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smallspy said:
This was as a result of a vandalism incident that was later deemed to be gunshots fired at a CN freight train running just ahead of the GO.

Considering that the police were roaming around looking for what they thought was an active shooter, it seems prudent to me to not offload the passengers.

Dan
Click to expand...
For three hours? No. That is at best security theatre, and most likely a total fabrication by some party in the information chain. Someone targeting a train to, what, kill it? I'm sure it's possible shots were fired, but this seems quite an after-the-fact explanation.
If true, that's actually more pathetic than the now apparently totally made up stated reason for locking down.
You know what would have kept the passengers safe if all that was true? Getting them the fuck out of there immediately! What wouldn't keep them safe; stopping the train in front of an alleged "active shooter" for three hours. What a joke. Did the Uvalde School District Police who were fired all get hired in York Region?
 
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Jonny5 said:
For three hours? No. That is at best security theatre, and most likely a total fabrication by some party in the information chain. Someone targeting a train to, what, kill it? I'm sure it's possible shots were fired, but this seems quite an after-the-fact explanation.
If true, that's actually more pathetic than the now apparently totally made up stated reason for locking down.
You know what would have kept the passengers safe if all that was true? Getting them the fuck out of there immediately! What wouldn't keep them safe; stopping the train in front of an alleged "active shooter" for three hours. What a joke. Did the Uvalde School District Police who were fired all get hired in York Region?
Click to expand...
The windows on the trains are bullet proof, so they would’ve been generally okay.
 
Jonny5 said:
For three hours? No. That is at best security theatre, and most likely a total fabrication by some party in the information chain. Someone targeting a train to, what, kill it? I'm sure it's possible shots were fired, but this seems quite an after-the-fact explanation.
If true, that's actually more pathetic than the now apparently totally made up stated reason for locking down.
You know what would have kept the passengers safe if all that was true? Getting them the fuck out of there immediately! What wouldn't keep them safe; stopping the train in front of an alleged "active shooter" for three hours. What a joke. Did the Uvalde School District Police who were fired all get hired in York Region?
Click to expand...
You can think what you want to. My information is coming from people inside CN, not Metrolinx.

For the record, the GO train was a couple of miles away from the CN train in the incident, but also not particularly close to a station. And it would have been impossible to gather enough buses and drivers for the estimated 1700 people onboard.

Willybru21 said:
The windows on the trains are bullet proof, so they would’ve been generally okay.
Click to expand...
"Bullet proof" isn't quite as perfect as the movies make it out to be. The conductor of the train got a face full of glass and needed to go to hospital.

Dan
 
If the police declared it unsafe for the passenger train to proceed - well, I'm not going to second guess that decision. Taking the safest course is always appropriate.

Nevertheless - When a train of passengers halts anywhere other than in a station where they can choose to stay on board and wait things out, or find their own way onwards..... a clock should start ticking. At some threshold, the situation ceases to be benign. The more crowded the train is, the more urgent that situation becomes. ML may not be in a position to evacuate, but I would wonder for instance whether the train was halted at a crossing (where it was accessible by emergency crews, if needed). There is also the issue of bathrooms.....

Human beings do not have a "hibernate" setting and the authorities should not be pretending that they do.

- Paul
 
Allandale25 said:
What about Union to Weston or the airport via UPX and then an Uber?
Click to expand...
Hmmm..... too late for today, but I might have found train options I could have taken. The GO Train website seems to force the user to switch between different routes.

Here's a 9:34 am from Union that I might have taken, I think.
 
crs1026 said:
If the police declared it unsafe for the passenger train to proceed - well, I'm not going to second guess that decision. Taking the safest course is always appropriate.

Nevertheless - When a train of passengers halts anywhere other than in a station where they can choose to stay on board and wait things out, or find their own way onwards..... a clock should start ticking. At some threshold, the situation ceases to be benign. The more crowded the train is, the more urgent that situation becomes. ML may not be in a position to evacuate, but I would wonder for instance whether the train was halted at a crossing (where it was accessible by emergency crews, if needed). There is also the issue of bathrooms.....

Human beings do not have a "hibernate" setting and the authorities should not be pretending that they do.

- Paul
Click to expand...
Again - contingency planning. As you say, at some determined point, a plan has to be engaged to get people off the train. Provided the train is moveable enough to get to a crossing, it needs to be unloaded and passengers taken, well, somewhere. If GO can't muster up a fleet, then local transit, school buses, whatever. Depending on distances to a drop point, you don't even need bus capacity for the whole train if shuttling works. Towns and cities are capable of doing this at fire scenes.

I'm not going to engage in a fake news debate. The different accounts regarding cause could be innocent, although public information people should know better than to speculate and to keep messaging consistent. If something breaks a window, it's more natural in this country to assume vandalism or debris rather than a shooter, and I'll take that as a good thing.

The term "bullet proof" is pretty meaningless as a general statement, and I would be very surprised if railway locomotive and passenger car windows were certified as such (why would they?). Impact resistant tempered or laminated glass perhaps.
 
Admiral Beez said:
Hmmm..... too late for today, but I might have found train options I could have taken. The GO Train website seems to force the user to switch between different routes.

Here's a 9:34 am from Union that I might have taken, I think.
Click to expand...
That's the current earliest Westbound Kitchener line train, there was a 6:34,7:34 and 8:34 train last September but those obviously required 3 extra crews that GO seems to be short on
 
smallspy said:
You can think what you want to. My information is coming from people inside CN, not Metrolinx.

For the record, the GO train was a couple of miles away from the CN train in the incident, but also not particularly close to a station. And it would have been impossible to gather enough buses and drivers for the estimated 1700 people onboard.


"Bullet proof" isn't quite as perfect as the movies make it out to be. The conductor of the train got a face full of glass and needed to go to hospital.

Dan
Click to expand...
What I heard was someone threw a rock at the train which shattered the window... however rumors just spread like wildfire at macmillan so I'm not sure how accurate that is...
 
lenaitch said:
The term "bullet proof" is pretty meaningless as a general statement, and I would be very surprised if railway locomotive and passenger car windows were certified as such (why would they?). Impact resistant tempered or laminated glass perhaps.
Click to expand...

The gist of the rule states that the windows need to be strong enough to withstand the equivalent of a cinderblock being thrown at a window at about 30mph, and to not have that window fall out of its mounting.

Colloquially within the industry, they are considered "bullet proof".

Dan
 
Willybru21 said:
toronto.citynews.ca

GO Transit bus drivers, station attendants, safety officers step closer to strike position

More than 2,000 GO Transit workers will be in a strike or lockout position by the end of September, CityNews has learned.
toronto.citynews.ca toronto.citynews.ca
Click to expand...

Just when things are picking up after the pandemic too..

Honestly, I do not see this going in favor of Metrolinx. There is an appetite for higher wages and Metrolinx has a mandate to keep public sector wages low.

I can see Metrolinx offering a very low pay increase if at all. This in turn will cause the Union to strike, trains to go offline (due to no station staff) and Doug Ford to b***h and complain about how unreasonable the unions are.

Realistically, the only way this will be resolved is if Doug Ford gives them a considerable wage increase for the new reality, a cost of living increase that is meaningful.
 
Richard White said:
Just when things are picking up after the pandemic too..

Honestly, I do not see this going in favor of Metrolinx. There is an appetite for higher wages and Metrolinx has a mandate to keep public sector wages low.

I can see Metrolinx offering a very low pay increase if at all. This in turn will cause the Union to strike, trains to go offline (due to no station staff) and Doug Ford to b***h and complain about how unreasonable the unions are.

Realistically, the only way this will be resolved is if Doug Ford gives them a considerable wage increase for the new reality, a cost of living increase that is meaningful.
Click to expand...
If Doug Ford froze nurse wages during the pandemic, it doesn't bode well for Metrolinx.
 
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