GO Transit Cancellations Report

I have decided to keep a note of all the Go-Transit Cancellations I get via GO Alerts, I will also be keeping an eye on delays and cancellations that occur that do not make GO Alerts.

If you have any Go Transit Delays or Cancellations not listed here please let me know at: chrisw_88.go-transit@blogger.com and I will post it here. I hope that seeing them in a larger list customers will realize the degradation of service and Go-Transit will react and improve things.

1. 04/03/2007 - The train trip scheduled to depart Burlington at 0844, arriving Union at 0927, has been CANCELLED due to an equipment problem. The next eastbound train trip is scheduled to depart Burlington at 0914.

GO Conductor did not hear the alarm

I have posted Dylan's Comment as he wrote it below but as stated here below, I spoke to the Lady operating the door and she had no idea the alarm was going off. It was not a matter of not being able to shut the door and reopen it. She did not hear the alarm. That is the issue. What if it was not simply the doors not open but someone having a heart attack. Not hearing the alarm could mean life or death for the individual. Thanks Dylan for your comment its good to see someone from Go Transit is paying attention to the blog, its just that I wish someone at Go Transit would make a change to bettter safety instead of just posting a response to my blog.

This happened last week, it was an evening train the 7:43 train to be exact. We pulled into burlington and I was in the cars west of the handicap car. There were a lot of us there and the doors opened and everyone got out that were east of the handicap car. We all moved to another car to get out and realized those were shut too. We hit the yellow bar but nobody came. We made our way to the handicap car and said to the operator finally a door is open. All the doors in the west end of the train were shut so we pushed the alarm. "Oh I didn't even hear it" she replied. "I must not have hit the button hard enough to open them"

But what if an actual emergency had occurred, nobody would have responded and it would have not been until she made her walk of the train from end to end that she would have realized the emergency.

Talk about safety. I guess that is what happens when you reduce the staff on the trains to an unsafe level.

If you have any complaints about GO Transit let me know and I will post them here. Email them to me at chrisw_88@hotmail.com

Cortez and The Way We Look

It is unfortunate that a customer service department in a provinical rail establishment is prejudice about how people look when allowing them to complian.

Case in point, yesterday I missed my train, I ran up platform 4b instead of 4a so the doors were shut. The CN Employee operating the door saw me, we made eye contact and I ran down the stair and back up the other side. Just as I reached the top of the stairs he closed the doors. He waited for another minute or two then left, refusing to open the door.

I went to customer service to complian as I usually do but it had been months since I had to complain so in that time I had grown a goti and shaved my hair short. I arrived and asked to speak to the manager like I always do and wanted the employee # of the CN employee so I could mention it in my customer service form. The supervisor (Cortez) who didn't recognize me from before looked at my goti and shaved head and said you are a trouble maker use the phone to call. I asked if he could call public relations for me and he said use a pay phone. I called customer service and reached Carl Baker (he could not see me of course) so he treated me with respect and told me the best way was to report the time of the occurrance on the customer service form. I went back to the Customer Service office where Cortez refused to give me a customer service form and said never to come back to that office. All because I wore a goti and shaved head.

Customer service only to those who look like normal people. What a way to run a PR office. I guess that is Go-Transits way of saying that blogging my complaints is the right way to do it.

77% Trains On Time, that means almost 25% are late

This stat alone is a cause for concern, but given that last year for the same quarter they were 96% on time it shows an even greater issue.

If looking at the numbers it means the trains were a minute or 2 late per trip than that is ok it happens, the issue I have is when people are running up the platform for the train and when they arrive the train is still on the platform waiting for signal for sometimes 5 minutes and they keep the doors shut. Why not let us passengers on, you are waiting for a signal anyways. Its not like its just sometimes that they do it, the doors close at exactly 5:19 or 5:34 but the train may not leave until 5:25 or 5:40. I think this is very inconsiderate, especially given that the train are late almost 25% of the time. That means 25% of the time passengers will arrive at 5:20 and the train is still there but they have to wait for the next one.

On the Lakeshore line its not too bad the next train may be only about 15 minutes away but on lines like the Milton line it could be almost an hour for the next one.

Hopefully Go Transit will take this into consideration when pondering their delay numbers.

Go-Transit Leaves Connecting Passengers Freezing

I guess the first place to start is to say the train that normally arrives in Burlington at 6:55 was delayed 10-12 minutes at the Snake. Normally this train
connects with the train leaving Oakville at 7:30. Being late we arrived at Oakville at exactly 7:30. The dispatch decided that they would let the Oakville train leave ahead of ours, so the passengers connecting to the all-stop train at Oakville missed their train. Had they let us leave first on our express train then those connecting passengers would not be caught out in the cold at Oakville Station.

As well this delayed our express train as we had to wait for it to make all its stops. Our engineer negotiated with dispatch so they would let us pass the all stop train near Port Credit.

The interesting thing is, I went to Customer Services to confirm that my facts above were correcet and that they did indeed miss the train. They had no idea, they called upstair to what I assume was dispatch and they flatly denied that the 6:55 train was delayed at all. It makes you wonder how many other train delays are not documented or reported and that is why when Go-Transit publishes their reports they see minimal delays for passengers. It is the hopes that someone in management at Go-Transit will look into this. That extra minute holding that one train back would make a lot of commuters happier and since its so cold out a little safer too.

Interestingly enough, in the past Go-Transit has delayed trains so they meet up with the bus I guess possibly it was a simple mistake in this case. If it is a policy change it is the hopes they change it back.

Its the little things that make the difference.

CN Strike, GO Transit Smooth

Thanks to the staff for making sure my train arrived on time.
I noticed no delays due to freight trains this morning, maybe its
good that they are on strike our commute is great.

However on a more serious note, I saw an article in 24 the other day that say that GO Transit
may be getting rid of CN in 2008. I am not sure how accurate that story is but its interesting.
From a recent letter I got from the Ministry of Transport it makes me wonder if they are not making their payments on time.

Here is a response from Minsitry of Transport, I emailed them and this was the response:

Dear Chris Williams:

Thank you for your correspondence of
January
5, 2007, to the Honourable
Lawrence Cannon, Minister of
Transport,
Infrastructure and Communities,
regarding Canadian National's
(CN's)
operation of GO trains.

The Minister has asked me
to reply
on his behalf. Transport Canada is
responsible for regulating
the safety of
rail operations, including the
transportation of dangerous
goods, under the
Railway Safety Act and the
Transportation of Dangerous
Goods Act.
However, there are no federal
requirements that
stipulate the minimum number
of operating crew members
required for
commuter trains.

As such, CN's crew-reduction initiative
would not require any
exemptions to
existing federal operating
requirements. CN has provided
Transport Canada with a
copy of its risk
assessment on the crew-reduction
initiative and has met with
employee
representatives to discuss the risk
assessment so that consideration
could be given to union members'
comments. Further to
Transport
Canada's overall role in
promoting safety, the department has
reviewed CN's risk
assessment and
determined that CN complies with all
federal regulatory
requirements. Should safety issues be
identified in the future, I
can assure you
that Transport Canada will
work with CN to address them.
Again, thank
you for writing. Yours
truly,

Andrew Walasek
Special Assistant
- Ontario

The first thing that comes to my mind is no wonder we had a freight train accident at Mimico this summer, when the federal regulatory requirements are so lax. Given the stipulation of the law the frieght train could have possible had no crew and still passed regulation.

The official version of this story was that the heat caused the tracks to warp. If this was the case then how come more of the tracks did not warp with the heat. There have been a
lot of hot summers so over the past while we should have seen more of these
accidents. This brings up another point why were passengers during
this incident made endure hours of heat on the train that should have been
brought back to the station so they could find an alternate way home.
Instead those passengers were left to the point that someone cracked and
opened the doors and everyone ran across the fields. Instead of
attempting to safely get them across the tracks there were police there
issuing people tickets for trespassing.

I guess when it boils down to it, wherever the Government is receiving lots of money that is where they listen, when it comes to safety well I guess that is another matter.

GO Transit Runs Regardless Of Strike

It seems both CN and the Union care about us and have decided to run the
Go Trains anyways. Instead it will only be the cargo trains that will be halted.

We are unsure how smoothly they will run but at least we can all get to work.
Cudos to the Union and to CN for avoiding commuter gridlock. I know you have made
a lot of us breate a lot easier.

GO Transit Runs Regardless Of Strike

It seems both CN and the Union care about us and have decided to run the
Go Trains anyways. Instead it will only be the cargo trains that will be halted.

We are unsure how smoothly they will run but at least we can all get to work.
Cudos to the Union and to CN for avoiding commuter gridlock. I know you have made
a lot of us breate a lot easier.

Transit Blog that Go Transit Employees Read

There are some entries here about ways to get back at GO Transit using
a credit card.

It also metions that this is a good place to complain about GO Transit.

http://transitrider.blogspot.com/

Hopefully connecting to this site and posting will help get through to GO Transit that our safety and after that more reliability is a must.

CN May Strike GO Transit

I was just reading in the news today about the potential CN Strike.

The full article is at: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/176281

Here are some snips I found important:

"GO Transit riders could face service disruptions in less than two weeks if CN conductors walk off the job when they are in a legal strike position on Feb.9."

"A strike would come at a difficult time for GO Transit, which has already gotten off to a bad start in 2007, with freezing temperatures causing switch problems and many train delays."

After 30 years of winters you think GO Transit would be used to it by now. I think they are relying on us commuters being used to it.

"In addition, CN chopped 34 engineers in late December as a cost-saving move for GO, causing some irritation among engineers. GO Transit reported that there were delays because the engineers had initial problems adapting to the new procedures."

Not only is it irritating engineers but as noted in a previous posting here it is a serious safety risk for us passengers.

"We're going to do everything in our power to try to keep GO out of this fight," Beatty said. "Our view is, `Why affect the citizens of Toronto?' The GO Train is a separate entity all together."

The conductors who continue to work during a strike would be asked to contribute their earnings to a charity, according to the union's proposal.

At least the engineers and conductors care about the passengers.

"It boils down to abuse, harassment and intimidation on the property," Beatty said.

For example, he said, conductors working in a north Toronto yard are not allowed coffee breaks and only get a 20-minute meal break during a nine-hour shift, he said.

Beatty also cited examples of improper investigations.

"Every little hiccup that happens, they call our people in for investigations and they call them in on their time off," Beatty said. "Not only are the people working their normal hours, they're also being hauled in on their time off for these, quite frankly, silly little ridiculous investigations."

Beatty called the tactics "strictly in-your-face intimidation."

Beatty predicts that when a strike mandate is called next week, the percentage support will be in the high 80s or low 90s.

"That gives you an indication they're fed up," the union spokesman said.

The conductors have been without a contract since Dec. 31.

I think an investigation should be done into where GO Transit is putting the money it receives from ticket sales and the Government. I would just like to point out that at Burlingtion Station it says there is lots of parking at Appleby but does not tell people that it is not wheelchair accessible so people who cannot find parking at Burlington and go to Appleby with their kids in a stroller or someone in a wheelchair are stuck carrying all the stuff down the stairs and back up. The thing is its not just a couple stairs its a staircase of say 30 or 40 stairs down and then back up to get the train.

Let's investigate where its needed and stop wasting our money where its not.

Does Go Transit Need A Dristan Or Just Some Ice For Its Staircases

Yesterday was understandable, there was ice everywhere, but today the excuse
was simple congestion. Train scheduling and lack of planning.

However there are deeper issues here, not only are trains being delayed so they become
twice as full but in the case of last evening in Burlington, the stairs were not salted or anything.
It was understandable yesterday morning as the ice was just forming and people were communting but they had all day to de-ice the stairs. A couple people slipped on those stairs.

This brings up another issue with stairs actually it was an escalator at Union Station. A month or so ago there was an accident on the escalator on track 5 where multiple people where taken to hospital for minor injuries and the escalator was shut down for a week while they investigated. There was never any reason given for this it just re-opened. It would be nice to find out why. Was it over crowding? Are there too many people using too few staircases?

I look forward to hearing from someone at GO Transit on this. I will update this article as I get details from GO Transit.

Some GO Transit Customer Service Co-Ordinators are Nice

I just wanted to say. I recently got an email response from Ashley Ward and I have to tell you
I am always impressed with her helpfulness. If you do end up connecting with her at customer service be sure to be polite to her as she is one of the good ones over there. She will help you if she can.

She found out about my concern about not being able to email directly and instead having to use the form and she was able to get me the proper email address for those that need it you can use publicrelations@gotransit.com

The other customer service co-ordinators have a lot to learn from Ashley, she is phenomonal.

Agencies Concerned About Our Safety Too

You may wish to check out some of the following websites for more information:

http://www.transport2000.ca/ontario/

One Engineer, No Safety

Despite no new technological advances in safety Go Transit and Canadian National have decided to remove one of the locomotive engineers from each Lakeshore GO train.

Now Go Transit has made some really silly decisions in the past but this takes the cake. This
one may actually place customer safety in jeopardy. Some locomotive drivers do really long shifts, I know because often I have left in the late morning to go to Toronto and then in the late evening after a concert etc they are still on the train. A recent Metro article mentioned that they work 11 hour days.

Just a simple look at the Go Transit safety ads about crossing the tracks tells us that the Go Trains are moving intese energy and momentum.

I welcome comments about this decision here. I will be emailing Go Transit officials to notify Peter Smith, the Chairman of the Board of this blog. I will also be notiflying Lawrence Cannon, the minister of transport via the government email address mintc@tc.gc.ca

From talking to an individual that knows more than I do, the primary safety concerns are:

a) Excessive hours of duty and lengthy commutes by operators of GO Trains
i.e. Split Shifts, crew reporting for work in Mimico and then transported to distant yards

b) Lack of ATC (Automatic Trains Control) or ATS (Automatic Train Stop) on GO's network where single person (i.e. cab car forward movements) exist.

You can contact them directly using the following:

GO Transit Head Office
Phone (416) 869-3600
Fax (416) 869-3525
Unfortunately as the customer service supervisor (#606) informed me, go transit does not have a customer service email address so you have to go to the website and use the webform.

Honorable Lawrence Cannon
Minister of Transportation
phone (613) 991-0700
email: mintc@tc.gc.ca

Let's get the word out so Go Transit can make our commute a safe one.

I look forward to everyone commenting on this so we can let them know we care for the safety of our fellow passengers.