GO Train Riders Upset With Constant Delays
Posted January 31, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
One group sat on a train for hours going nowhere.
Another found theirs cancelled altogether by switching problems.
Then there was a medical emergency that gummed up the works.
And the cold weather is getting in the way of everything.
If you ride GO Transit on a regular basis, you’ve not only heard all those stories, you may have lived them.
The transit system has experienced a litany of slowdowns and delays in the past few days that have rekindled memories of last winter’s constant switching glitches.
A barrel on the tracks during Tuesday night’s commute kept furious passengers on a train for three long hours. There was another 20 minute delay during Wednesday’s commute because of congestion and the weather.
For many beleaguered passengers, it’s no longer the why – it’s the frequency. They complain it’s always something.
“My trip this morning, we were delayed at every single stop because the door couldn’t close,” fumes Jenny Paster. “It is frustrating. A couple mornings ago, we were delayed for no apparent reason.”
“Probably the worst on time percentage arrival so far,” complains Marco Galban. “The train’s always late.”
And on it goes.
“Normal delays of a few minutes are not a big deal, but when you start getting into 20, 30 minutes, then it becomes an issue,” adds Ian Kelly-Boxe.
Candice Brackenbury spent $200 on her monthly GO pass. She’s feeling ripped off.
“It’s been at least once a week; sometimes twice a week,” she says about the endless stops and starts. “I don’t even know what to say. It’s disappointing.”
Still, some people are trying to take it in stride, noting even a slow GO is better than no GO at all.
“It’s a good way to get into the city,” argues Jen Roxborough. “If you’re 20 minutes late, it’s not that big a deal.”
GO hopes to have everything back on track for the rest of the week, but commuters still face the unsettling prospect of having a strike thrown into the mix – CN conductors could walk off the job in early February, scuttling all but one of the lines. For more on that, click here.
In the meantime, to check the current status of trains and to track any delays, click here.
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