ipoint.to
Its funny. I was reading the Metro the other day and saw Dalton McGinty and the new Go Trains. Funny that the article said the new trains were supposed to make service run more on time. The intro featuring the new trains was delayed.
The metro this morning mentioned another few things that are interesting. The government is saying that the tax credit is not working to promote new ridership. Well duh, any commuter could have told you that. The trains are so packed in the mornings that there is not a lot of room for people from their cars to ride the train. The plague of delays does not help either.
How about punishing people who claim the tax credit? Does that help? Well they are doing it to me. I put a legitimate deduction but they insisted I go to the ttc and get official reciepts because they didn't print prices etc on the cards. Also, as noted in the Metro this morning, transit ad campaigns are promising 15.5 percent back for the credit but now it will only be 15. That is false advertisement. Is the goverment going after them for that? No because they are not going to see any money from it, but if they bug us enough we will not claim it because its a hassle.
The funny thing is they are now looking at a carbon tax to promote ridership. Funny how the government sees credits or taxes as the solution. How about making the commute faster or more comfortable. I posted info about the Carbon tax asking where it was going but still have not heard any answer. I and I think a lot of commuters are thinking the money should go to transit funding and that should be audited. if money from the tax is going elsewhere the auditor should sound the alarm and the money should be siphened back from the department that stole it.
I look forward to hearing an answer.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
No Lights in Burlington Go North Parking Lot
Although its tempting to complain about the engine failure this morning on the Lakeshore West line. The bigger issue and a safety one is that last night the lights in the Burlington Go North Parking Lot were off.
This poses a potential danger for women walking from the train to their cars. Go and TTC keep going on about passenger safety and that they will drop you off at a lit area between stops for safety. But if they take the go and get off and have to walk through darkness to their cars in the Burlington North Lot then they are at risk of being attacked and not knowing at all what the attacker looks like. This was not just an oh the lights burnt out. There are 4 bulbs per light post and many light fixtures in the lot. The only ones running were the distant ones so we all had to walk through the construction scaffold path with minimal light. This morning the light fixture in the construction area was on so either they fixed the broken bulbs on that one or someone noticed the error and turned that one back on. However the other ones in the parking lot were still off. Only the two far ones were on much like the evening. I will keep an eye out tonight to see if they are still off. I know Go Transit reads my blog so I am hoping for an answer to be posted or an eta on when they will be turned back on. If you don't see a posting here assume they are still broken. I will be sending an email off to Go Transit as well mentioning the blog post.
This poses a potential danger for women walking from the train to their cars. Go and TTC keep going on about passenger safety and that they will drop you off at a lit area between stops for safety. But if they take the go and get off and have to walk through darkness to their cars in the Burlington North Lot then they are at risk of being attacked and not knowing at all what the attacker looks like. This was not just an oh the lights burnt out. There are 4 bulbs per light post and many light fixtures in the lot. The only ones running were the distant ones so we all had to walk through the construction scaffold path with minimal light. This morning the light fixture in the construction area was on so either they fixed the broken bulbs on that one or someone noticed the error and turned that one back on. However the other ones in the parking lot were still off. Only the two far ones were on much like the evening. I will keep an eye out tonight to see if they are still off. I know Go Transit reads my blog so I am hoping for an answer to be posted or an eta on when they will be turned back on. If you don't see a posting here assume they are still broken. I will be sending an email off to Go Transit as well mentioning the blog post.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Carbon Tax and Service Improvements
I glimpsed a headline today about a Carbon Tax in the wings the help curb emissions. Much like
the cigarette tax curbed smoking. Let's hope the government uses the money from the proposed tax wisely and improves service for public transit. The way to get people riding the buses and trains is to improve service. The strange thing is that transit does not know what do do with the money. Here are a few tips:
1) Make TTC and Go Transit stations wheelchair accessible. I still find it ironic that Appleby Station, a relatively new station does not have elevators. I also find it hard to believe that the Yonge and Bloor subway station which is a link between the two subway lines has no elevator for the bloor line access and only one elevator to get to street level. Someone with a stroller or a wheelchair have no way to the surface if the one elevator is broken like it was today.
2) New switches. It is also odd that the main reason for Go Transit delays is switch problems yet when money comes in to help transit, the first thought isn't let's repair them. Its let's see how we can use it to open more lines and make money that way. If switches worked more regularly you would get less delays and more of us would take the existing trains.
A funny thing happened the other day that shows how much they are listening. I was at union for the first working day of the month. One of the TTC managers was looking at the line and trying to figure out why there were some many people in line and nobody using the machines. I proceeded to tell him that the MetroPass machines do not get filled until 9:00am after the morning rush. Also two of the token machines were broken. He was shocked and said we should do something about that. Its funny because for the past 6 months I have been sending in feedback to ttc. I sent on something to Metrolynk and even posted it here on my blog that I know is read by TTC and Go Transit staff as they have commented on it.
I look forward to seeing if this new Carbon Tax will be use properly or if its just another way for the government to get money and look like they are doing things for the environment.
the cigarette tax curbed smoking. Let's hope the government uses the money from the proposed tax wisely and improves service for public transit. The way to get people riding the buses and trains is to improve service. The strange thing is that transit does not know what do do with the money. Here are a few tips:
1) Make TTC and Go Transit stations wheelchair accessible. I still find it ironic that Appleby Station, a relatively new station does not have elevators. I also find it hard to believe that the Yonge and Bloor subway station which is a link between the two subway lines has no elevator for the bloor line access and only one elevator to get to street level. Someone with a stroller or a wheelchair have no way to the surface if the one elevator is broken like it was today.
2) New switches. It is also odd that the main reason for Go Transit delays is switch problems yet when money comes in to help transit, the first thought isn't let's repair them. Its let's see how we can use it to open more lines and make money that way. If switches worked more regularly you would get less delays and more of us would take the existing trains.
A funny thing happened the other day that shows how much they are listening. I was at union for the first working day of the month. One of the TTC managers was looking at the line and trying to figure out why there were some many people in line and nobody using the machines. I proceeded to tell him that the MetroPass machines do not get filled until 9:00am after the morning rush. Also two of the token machines were broken. He was shocked and said we should do something about that. Its funny because for the past 6 months I have been sending in feedback to ttc. I sent on something to Metrolynk and even posted it here on my blog that I know is read by TTC and Go Transit staff as they have commented on it.
I look forward to seeing if this new Carbon Tax will be use properly or if its just another way for the government to get money and look like they are doing things for the environment.
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