Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Arriving on Platform 6 Today. Good Job Today Keep it Up.

I just wanted to say that bringing the 7:15 train from burlington in on track 6 today
was a good move. It allowed the platform to clear easier and by doing so when the 7:25 train
comes in on the outer platform its not as congested.

I hope you will keep this up for the 7:15 train as it makes sense from a safety concern. You get the train in and out and then pull in the east bound so it leaves on time and there is limited crowding on the platform.

Cheers to Go Transit. You made a good decision.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Go Transit Safety : The next sexy issue

Everybody is talking about the next sexy issue ever since that MP was quoted at claiming it was the isotopes issue. With the pending election to be announced probably in the Summer so most of the population is away, Susan Fischer predicts that Go Transit Safety will become the next sexy issue.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the safety of the new platforms at Union. For a while now we have been pointing out safety concerns on this blog. There are new lines being constructed and expanded. There is lots of talk about electrifying the tracks but nothing yet about safety concerns about people crossing them illegally like they do now and getting electricuted.

If you have any comments on this post them here or email them to Susan Fischer at susan@clinchportal.com and we will post them here.

Monday, June 08, 2009

Platform 26: It worked once why do it again?

Go Transit suffers from two syndromes which are veryapparent in their response to Ed Drass' article on theuse of Platform 26 and 27.

Early in the article he mentions that the issue is thatthe stairway is wide enough for two people but the dooris narrow and only lets one person through at a time.

To which Go states that the platforms are as large as theycan be without removing tracks. Duh, we are not complainingabout the platforms. The doors on platform 4 could easily havebeen placed on platform 26 had the door frame been made wider.

Now let's look at "It worked once why do it again". The reasonI say this is that all the older platforms have doorways wide enough for two people to get through so why change that for platform 26. Now let's lookat Thomas' comment "The design is being reviewed to see if wider doors or double doorscan be developed at each stairwell"

These after thoughts seem to be huge with go transit. I recommend the following solution.

1) The engineers on any project related to the rider should have to ride the effected train both before design an on the first trip during rush hour both directions. That way any changes can be started the day of the first trip not after a load of customers complain and an article is written.

2) Committe members and dispatch operators should be obliged to take a rush hour train preferrably one of the major delayed trains and keep an eye out for possible improvement in switch optimization and other optimizations in train scheduling.

If go transit were to implement these two solutions you would probably see a lot of issues get resolved. I look forward to Go Transit's comments in this manner and for a timeframe on implementing at least solution 2.

Friday, June 05, 2009

Nobody Working in Customer Relations At Union

It appears that nobody is on the payroll for customer service at Union. My friend tried calling about a lost blackberry and was informed that there was nobody to take his call and that he should run to union and deal with the matter in person.

Upon calling 1-888-getongo she tried for a good 1/2 hour to contact someone even a supervisor with no luck. Eventually after trying for another 1/2 hour to contact the next person up the chain of command I got transfered to Esther in Public Relations that told me that I was to just leave a voice mail and that the would deal with it in their own time. So if nobody is working in Customer Service then the 20 or so people sitting in the customer service office should not be getting paid. So if each person made 30,000 a year that is a cost savings of $600,000. Wait a minute if you took that savings and decided there were other jobs in public relations and administration you didn't need then there would be no need for the fare hike we had this year.

Hmm. Maybe getting rid of customer relations and public relations is a good thing. They don't appear to be doing anything anyways.