hug from your favourite uncle. 

My Ukranian heritage is too scared to ask what a Loaded Pierogi is.

Some things just shouldn't be messed with.

Violet is a strong colour theme down here. Clearly the designer spent some time researching colour theory. Purple happens to be my favourite colour. It's a colour that combines blue and red where blue is a stable colour and red is energetic. Purple is supposed to evoke a feeling of calm in its subjects. The color purple is also associated with royalty and ambition. It's always been interesting to me that car manufacturers never rolled out purple as a standard car colour.

Purple also represents wealth and the illusion of grandeur (cough).

There's plenty of seating and of course, Tim Horton's makes an appearance. 

As does McDonald's. 

Probably the most depressing area of the food court had to be this space right here. We've moved into Soviet-era territory with no paint, no colour, solitary tables and a ever practical ATM. It's almost mid-eighties mall-like. My advice? Paint the pillars. 

In purple.

Photos too small? Here's the album link.

Time for some heartfelt thanks and remembrance

by Pete S.

My Decade-At-A-Glance^® tells me we are fast approaching the sixth anniversary of my first article for This Crazy Train.  I’d like to thank you, Cj, for considering my submissions and publishing so many of them.  It’s been a thrill writing the stories and reading the comments to see how close I got to reporting the truth. 

Thank you for providing many of my noms de plume and allowing me to use some of my own.  Just as David Haydu filled the airwaves with his plethora of zany characters, the pseudonyms allowed me to write on a variety of topics from different perspectives.  For those readers not familiar with David, I loved listening to Pete and Geets on CHUM-FM and later on CFNY-FM.  Just as David “borrowed” his main persona, Geets Romo, from a character on the 1961 Del Close and John Brent album, How To Speak Hip, I used Warren Downe based on David’s Warren Down.  If memory serves me correctly, Warren reported morning traffic, first from the “mobile telephone booth”, and later “riding a John Deere tractor in traffic”.

Most of the experiences I shared stemmed from trips on GO Transit’s Route 12 between Niagara Falls and Burlington.  The ladies and gentlemen who drive this route are very dedicated to their passengers.  This became evident to me in my first month (October 2010) riding the bus.  The driver I rode with remembered me after only a couple of trips.  I took a later trip for a few of weeks, and when I reverted to his bus, he greeted me with, “Hello stranger!  Where have you been?”  I was astounded that he remembered me.

Commitment to excellence is hard to find today.  Allow me to tip my hat and say thank you to the following drivers who I’ve been introduced to, or who chauffeured me and allowed me to serve them by being their lead hand (I managed the luggage), treasurer (I carried an emergency float, as well as a “knuckle full of nickels” for the $x.05 fares of other pax), waiter (drivers need their tea and coffee), and navigator (on demand):

Ali (Streetsville), Anthony S, Bonnie J, Brandy-Jo B, Brenda M, Charlene (Steeprock), Charles T, Christine H, Colin B, Dave W, Debbie I, Derek W, Frances D, Fred O, Garney T, Garry S, Harley B, Heather K, Holly N, Izabela K, Jack-George M, Jack (Streetsville), Janice N, Jason W, Jim C, John P, Joshua B, Jude (Hamilton), Ken (Streetsville), Marjorie F, Mark A, Mark B, Mark K, Mark P, Mary-Jane M, Maureen D, Nestor F, Nigel H, Paul L, Ray M, Richard (Brampton), Robert I, Robert L, Rodney (Oshawa), Ron A, Ron C, Shawn S, Simon H, Steve D, Terry W, Tim C, Tim K, Viktor A, and Wayne P.

I apologize if I missed anyone or spelled your name incorrectly.  There is one driver who I’ve chatted with online, but I’ve never met, which is a little ironic, since we live in the same town.

I’d also like to thank drivers Randy (Megabus) and Frank N (St. Catharines Transit) whose valuable insights during our early morning chats found their way into my stories.

I mustn’t forget the CSAs I met along the way.  You’ll recall the concerns over missing CSA Daniel.  I located Daniel on one of my Friday trips home, and we had a good chuckle over the reports of his disappearance.  Again, I must thank CSA Katelyn who got us through the ghost train debacle.   

I would like to thank the ticket agents at Pickering station for their polite and efficient handling of transactions.  I always found it nice to start my trips with a quick chat with Ilene and Jennifer.  I always loaded my ePurse with them — never auto-load.

My thanks to fare inspectors Gerry (LSE) and Terry (LSW).  These gentlemen not only conduct business politely, they also take the time to answer passengers’ questions.  I enjoyed my brief discussions with Terry about bicycles and appreciated his tips on how to teach oneself to ride a unicycle.

I would also like to thank my neighbour, Walter at Greyhound, who mentored several employees now at GO Transit.  Because of Walter, as well as GO’s drivers, I believe I am a better automobile driver.

I’ve often wondered whether any of the stories that I wrote made a difference.  Certainly not those articles about renovations at Burlington station — six years on, and we still cannot buy a cup of coffee there.  GO Transit did mothball Route 11, the seasonal money-losing shuttle between St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake.  The manual procedure for loading funds to ePurses changed after pilferage by a systemic PRESTO problem was exposed in the Presto Chronicles.  Passenger safety enhancements were implemented on double decker buses to mitigate the hazards of luggage after the risks were documented in Meet the Deckers.  In the aftermath of the story about the bus stop from hell, the Mayor of St. Catharines reports that ticket vending machines will be installed at Fairview Mall, although Metrolinx is dragging their feet again over “infrastructure” issues.

Is there a story I wanted to write but didn’t?  Yes.  I wanted to pen an article about the double decker bus that was blown off Hwy 115 during inclement weather and poor road conditions.  I couldn’t proceed because I was not in possession of a key piece of evidence — the photo showing the bus off the road.  The photo exists, but no amount of begging and pleading could produce the picture, so no story was written.

Now it’s time to share with you, Cj, and the followers of your blog that this is my last submission to This Crazy Train.  Thank you, all, for taking the time to read my articles and to write your comments.  I mean this sincerely.  Hopefully we’ve had some fun along the way.  It’s been a blast for me!  I encourage everyone to give it a whirl.

On behalf of Warren Downe, Ali Gator, Frank E Futor, Chris P. Bacon, A.L. Gorithm, Billy Bob, Iona Pintó, Hy Perbole, Ian Cognito, Bea N. Counter, Yew Wannanohooiam, and GO Voyageur, this is Peter signing off.

Hey - it's time for an update - right?

Apologies everyone, as I know it's been pretty quiet as I continue to choose Twitter over Blogger but it's where I tend to live. I know some of you aren't on Twitter but you don't need an account to review what I've been discussing. I provide a feed on this blog and it's to the right.

Anything investigative or worthy of words longer than what tweets can handle will be posted here.

I appreciate that many continue to check the blog everyday. I'm restricted at work. It makes it difficult to post and blogging on a phone is still crappy!

Sit round the fire kids, it's time for another Presto card story kindly contributed by a reader of the blog

There’s a special feeling you get in your gut when you try to deal with anything Presto. It’s knotty and hollow and saps all of your energy. Like when you call the Bell helpdesk or ask Rogers about those pesky extra charges…

But wait - that’s just being mean to Mama Bell and Ted.

I honestly believe there is no other entity on the planet that can rival Presto for sheer inanity.

My hate-affair with the crappy piece of plastic goes back two years, to when I first signed up. And, I’m pleased to say, that after wrapping up yet another head shaking chit-chat chat with a Presto Apologist Operator just 5 minutes ago, my hate is as strong as ever.

Why do I hate you Presto? Let me count a few ways:

You use two tap machines for UP Express

For a system that is supposed to be built on ease of use and consistency, it’s a sticky business hopping the train to the airport. Last week I ran to the Union platform and tapped on. I got a friendly green arrow punched the air and went on my merry way. It was only when I tried to tap on again the next day when green turned to red…

What have I done?

The nice lady at the desk explained that I had ‘tapped the wrong machine’ the day before and now my account was in arrears.

What?

She explained that they’ve put two machines at Union, one for Bloor and Weston commuters and one for Pearson travelers.

‘If you tap the wrong one it gets confused’

‘It’s not the only one.’

As we watched my train chug away, she turned her head to yell at another errant customer about to tap into the abyss.

‘Are you going to the airport?’

‘Er, yes?’

‘Wrong machine!’

She showed me the error on her screen and gave me a number to call to fix it.

‘Can’t you fix it?’ I asked

‘No’

‘Why not?’

‘The system doesn’t let me’

‘Oh’

I called the number and a nice bloke told me he’d put the request through to Customer Service.

‘They’ll call you back in 5-7 business days’

‘Can’t you fix it?’ I asked him

‘No’

‘Why not’

‘The system won’t let me’

‘Oh’

Everything takes 24 hours

When I bought my new card I explained to the nice lady at the counter that I needed to transfer funds from a lost card and could she please give me very simple, super specific instructions because this happened once before and I ended up with three new cards because I went and registered the account and, you know, you can’t transfer $ to a registered card…And then I found my lost card but I couldn’t ‘un-lose’ it because somebody at Presto had marked it as lost and when it’s lost, well – it’s gone forever.

She looked at me sideways and gave me a little business card with very simple, super specific instructions.

I went home, signed on and followed the instructions...

Ah crap.

It didn’t work.

The nice man on the phone told me that I’d have to wait 24 hours before I can transfer the funds.

‘Why?’

‘Because we don’t get the newly purchased card numbers until the end of each day’

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t know’

Regular Presto users are all too familiar with the 24 hour rule.

 - Want to register your card? Wait 24 hours

 - Autoload? 24 hours.

  - Transfer funds? Sure! In 24 hours…

For a transit system that prides itself on its on-time performance the payment system is pretty tardy.

You can’t tap on the train

I picked my wife up from the station the other day and she told me how she’d watched a whole slew of passengers getting fined for non-payment. They all had Presto cards. And they all complained that they couldn’t tap on because they were running for the train.

Were they lying?

Well, let’s see…1. Do people run for trains? Yup. 2. Are the Presto machines plentiful, and stationed at regular intervals along the platform? Er, nope. 3. Do these customers have a history of skipping the fare? Well, we’ll never know because the TSOs didn’t check. This was a zero tolerance kind of a day.

The GO fare payment model is unique and inane. In Europe gate-only access is the predominant mode. Either that or blind trust (Danke Wiener Straßenbahn!). Metrolinx is neither of both and nothing of anything.

Metrolinx needs to understand that their transit system is supposed to serve its customers - not the other way around. They need to remember what people are like: People don’t want to line up, people make mistakes, people are always in a rush and people are usually trustworthy.

Metrolinx, if you want a fool proof spoof-proof system then put gates in. If you want a trust-based system then put readers everywhere and give your customers the benefit of the doubt. Don’t punish people for the mess you made.

I could add a dozen more how-do-I-hate-you reasons for this heart breaking piece of crappy plastic.   I could bemoan the:

• Alpha-numeric-online-usernames? Ouch.
• Replace-lost-card-doesn’t-give-me-the-option-to-change-the-card-type? Ah!
• Pre-boarding-ticket-inspection-at-Pearson-but-nowhere-else? Why??!

But, I can’t dwell on our differences. I need to pull myself away.  After all, it’s not me, Presto – it’s you.

It's Fall and I have a new phone with a fancy triple camera with a Leica lens, so here's my "Sunday morning in Courtice" album

This Crazy Train's Presto Chronicles, Chapter 35: — Lost revenue

Read previous chapters here

Special to This Crazy Train

By Bea N. Counter

Classes are back in session at TCT Academy.  I teach accounting, and I like to share with my students real life financial situations, like the following two brought to light by Ben Spurr of the Toronto Star:

1.     https://twitter.com/BenSpurr/status/1038196726652268544

2.     https://twitter.com/BenSpurr/status/1043298159357714433

In this article, I won’t dwell on what Mr. Spurr documented.  Rather, I’ll look at how it is possible for PRESTO technology (and some mismanagement) to shortchange GO Transit Bus Ops revenue.

TCT highlighted previously the fragility of PRESTO cards.  What happens when a GO Transit bus driver’s card becomes inoperable (or is lost)?  Quite simply, the bus point of sale device cannot be activated.  No one can tap on; no one can load funds to their card; no tickets can be issued — everyone rides for free with that driver.  It’s a case of lost fare revenue until the driver has a new card.  In one case, it took the driver’s supervisor(s) one and a half weeks to issue a replacement card.

Consider a different scenario.  The PRESTO device on a GO Transit bus synchronizes with the system via WiFi only when the bus is at a garage.  What happens when the WiFi doesn’t work?  A passenger’s card cannot be updated with online fund loads executed after the WiFi failed.  The bus trip(s) made by a passenger won’t appear in their transaction history.  And what happens when the WiFi outage is for an extended period of time, say ten days?  Well, the on board PRESTO device disables itself, and we’re in a period of revenue loss, because everyone rides for free, again.  If you think this is a purely academic hypothetical scenario, it isn’t.  Recently, four buses assigned to Route 12 were in service for over three days in this state of revenue loss.

You are no doubt wondering how GO Transit management could knowingly let the garage’s WiFi sit in a state of disrepair for so long.  And why couldn’t the supervisor(s) change-off the affected buses with ones from Hamilton, or Streetsville, or Steeprock garages?  GO Transit management can authorize chauffeuring one passenger from Union Station to Niagara Falls, but they won’t follow operational process and swap equipment at Burlington GO or P+R — why?  Why did the escalation procedure(s) fail?

In the scenarios cited, will GO Transit’s finance department execute an inquisition to identify the individual(s) responsible for lost revenue and garnishee their wages?  I SURE HOPE NOT.  However, it would behoove Phil Verster, President and CEO at Metrolinx, to have “career discussions” with the GO Transit managers who allow these debacles to play out.  The cost of continued non-compliance outweighs the cost of compliance.

No lesson at TCT Academy is complete without some homework to do.  Seeing as the topic at hand is lost revenue, your assignment is as follows:

The last Niagara Falls seasonal trains of the year will operate on Thanksgiving weekend.  Discuss how you would use your PRESTO card legitimately to travel to The Falls for said weekend and pay less than the discounted PRESTO fare.

Class dismissed!

Ontario PC government takes credit for 15-minute GO train service on Lakeshore East and West lines. Service set to begin September 24

As the Toronto Star pointed out, Metrolinx has been adjusting its operations for months in order to add service to the Lakeshore corridors; these initiative predates the Conservatives’ election victory in June.

We all knew this. The Liberals promised us all day GO train service years ago.

The PC MPPs touting this announcement as a "Promises Made, Promises Kept" on Twitter is eye-rolling. Albeit, at least it wasn't cancelled.

So there is that.

Apple picking in Durham. You can do it by GO train and GO bus

When I posted this photo on Instagram, I had to make sure I pointed out that it was staged. I did *not* throw an apple. Problem is, I was a real trouble-maker as a kid and hands down, my mom and dad, when shown the picture, would have called me, tsking, "Some things never change". It's a legacy I can't live down.

I've become a huge supporter of local area farms within a cycling or GO bus distance to my house in Courtice. The photo above was taken at Archibald Orchard on North Liberty Street in Bowmanville, a 35km round-trip bicycle ride from my house. Because I can't ride back with a 1/2 bushel of apples, hubby met me there with the car. Recently I was asked by a follower on Twitter if he were to gather the family and travel from their downtown condo to apple pick without renting a car, how would this be done, on a Saturday?

And surprisingly, it can be. GO train to Oshawa, catch the Newcastle 90 and exit the bus at Maple Grove Road on Highway 2 in Bowmanville. Watson Farms is just west of the bus stop. You can't miss it as the bus travels right past it. There's all kinds of "pick your own" produce and a play area for kids. Bring a suitcase for easier transport of your fruits and vegetables!

I have no idea how one would use GO Transit to apple pick anywhere else in the GTA but this farm is right on a route, and if you're also a downtown Toronto dweller that randomly reads my site, please try the Paula Reds, they are delicious at this time of year!

Yep, the video circulating on instagram of a dude riding on top of a GO train is legit

Mr. Rogers could teach a thing or two to Metrolinx about being a good neighbour

Back in December I published a report from a resident who lives next to the east rail corridor that feeds Go trains into Union Station. Here is an update of how things are progressing:

You're gonna need more than peashooters when Metrolinx brings out a weapon like TPAP
Submitted by Anonymous
Exclusive to ThisCrazyTrain.com

Metrolinx has a secret weapon. It’s called a ‘TPAP’. It is big and heavy and if you get in its line of fire - prepare to be eviscerated!

TPAP stands for ‘Transit Project Assessment Process’. It’s the process Metrolinx uses to evaluate the impact of RER (Metrolinx Regional Express Rail) on surrounding neighbourhoods.

Our neighbourhood recently stared down both barrels of this bazooka and wow – did we ever get burned.

The TPAP was locked and loaded to assess the impacts of electrification along the GTA rail corridors. My neighbours and I live close to the tracks – something we’ve done for years with no major problems. But - just as any other resident would worry when their neighbour talks about moving the fence, chopping down a tree or, ‘running some power to the shed so I can rock out to Death Metal’ - we were keen to know what 3 new tracks, lots of big electricity poles, and trains every 15 minutes would mean to our everyday lives.

So we called Metrolinx.

Metrolinx sent us their TPAP report and then held a series of public meetings to talk to us about their plans.

The meetings did not go well.

The main problem Metrolinx has with its community relations is that they cannot seem to answer very basic questions. TCT readers know this all too well. During one particularly memorable exchange, when a resident asked why Metrolinx was allowed to circumvent its own guidelines which stipulate no new construction within 100 metres of a track, the response was:

‘Well this isn’t new construction and you’re already within 50 metres so…’ 

Cue the shouting and the swearing.

One resident was actually standing on a sofa, shaking his fist...

In the meeting we learned that one of the new tracks, 'Track E-Zero', will run 13 feet north of the existing northernmost track, between Parliament and Sherbourne (that's right after the Distillery if you're heading in from the east).

TCT readers may be familiar with the already intimate experience of riding along the northerly tracks as you approach Union from the east. Perhaps you saw one of us bending over while doing our laundry, eating our cornflakes or getting our kids ready for school.

Well cuddle up folks - we're about to get a lot closer!

Building E-Zero will not only bring us closer together, it will also decimate our beloved tree canopy. As the pictures below show, this canopy helps to transform our sleepy back laneway (named after the First Nations Marathon runner, Tom Longboat) into a virtual back-yard.

E-Zero will be used for the Richmond Hill line which operates diesel trains. We're all familiar with the noise and vibration of diesel engines - there's a reason we're happy to stand back of that yellow line at the station. It's a shame for us all that, despite being closer and more visible, we won't be able to stop and chat.

After the public meeting debacle we asked for a copy of the TPAP report.

And that's when the barrage began:

-    Kalop! The weight of the report knocked us back. It was massive - too big for one person to absorb. As we flailed around under the 1000+ pages, we realized that we needed help. So we formed a neighbourhood association to divvy up the work and spread the pain.

  - Ker-huh? The TPAP is technical. Holy crap. It is supposedly scripted for a general audience but the subject matter involves egg-headed engineering principles, mind-numbing electrification specifications and oddball environmental jargon I doubt even David Suzuki would comprehend.

How is an ‘ordinary’ person supposed to review this...?

 - Be-oing! The metrics in the TPAP are backwards. For example - if you live close to the tracks and the noise levels are already above federal guidelines – like ours are – the TPAP doesn’t care! It only flags increases in current levels above 5 decibels. So, if your already loud noise is going to get just 4 louder - tough luck!

- Wooosh! Just as with the public meetings, most of our typed out TPAP questions flew over Metrolinx’s heads.

Metrolinx does not listen too well. The Q&A process with the Metrolinx Community Relations Department reminded me of that scene in Seinfeld where Jerry tries to pick up his hire car.

'Sure you can take a question, but if it's not here when I come to pick it up...'

It's not just Metrolinx that has trouble shooting straight. When the TPAP got approved last December, more than 30 of our questions were greeted by garbled answers. But when our group complained to the MoE, they ignored us for several weeks, approved the report, and then sent us an answer to someone else’s question.

After plucking out the TPAP shrapnel and licking our wounds, we decided to seek out another form of defense. Surely the law will defend us? We have rights - right?

Hmm...not really. We've got useless ammunition!

It turns out that when it comes to railways - there are no laws. Not for us anyway. Municipal bylaws are powder-less. Federal laws are blanks (because they are actually only guidelines). The only legislation with any penetration is the Railway Act, which is built to protect railways from people and not the other way around.

No wonder Metrolinx treats us like cannon fodder...Fire at will!

Knowing we were effectively defenseless, we re-grouped and tried to fire back with our little pea-shooters:

'Why do you not have to meet federal guidelines on noise and vibration levels?' we squeaked.

‘Well, we do our best,' boomed Metrolinx

'Er, h-how do you do your best?' we stuttered, 'Because you are not doing too good right now.'

'They aren't laws, they’re guidelines’, they blasted.

Battling with Metrolinx is exhausting. They have bigger guns, better equipment and more manpower.

We are battle-worn, bloodied and weary. The TPAP weapon alone is wearing us down never mind all the other little skirmishes.

But the white flags are not going up just yet. The sirens have sounded again - another TPAP has landed and we are hoping this one doesn't blow up in our faces.

We're not asking for a war with Metrolinx. We support rail expansion. But when it comes to preserving our environment, our safety and our neighbourhood - we just want a fighting chance.

Oakville to get trains every 15 minutes starting late 2018 and then Burlington in 2019?

I can't confirm or deny if we'll see this rolled out this year but Metrolinx appears to be getting serious about moving commuters faster in and out of the core at rush hour. Here's more info. But, let's not pull out the Consumers Catalog just yet - we don't know what Dougie and his merry band of policy pirates have planned.

Metrolinx's goal is 15-minute service on all its lines by 2025 (peak-only on Milton and Richmond Hill lines; all-day on the others).

I checked Google Maps to see if the Lakeshore West would be getting 15-minute peak service for September as GO's schedules have been uploaded, but it's not showing anything.

Stay tuned!

When you get too punny

We interrupt this blog's sleepy slumber for this important "Cindy's ongoing fitness journey" update

It's been an interesting summer for me. In the Spring, frustrated with some personal health issues, I met with my doctor to discuss a laundry list of ailments but top of mind was my weight. The scale had been holding steady at 256 pounds since January. No matter what I did such as increasing cardio, adding weights, and cycling my caloric intake, my body was a big bag of "nope".

As I wait to enter a clinical program to deal with the underlying disease that doctors claim contributes to my insulin resistance, which in turns contributes to my very slow metabolic rate, my doctor asked me if I had ever considered intermittent fasting, along with reducing carbohydrates and adding more protein to my diet. This was almost a month ago, on July 13. On the following Monday, after researching intermittent fasting, insulin resistance and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome based diets, I started eating within a 10-hour window and then for 14 hours I did not consume a single calorie. I also increased my exercise where I biked five days a week, regardless of weather, for 20-23 km, as opposed to three days a week for 27 km. When I weighed myself on July 16, I was 257 pounds. Exactly a year before, I weighed this much:

Here's what I weighed this past Monday:

I'm pretty sure I lost weight in my feet. A nine pound weight loss in one month is pretty amazing. It's also not sustainable. Most of it is probably water loss due to the heat, and exercising in this heat, so I think it's fair to say I've lost seven pounds since meeting with my doctor.

Remarkably, my body is responding to intermittent fasting and now I'm eating in an eight hour window with breakfast at 10:30 am, lunch at 2 pm and dinner at 6 pm. From 6:30 pm all the way to 10:30 am the next morning I consume nothing with a calorie. I drink a ton of water, too. My weight loss app is set to calorie cycling so the intake varies from day to day, but it's anywhere from 1247 to 1658 calories a day depending on the amount of physical activity the day before. The only thing I've worked hard to omit is sugar and anything white, with the exception of basmati rice and yellow-flesh potatoes. NO ONE WILL TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME.

If you're still reading, I'm hoping this post helps others struggling with PCOS, obesity or insulin resistance. Please talk to your doctor if this style of eating, coupled with 375 or more minutes of exercise weekly is healthy for you.

I've logged over 2200 km on my bike since April 23, 2017. I've pushed that bike so hard that I'm probably going to need to overhaul most of its components by the end of the year.

100km in 5 days. 2200km total. Crushing it so hard I'm wearing out my bike's crankshaft. It sounds like my knees on a cold day! #cyclist #abetterme #rideon #longdistancecycling

A post shared by Cj Smith (@thiscrazytrain) on Aug 6, 2018 at 8:36am PDT