There were a number of problems reported on the ride into work Tuesday morning, including the cancellation of 14 GO bus trips and a number of delays on the trains.
GO spokesman Bill Jenkins said the transit troubles weren’t the result of a labour dispute, but were caused by new staffing procedures.
“We have a chronic shortage of (bus) drivers and we’re having trouble filling some of the trips today. We scrambled around and found some staff and we reinstated a lot of the trips that were originally cancelled,” he explained.
GO has hired some 30 new bus drivers and Jenkins said staffing shortages aren’t uncommon with the holidays and with people calling in sick.
“Unfortunately it did happen and what we are doing is trying to be as proactive as possible in terms of letting people know so we’re getting information out as soon as we have it, and then we try to fill the trips afterwards, and we were working all morning to try to fill those trips,” he said.
Train delays Tuesday were a different matter. Jenkins said there are new operation procedures that were put in place just this weekend to save money and staff are still working out the glitches.
“There is a new operating procedure and it’s been slowing our trains down when we turn them around,” Jenkins said.
“We had problems on the weekend implementing this new operation, and we are, you know, working through these issues, and it looks like things are going to be resolved, I would say, by the end of the week.”
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