Delay No More

This morning I need to get in office early to do month end stuff so I took the 6:28 am GO Train, and guess when it arrived at Union? 8:22am

40 min train ride turned into a 2 hr journey on my busiest day of the month. Lovely. (Yes I am psst)

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I have subscribed to the Go Alert email so let's see what we get about these delay...

Email #1:

Richmond Hill passengers may expect a longer commute than usual this morning due to equipment issues in Richmond Hill. Please visit http://www.gotransit.com/publicroot/en/status/showtrainbus.aspx for updates.

This message was sent on: 4/7/2009 6:54 (am)


Email #2:

Richmond Hill train service is estimated to be delayed over 30 minutes due equipment issues. Update to follow.

This message was sent on: 4/7/2009 7:11 (am)


Email #3:

The equipment issue at Richmond Hill has been resolved. The Richmond Hill 07:28 - Union 08:10 train trip is estimated to be delayed 15 minutes from Richmond Hill and the Richmond Hill 07:58 - Union 08:40 train trip is expected to operate as scheduled. Please visit http://www.gotransit.com/publicroot/en/status/showtrainbus.aspx for updates.

This message was sent on: 4/7/2009 7:37 (am)

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My thoughts:

1. My train was 6:28am and the first email alert wasn't sent until 6:54, almost 30 min after the fact. (They can argue that an alert will only be issued if the delay is 30min or more, but considered that I can reach downtown from RH in 30min if I drive on a traffic free day - the email alert doesn't sound too useful to me.)

2. The 6:28 train departed RH at 7:12 and reached Union at 8:22 am this morning, so can someone tell me how this is possible: "The Richmond Hill 07:28 - Union 08:10 train trip is estimated to be delayed 15 minutes from Richmond Hill" (Email #3).

3. There was nothing in the bulletin board or the Go Alert saying how long it took the 6:28 train to reach Union. I would love to see if they will include this delay in the statistics at all, or if they will just play the number game (how many times of >15 min delay, so this is only one count; and as Email #3 indicated, even their statistics for the duration of delay is questionable).

4. GO has increased their fare every year and I don't see much improvement in their services.

5. Almost Every train trip are 5-10 minutes late and they won't include those "minor" delays in their statistics.


GO Train, stop calling yourself environmentally friendly - You are not. People drive to work because of your incompetence.