Monday morning
brought the first winter storm to blanket greater Toronto, and the
transportation system suffered. Roads were clogged by snow and
collisions, putting buses way off schedule. Some GO bus riders
endured delays of up to two and a half hours and a GO train from
Milton was cancelled. Ever since cold weather cause numerous train
delays last winter, In Transit has been following efforts by GO
officials to not only prepare for severe weather, but to talk to
transit patrons about delays.
In November,
Victoria Crouchman of Burlington wrote, “For months I have been
reading articles in numerous newspapers about how GO Transit is
working to improve communications with their customers, yet I have
seen no evidence of this to date.” She also described a train ride
delayed over a half hour, with riders hearing no reasons for the
holdup until they arrived at Union.
GO has
announced a range of improvements, some already in place and others
that are two years away. The most visible change in recent weeks is
the fleet of new message boards that has taken over Union Station,
replacing a varied collection of screens and monitors dating from
the late 1980s. The new departure/alert boards resemble those used
at Pearson airport, and while I like them, some readers have
complained to me that the screens are hard to read. They say the
letters are too small and there are too many details.
GO board
chairman Gordon Chong recently gave me an update on the agency’s
communication plans, saying that he also has heard from riders that
the screens were tough to make out. In response, the letter size was
increased last week. He says, “We need to put a lot of information
on there, because people want a lot of information.” On the new
monitors, cancelled trips are now displayed in red, any track
changes are shown with blinking characters and additional
information scrolls along the bottom of the screen.
Chong says,
“We’ve tried to cover as many bases as possible and we’ve made the
font size a little larger without compromising the amount of
information that we’re giving out.” He adds that the departure/alert
boards will be added to Union’s track platforms later his month and
GO will soon test them along the Richmond Hill rail line. The
route’s four stations should have the new system in place by 2006,
he says. For now, waiting riders must rely on loudspeaker
announcements from station attendants or from the control centre at
Union Station, much like TTC riders hear in subway stations
Unlike the TTC
however, GO cannot make announcements from a central location to
riders inside trains. Chong says, “That’s going to be about two
years from now because we can’t do it until we get a new radio
system in place.” Instead, railroad personnel make announcements on
each train. GO is retraining the Canadian National crews and
supervisors to focus on customer service -- even while they are
doing their other duties. The GO chairman reports there are no plans
to offer service updates via the existing electronic message boards
in rail cars.
Lastly, the
provincially-owned transit agency is planning to expand its informal
email service, which alerts riders to delays before they leave for
the station. Next week, GO will put out a request to the private
sector to develop an enhanced email alert system, to be ready in
2005. I will try to keep you updated on all these communication
improvements, all aimed at making sure riders are not kept in the
dark about delays and cancellations.
Send e-mail to
transit@eddrass.com.
Include address and phone number.