How do you deal with a late train, you make it later!
I am attending the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance Partners in Education Dinner in Toronto tonight. The dinner begins at 7:00pm.
Getting from Hamilton to Toronto during rush is a bit of a challenge as one is "reverse commuting" and there are not as many options available. The highways are also clogged.
Not to worry, if one leaves Hamilton just after 5pm, one can get an express train to Toronto. This is the train I choose today. Problem is that train was 15 minutes (GO Transit claims 13 minutes) late in leaving.
I wasn’t upset at this. What has me angry is the announcement by one of the conductors on the PA that this train is no longer express and will be making all stops to Toronto.
GO Transit, in its infinite wisdom, has decided the best way of dealing with an late train is to make it later. I will likely arrive in Toronto close to 30 minutes later than scheduled.
I would not be so upset if it were not for the fact that I could have taken the bus, dealt with traffic and still arrived earlier than the no-longer express train.
I can understand when a train is late, happens sometimes. (GO is much better than VIA Rail – I can measure GO delays in minutes, VIA delays are measured by the hour.)
What I do not understand is how poorly GO Transit deals with late trains.
Update: The conductor was wrong. The train is operating Express. I will arrive at Union only 10 minutes late. I’m happy again.